Cat intelligence
Encyclopedia
Cat intelligence is the considered capacity of learning, thinking, problem solving, reasoning, and adaptability possessed by the domestic cat
Cat
The cat , also known as the domestic cat or housecat to distinguish it from other felids and felines, is a small, usually furry, domesticated, carnivorous mammal that is valued by humans for its companionship and for its ability to hunt vermin and household pests...

. Intelligence in cats is demonstrated by the capacity to develop and use tools, learn new behavior techniques, apply previously acquired knowledge to new situations, communicate needs and desires within social groups, and respond to training cues. Mammalian neuroscientists have attempted to simulate the feline brain in order to understand the origins and operation of cat intelligence, but results to date are inconclusive and additional study is needed.

Brain size and surface area

The brain
Brain
The brain is the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate and most invertebrate animals—only a few primitive invertebrates such as sponges, jellyfish, sea squirts and starfishes do not have one. It is located in the head, usually close to primary sensory apparatus such as vision, hearing,...

 size of the average cat is 5 centimeters in length and 30 gram
Gram
The gram is a metric system unit of mass....

s. Since the average cat is 60 cm long and 3.3 kg, the brain makes up 1/12 of its length
Length
In geometric measurements, length most commonly refers to the longest dimension of an object.In certain contexts, the term "length" is reserved for a certain dimension of an object along which the length is measured. For example it is possible to cut a length of a wire which is shorter than wire...

 and 1/110 of its mass
Mass
Mass can be defined as a quantitive measure of the resistance an object has to change in its velocity.In physics, mass commonly refers to any of the following three properties of matter, which have been shown experimentally to be equivalent:...

. Thus, the average cat's brain accounts for 0.9 percent of its total body mass, compared to 2 percent of total body mass in the average human
Human
Humans are the only living species in the Homo genus...

. The surface area of a cat's cerebral cortex
Cerebral cortex
The cerebral cortex is a sheet of neural tissue that is outermost to the cerebrum of the mammalian brain. It plays a key role in memory, attention, perceptual awareness, thought, language, and consciousness. It is constituted of up to six horizontal layers, each of which has a different...

 is approximately 83 cm². The modern human cerebral cortex is about 2500 cm². According to researchers at Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine, the physical structure of human brains and that of cats are very similar; they have the same lobes in the cerebral cortex (the "seat" of intelligence) as humans do. Human brains also function the same way, conveying data via many identical neurotransmitters.

The learning cat

It is proven that cats learn by trial and error
Trial and error
Trial and error, or trial by error, is a general method of problem solving, fixing things, or for obtaining knowledge."Learning doesn't happen from failure itself but rather from analyzing the failure, making a change, and then trying again."...

, observation
Observation
Observation is either an activity of a living being, such as a human, consisting of receiving knowledge of the outside world through the senses, or the recording of data using scientific instruments. The term may also refer to any data collected during this activity...

 and imitation
Imitation
Imitation is an advanced behavior whereby an individual observes and replicates another's. The word can be applied in many contexts, ranging from animal training to international politics.-Anthropology and social sciences:...

. They can retain some information learned through exploration of their environment much longer than dogs. In one study, it was found that cats possess visual memory ability comparable to that of monkeys.

Intelligence by breed

Ranking the intelligence of cats by breed is popular among pet owners, veterinarians and others, but the practice tends to run into difficulties. In general, the subject of cat intelligence rankings tends to be subjective. Cat breeder Norman Auspitz states the following: "As a rule, people seem to think the more active breeds have higher intelligence than the less active breeds. I will tell you that in feline agility, all breeds have done very well or very poorly as the case may be.. Having said that, there is no certified measure of cat intelligence and this general rule may be very anthropomorphic... until there is a credible definition of what might be meant by cat intelligence and a way to measure it, any comment anyone will make about the subject is, at best, speculation."

Inventing and using a tool

At least one cat was documented by a scientist to have adapted an object for use as a tool to add water to dry cat food--this tool-use being invented by the cat without any prior training by humans.

