Yesterday, we looked at an interesting article by science writer Marilyn Perkins at Live Science, attempting to compare the relative intelligence of dogs vs. babies. In the same article, Perkins also addressed the question of whether cats are smarter than babies.

Cat intelligence is of a rather different kind from dog intelligence (to say nothing of human intelligence). In nature, dogs are pack animals; cats are colony animals who can live alone if they must. Dogs hunt and feed in packs; cats hunt small rodents alone — and a small rodent is barely a meal for one cat. Dogs find safety in numbers; cats in stealth. These differences mean that dogs and cats develop and use their intelligence in different ways.

Jennifer Vonk, the Oakland University cognitive psychologist whose opinion Perkins sought regarding cats, offered some pushback when asked to compare cats with babies:

But even though it’s possible to quantify aspects of cat intelligence with these tests, Vonk doesn’t think it makes sense to view cat intelligence through the lens of human development.

“I don’t think it is relevant to compare animal abilities to those of human children because other species are not just developmentally delayed humans,” she said. “They have evolved to solve different problems because they evolved in different ecological contexts and live in different environments.” …

“I think you cannot think about animals as being comparable to humans at different stages of development,” Vonk said. “That’s a comparison I try very hard to never make. We have to think about what abilities make sense for cats to have and understand why cats do well at the things they do well at, and worry less about comparing them to humans.”

“Are cats and dogs smarter than babies?,” January 4, 2025

Evasion of reality

Perkins deduces, “Ultimately, cats’ unique adaptations also mean they simply may not be motivated to perform well on intelligence measures the way humans are.” That sounds so much like an evasion of reality that it is hard to know what else to call it…

The human mind belongs to an entirely different order of being from the feline mind. No matter how motivated a cat is, he is not writing a letter, solving a math problem, or even designing a mouse trap (a skill he could definitely use!). His is strictly an animal intelligence. It’s a sharp intelligence but there are barriers he does not and cannot break.

Here, for example, two cats go to work on solving a puzzle for a food reward:

It is apparent that neither cat conceptualizes the nature of the problem in an abstract way. They keep fooling around with the device and eventually shake loose all the treats. Over time, by trial and error, they will likely learn the most efficient way of doing that. But a human would grasp the nature of the problem immediately, on a visual examination of the device. We would need to develop a much more complex problem in order to challenge a human.

Cat intelligence is underrated

Cat intelligence has been underrated in the past, probably because the cat is less oriented than the dog is to use his intelligence to please humans. Indeed, he is more likely to use it to get around human attempts to prevent him from doing something that he wants to do:

As I have pointed out elsewhere, a cat probably knows exactly what “Fluffy, quit scratching the couch!” means: It means that he must wait to continue scratching the couch until the human is distracted or absent. He has no idea, nor does he care, why things like that matter to humans and no special instinct to obey in order to please the human. However, he adapts to his circumstances in a way that he hopes will avoid conflict with humans.

Generally speaking, everything in a cat’s world is concrete and nothing is abstract. Thus, Dr. Vonk is wise not to try to compare cats and babies (or, for that matter, kittens and babies). Although babies are not yet thinking abstractly, they will start to be able to do so as they begin to learn their world. The kitten will never do so. And therein lies a world of difference.

Note: Cat intelligence is particularly well suited to some types of challenges:

The cat’s entire body is encased in a glove of muscles, which makes it much easier for him than for the dog to choose a route around or through an obstacle course like the one above, without upsetting anything. But the cat will never ask why the obstacle course is there. Neither will the dog. By the time a child is three or four years old, he is quite likely to ask. That is the difference.

Note: Barnes and Noble is running a 25% off promotion for The Immortal Mind (Worthy June 3, 2025) by neurosurgeon Michael Egnor and myself — but only till tonight. Go here to order and enter PREORDER25.

You may also wish to read: Science writing: Dog intelligence compared with baby intelligence. It’s an odd question because what we should be asking is not “Are adult dogs smarter than babies” but “Are kittens and puppies smarter than babies?” The comparison overall doesn’t really work but it underlines the doctrine that human intelligence is just another type of animal intelligence.