Cats produced considerably more meows when a human audience was present, suggesting that meowing may serve a communicative function beyond mere motivational responses

Anyone who has lived with cats knows that they meow to communicate. You can tell because a lot of them time they look straight at you before meowing, and wait to see how you react.

I’m honestly a little offended on behalf of the cats that someone thought the meowing could be anything but primarily communicative. Do the study authors even have cats?