Opening doors and windows

Cats that are accustomed to being let outside, or that want to get into their home, may learn to open windows and doors. They are capable of learning different routes for entry and exit; for instance a cat might find the window in its owner's kitchen easier to open to exit the house, but to get in, they might have to use the screen door in the backyard. Also, they may learn to open cupboard doors to get to food. Cats' paws are not as effective at manipulation as human hands, owing to lack of an opposable thumb, but they can for instance learn to operate door lever handles by pulling them down, even though gripping the handle is difficult for cat paws.
A common variation of Polydactyl cat
Polydactyl cat
A polydactyl cat is a cat with a congenital physical anomaly called polydactyly , a type of cat body type genetic mutation that causes the cat to be born with more than the usual number of toes on one or more of its paws...

 with six toes on the front paws and the extra digits opposite one another, allows for greater manual dexterity and the ability to perform feats not generally observed in non-polydactyls (opening latches and the ability to catch airborne objects with one paw).

Retrieving items from hard to reach places

A cat playing with a ball
Ball
A ball is a round, usually spherical but sometimes ovoid, object with various uses. It is used in ball games, where the play of the game follows the state of the ball as it is hit, kicked or thrown by players. Balls can also be used for simpler activities, such as catch, marbles and juggling...

 may suddenly find that the ball is under the couch
Couch
A couch, also called a sofa, is an item of furniture designed to seat more than one person, and providing support for the back and arms. Typically, it will have an armrest on either side. In homes couches are normally found in the family room, living room, den or the lounge...

. The cat will try different ways, changing paw
Paw
A paw is the soft foot of a mammal, generally a quadruped, that has claws or nails. A hard foot is called a hoof. Paws are used to pad feet for walking and increase friction.- Common characteristics :...

s, position, and other elements, the way a human would. This trial and error approach to puzzle solving can be demonstrated in the laboratory using Thorndike
Edward Thorndike
Edward Lee "Ted" Thorndike was an American psychologist who spent nearly his entire career at Teachers College, Columbia University. His work on animal behavior and the learning process led to the theory of connectionism and helped lay the scientific foundation for modern educational psychology...

's puzzle boxes. In these boxes, cats must manipulate a series of levers in order to escape. They initially achieve this by trial and error, before committing the sequence to memory. They also use memory to reduce the amount of trial and error when encountering comparable novel situations e.g. new puzzle boxes. The cat may also be taught to get treats from high and hard to reach places, like on top of a refrigerator
Refrigerator
A refrigerator is a common household appliance that consists of a thermally insulated compartment and a heat pump that transfers heat from the inside of the fridge to its external environment so that the inside of the fridge is cooled to a temperature below the ambient temperature of the room...

, or in a cupboard. Using the same logic as it did with the toy, the cat will get to each treat. A cat that has figured out where the cat food is kept may find that the food is inside a large bag. It might try to get in the bag or open it by means of removing the clip.

Using the toilet

Because of their sensitive sense of smell
Olfaction
Olfaction is the sense of smell. This sense is mediated by specialized sensory cells of the nasal cavity of vertebrates, and, by analogy, sensory cells of the antennae of invertebrates...

, some cats prefer going outside to urinate and defecate, and rarely go in the same spot twice. Kittens are typically trained by their mothers to use a litter box
Litter box
A litter box, sometimes called a sandbox, sand box, litter tray, litter pan, dirt box, catbox, or cat box, is an indoor feces and urine disposal box for cats that are permitted free roam of a home but who cannot or do not always go outside...

 and cover up their waste, so litter training rarely requires human intervention; once they understand where the litter box is, they will seek it out from then on. Cats can also be trained to make use of a toilet
Toilet
A toilet is a sanitation fixture used primarily for the disposal of human excrement, often found in a small room referred to as a toilet/bathroom/lavatory...

; some cats learn on their own after watching their owners, but for most cats, it is necessary to be taught by owners. In general, however, a toilet-trained cat is a rare animal, and successful toilet training depends both on the willingness of the animal to learn as well as on the patience of the owner to teach.

Playing fetch

Some cats can be trained to play fetch with a varied degree of success (which is dependent on the cat and its mood). Siamese
Siamese (cat)
The Siamese is one of the first distinctly recognized breeds of Oriental cat. The origins of the breed are unknown, but it is believed to be from Thailand. In Thailand, where they are one of several native breeds, they are called Wichian Mat...

