Cats may be as intelligent as dogs, say scientists

BBC:

Japanese scientists say cats are as good as dogs at certain memory tests, suggesting they may be just as smart.

A study – involving 49 domestic cats – shows felines can recall memories of pleasant experiences, such as eating a favourite snack.

Dogs show this type of recollection – a unique memory of a specific event known as episodic memory.

Humans often consciously try to reconstruct past events that have taken place in their lives, such as what they ate for breakfast, their first day in a new job or a family wedding.

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Prof Laurie Santos, of Yale University, said the experiment nicely shows that cats are remembering information about where they searched before and also which locations used to have food.

“It opens the door to new studies examining how long cats’ memories can be and whether they also remember richer episodes in their own life as humans do,” she added.

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