It’s only fun until a cat gets his face permanently stuck in that glass.
Who is smarter? Cats look more willing to use their paws than dogs. Maybe a lot of problem solving “intelligence” is tied to physical capabilities. Dogs tended to run in packs and take down prey by biting. Their paws were more just for walking on. Cats use their claws more, so wouldn’t a cat be more inclined to use her paws more to solve problems? Dogs have an incredible sense of smell. I’d think the combination of smell with sight and hearing would give them a different way of approaching situations and problems than humans or cats have. Cats are more flexible, more agile, so maybe they have better spatial understanding than dogs. They know which jumps or falls they can make and how to make them. I’m just guessing though.
Border Collie dogs and Abyssinian cats are often regarded as the smartest breeds of each. It’d be interesting to see how they perform.
Nonapod on October 18, 2024 at 10:52 am said:
Border Collie dogs and Abyssinian cats are often regarded as the smartest breeds of each. It’d be interesting to see how they perform.
________
I don’t know about the cats, but the Border Collies would have a perfectly aligned row of glasses at the end.
When you see a cat or dog’s skull it’s surprising how little room for brain there is. A cat’s brain is about the size of a walnut, and a dog’s about the size of a tangerine.
A cat has 200 – 300 million neurons in its brain, a dog 500 – 600 million, a human about 16 billion.
Certainly both animals show personality differences and are able to learn things, though training cats takes a lot more time. But I think it much more likely that most of their behaviors we interpret as evidence of intelligence are us reading that into it. It’s very easy to remember the “smart” things your pet does and forget the thousands more “dumb” things, or just explain them away. You even see this at work in the ape sign-language studies, despite being run by professionals who should know better.
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Let me repeat here, for those who didn’t see it, “AesopFan’s” link from yesterday to Jonathan Turley’s comments about the Baier-Harris interview.
https://jonathanturley.org/2024/10/17/i-will-follow-the-law-harris-adopts-a-purely-pedestrian-view-of-the-presidency-in-fox-interview/
New post: The Cuban Missile Crisis, as Viewed From a Soviet Launch Facility
https://chicagoboyz.net/archives/72054.html
It’s only fun until a cat gets his face permanently stuck in that glass.
Who is smarter? Cats look more willing to use their paws than dogs. Maybe a lot of problem solving “intelligence” is tied to physical capabilities. Dogs tended to run in packs and take down prey by biting. Their paws were more just for walking on. Cats use their claws more, so wouldn’t a cat be more inclined to use her paws more to solve problems? Dogs have an incredible sense of smell. I’d think the combination of smell with sight and hearing would give them a different way of approaching situations and problems than humans or cats have. Cats are more flexible, more agile, so maybe they have better spatial understanding than dogs. They know which jumps or falls they can make and how to make them. I’m just guessing though.
Border Collie dogs and Abyssinian cats are often regarded as the smartest breeds of each. It’d be interesting to see how they perform.
Nonapod on October 18, 2024 at 10:52 am said:
Border Collie dogs and Abyssinian cats are often regarded as the smartest breeds of each. It’d be interesting to see how they perform.
________
I don’t know about the cats, but the Border Collies would have a perfectly aligned row of glasses at the end.
When you see a cat or dog’s skull it’s surprising how little room for brain there is. A cat’s brain is about the size of a walnut, and a dog’s about the size of a tangerine.
A cat has 200 – 300 million neurons in its brain, a dog 500 – 600 million, a human about 16 billion.
Certainly both animals show personality differences and are able to learn things, though training cats takes a lot more time. But I think it much more likely that most of their behaviors we interpret as evidence of intelligence are us reading that into it. It’s very easy to remember the “smart” things your pet does and forget the thousands more “dumb” things, or just explain them away. You even see this at work in the ape sign-language studies, despite being run by professionals who should know better.