, Korats
Korat
Korats are a slate blue-grey shorthair domestic cat with a small to medium build and a low percentage of body fat. Their bodies are semi-cobby, and surprisingly heavy for their size. They are intelligent, playful, active cats and form strong bonds with people. Among Korats' distinguishing...

, Bengals
Bengal (cat)
The Bengal is a relatively new hybrid breed of cat, formed by the cross of a domestic feline and an Asian Leopard Cat .Bengal cats have "wild-looking" markings, such as large spots, rosettes, and a light/white belly, and a body structure reminiscent of the Asian Leopard Cat...

, Tonkinese
Tonkinese (cat)
Tonkinese are a medium-sized cat breed distinguished by points as with Siamese and Burmese breeds. They are lively, friendly, often talkative cats, with gregarious personalities. But they are happy apartment cats if they have some exercise opportunity. They are commonly referred to as 'Tonks'...

, and Burmese cats
Burmese (cat)
The Burmese is a breed of domesticated cats split into two subgroups: the American Burmese and the British Burmese . Most modern Burmese are descendants of one female cat called Wong Mau, which was brought from Burma to America in 1930...

 are well regarded as breeds that naturally carry objects in their mouths. They are easy to train to fetch and carry, again it may come naturally. Other breeds such as the Egyptian Mau
Egyptian Mau
Egyptian Maus are a small-medium sized short-haired cat breed. Along with the Bahraini Dilmun Cat, they are one of the few naturally spotted breeds of domesticated cat. The spots on an Egyptian Mau are not only on the coat; a shaved Mau has spots on its skin...

, Maine Coon
Maine Coon
The Maine Coon is a breed of domestic cat with a distinctive physical appearance and valuable hunting skills. It is one of the oldest natural breeds in North America, specifically native to the state of Maine, where it is the official State Cat....

, Turkish Van
Turkish Van
The Turkish Van is a recognized cat breed that is known for its unusual love of water and swimming. They were created from the cats native to the Lake Van area of Turkey. The cats of this type are named in Turkish Van Kedisi , in Armenian vana katou or vana gadou and in Kurdish...

, Savannah
Savannah (cat)
The Savannah is a domestic hybrid cat breed. It is a cross between a serval and a domestic cat. -History:...

, Short Hair and Turkish Angora
Turkish Angora
The Turkish Angora is a breed of domestic cat. Turkish Angoras are one of the ancient, naturally occurring cat breeds, having originated in central Turkey, in the Ankara region...

, and Bombay are also well known for an almost dog-like affinity for playing fetch. It is possible to get a cat to remain seated until an object is thrown. At that point, their sense of sight
Visual perception
Visual perception is the ability to interpret information and surroundings from the effects of visible light reaching the eye. The resulting perception is also known as eyesight, sight, or vision...

 kicks in. As long as there is at least a remote chance of locating the thrown item, the cat will run off to find it. Once retrieved, waiting or a simple call is enough for the cat to return with the item (if it does not choose to do it themselves) and deposit it (usually) within arm's reach (or just outside as a possible form of dominance, making the owner change position). Chasing an object in the air is a natural cat hunting behavior, and many cats will chase down a thrown toy for the sheer enjoyment of running and catching. Of course, any distraction and the cat may completely forget the game. This might suggest that a dog, which will do almost anything to please its owner due to pack instinct, will tend to focus on its game for both the owner and its pleasure, while a cat clearly plays the game for its own self-interest in chasing and pouncing. For a dog, the reward for a retrieved toy may be a vigorous petting or vocalization of praise and also a second toss; for a cat, the only reward is typically the second throw.

