Clever Cats

Cats may be as intelligent as dogs, scientists have claimed.

20:28 26 January 2017

Scientists at Kyoto University said that cats may be as intelligent as dogs. After testing 49 domestic cats, they found that just like dogs, felines can recall memories of pleasant experience, such as eating a favourite snack.

 

Saho Takagi, a psychologist involved in the study, said: "Episodic memory is viewed as being related to introspective function of the mind; our study may imply a type of consciousness in cats,"

 

"An interesting speculation is that they may enjoy actively recalling memories of their experience like humans."

 

She added: "Understanding cats more deeply helps to establish better cat-human relationships,"

 

"Cats may be as intelligent as dogs, as opposed to the common view of people that dogs are much smarter."

 

Reacting on the study, Prof Laurie Santos, of Yale University, said: "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,"