Communication

Cats, like many animals, communicate in a social environment in various ways. Some aspects of this behaviour are simple, such as purring to express the desire for and enjoyment of attention, meowing near the food bowl to get fed, some remember what time they get fed and attempt to gain their owner's attention at that time every day, etc., and some are more complex. Domestic cats organize themselves in complex social units when food is plentiful and conditions are otherwise conducive to it. It is actually quite important to cats' welfare to understand that they are not 'solitary by nature.' Although they do not socialize in the same way that dogs do (they do not hunt in packs, for example, and are not responsive to praise and blame in the same way) they still associate themselves strongly with specific other animals (including humans) and are probably even more attached to place and routine than dogs or their human owners. Cats may tend to communicate more indirectly, that is if they want their owner to open a door or pick up a favorite toy, they will often stare at the object intently with only occasional looks to the owner, until the owner, noting the focus of the cat, will look to where the cat is looking. Cats will often place themselves in favorite positions where some behavior of the owner is expected. These positions are not always related to conditioning, but possibly from the cat remembering that the last time it was in this particular position something it wanted to happen happened. Unlike true conditioning, however, the cat can easily adjust to new positions to get to the same object of its desire. Whether this is a sign of intelligence or a lack of intelligence is perhaps unfathomable as cats show so much individualized behavior.

Training and tricks

Cats are traditionally hard to train
Animal training
Animal training refers to teaching animals specific responses to specific conditions or stimuli. Training may be for the purpose of companionship, detection, protection, entertainment or all of the above....

 as circus
Circus
A circus is commonly a travelling company of performers that may include clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, unicyclists and other stunt-oriented artists...

 animals, mainly because cats appear to only assume such behaviors in exchange for a direct benefit. While this is usually true, a human with a good relationship to a cat, where there is trust and good communication, can find a cat to be almost as trainable as a dog. A good example of this is The Yuri Kuklachev Cat Theatre based in Moscow, the owner of which has been training cats for many years to do a full range of circus style tricks. Also there is the belief that cats are harder to train than dogs owing to impatience and boredom with the training exercise. Like dogs and people, many cats have active minds that thrive on stimulation, exploration and learning. Many of the same basic methods of training a dog—shaping behavior, and giving reinforcement
Reinforcement
Reinforcement is a term in operant conditioning and behavior analysis for the process of increasing the rate or probability of a behavior in the form of a "response" by the delivery or emergence of a stimulus Reinforcement is a term in operant conditioning and behavior analysis for the process of...

 in the form of treats, lavish praise or attention for correct responses—apply to cats. A cat can be taught to "sit" for treats or meals; this or other such repeatable behaviour responses can act as a foundation for further training.



Computer simulation of the cat brain

Scientists have simulated
Computational neuroscience
Computational neuroscience is the study of brain function in terms of the information processing properties of the structures that make up the nervous system...

 a cat's cerebral cortex
Cerebral cortex
The cerebral cortex is a sheet of neural tissue that is outermost to the cerebrum of the mammalian brain. It plays a key role in memory, attention, perceptual awareness, thought, language, and consciousness. It is constituted of up to six horizontal layers, each of which has a different...

, the thinking part of the brain, using a massive supercomputer
Supercomputer
A supercomputer is a computer at the frontline of current processing capacity, particularly speed of calculation.Supercomputers are used for highly calculation-intensive tasks such as problems including quantum physics, weather forecasting, climate research, molecular modeling A supercomputer is a...

. However, the reports have raised controversy, because the computer does not actually think like a cat. The computer simulation
Computer simulation
A computer simulation, a computer model, or a computational model is a computer program, or network of computers, that attempts to simulate an abstract model of a particular system...

 is cat-scale, meaning that the simulation is powerful enough to simulate a cat brain, but it is not a proper, realistic simulation of a cat brain. Conflicting views comment on the fact that the simulation uses a faithful reproduction of the neurons in the brain, and also argue that the simulation does not use biologically realistic simulations of the neurons in a cat brain. Other arguments point out the motives for reverse-engineering a cat brain, as there are tensions between the goals of the simulation. Neuroscientist
Neuroscientist
A neuroscientist is an individual who studies the scientific field of neuroscience or any of its related sub-fields...

s want to understand how the brain's architecture, using biological neurons, leads to consciousness
Consciousness
Consciousness is a term that refers to the relationship between the mind and the world with which it interacts. It has been defined as: subjectivity, awareness, the ability to experience or to feel, wakefulness, having a sense of selfhood, and the executive control system of the mind...

 and neurological disorders, whereas computer scientist
Computer scientist
A computer scientist is a scientist who has acquired knowledge of computer science, the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and their application in computer systems....

s want to understand brain architecture
Process architecture
Dualistic Petri nets are a process-class variant of Petri nets.Like Petri nets in general and many related formalisms and notations, they are used to describe and analyze process architecture.-Process Modeling with dPNs :...

 in order to create new kinds of electronics
Electronics
Electronics is the branch of science, engineering and technology that deals with electrical circuits involving active electrical components such as vacuum tubes, transistors, diodes and integrated circuits, and associated passive interconnection technologies...

.

There are a number of reasons the cat brain is a goal of computer simulations. Cats are a familiar and easily-kept animal, so the physiology of cats has been particularly well studied. The physical structure of human brains and cat brains are very similar. Cats, like humans, have binocular vision
Binocular vision
Binocular vision is vision in which both eyes are used together. The word binocular comes from two Latin roots, bini for double, and oculus for eye. Having two eyes confers at least four advantages over having one. First, it gives a creature a spare eye in case one is damaged. Second, it gives a...

 that gives them depth perception
Depth perception
Depth perception is the visual ability to perceive the world in three dimensions and the distance of an object. Depth sensation is the ability to move accurately, or to respond consistently, based on the distances of objects in an environment....

.

Building artificial mammal
Mammal
Mammals are members of a class of air-breathing vertebrate animals characterised by the possession of endothermy, hair, three middle ear bones, and mammary glands functional in mothers with young...

 brains requires ever more powerful computers as the brain gets more complex, from the mouse brain, to the rat brain (in 2007), to the cat brain, and ultimately to the human brain
Human brain
The human brain has the same general structure as the brains of other mammals, but is over three times larger than the brain of a typical mammal with an equivalent body size. Estimates for the number of neurons in the human brain range from 80 to 120 billion...

. Building artificial mammal brains advances the research of both neuroscience
Neuroscience
Neuroscience is the scientific study of the nervous system. Traditionally, neuroscience has been seen as a branch of biology. However, it is currently an interdisciplinary science that collaborates with other fields such as chemistry, computer science, engineering, linguistics, mathematics,...

 and artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science that aims to create it. AI textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents" where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its...

, but also leads to questions of the definition of sentient and conscious life forms, and to the ethics of artificial consciousness.

Further reading

  • Bergler, Reinhold "Man and Cat: The Benefits of Cat Ownership" Blackwell Scientific Publications (1989)
  • Bradshaw, John W S "The Behaviour of the Domestic Cat" C A B International (1992)
  • Chesler, Phyllis
    Phyllis Chesler
    Phyllis Chesler is an American writer, psychotherapist, and professor emerita of psychology and women's studies at the College of Staten Island...

    . "Maternal Influence in Learning by Observation in Kittens" Science 166 (1969): 901 - 903.
  • Hobhouse, L T "Mind in Evolution" MacMillan
    Macmillan Publishers
    Macmillan Publishers Ltd, also known as The Macmillan Group, is a privately held international publishing company owned by Georg von Holtzbrinck Publishing Group. It has offices in 41 countries worldwide and operates in more than thirty others.-History:...

    , London
    London
    London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

     (1915)
  • Turner, Dennis C, and Patrick Bateson. "The Domestic Cat: The Biology of Its Behaviour" Cambridge University Press
    Cambridge University Press
    Cambridge University Press is the publishing business of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by Henry VIII in 1534, it is the world's oldest publishing house, and the second largest university press in the world...

     (1988)
  • Miles , R C "Learning In Kittens With Manipulatory, Exploratory And Food Incentives" Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology 51 (1958): 39-42
  • Neville, Peter
    Peter Neville
    Peter Neville was a further education lecturer and sociologist known for his activity in and writings about the anarchist and peace movements in the United Kingdom....

    "Claws and Purrs" Sidgwick & Jackson (1992)
  • Neville, Peter "Do Cats Need Shrinks" Sidgwick & Jackson (1990)
  • Voith, Victoria L "You, Too, Can Teach a Cat Tricks (Examples of Shaping, Second-Order Reinforcement, and Constraints on Learning)" Modern Veterinary Practice, August 1981: 639 - 642.

External links

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