So How Intelligent Are Cats?

So how smart are cats?

I put a body-length mirror at the top of the stairwell yesterday, and my cat, Romulus, is fascinated by it.  First time he saw it he stood starting into it; I think he realizes he's looking at himself and is fascinated by the idea of it.  Enthralled, his tail flips left and right in strong strokes of inquiry.  But what really got him going was when I walked up the stairs.  First my head appeared in the mirror, then my shoulders, then slowly the rest of my body as I reached the top stair.  Now I'm in front of him and behind him at the same time, and he freaks.  I never saw him display such frenetic energy as he displayed while trying to figure out what was going on.  How could I be behind him and in front of him at the same time?  Looks to me like he recognized both of us.  He would probably have quite a time of it if I took him to a hall of mirrors.  Imagine a cat looking at its reflection in a convex or concave mirror.  That tail would be working overtime.

I've read elephants recognize themselves in mirrors, but Chimps do not.  Very disturbing to chimp fans; very pleasing to elephant fans.  (I wonder how big a mirror must be for an elephant to recognize itself close up.  I also wonder how scientists know when an animal recognizes itself in a mirror as opposed to recognizing another of its kind.  I mean how much experience do we have doing this?) Scientists who study animal cognition think this is important, but I wonder if the entire field of study isn't biased.  They seem to use human cognition as the standard against which to evaluate animal cognition (and intelligence).  If the animal does what we do, then it's smart, and if it doesn't, then it isn't. But is this how we should measure animal cognition and intelligence?  What premium has evolution placed on a cat recognizing itself in a mirror?  Does it enhance survival?  I doubt it.  Does their culture care, like ours does, how well groomed they are when looking for mates?  Besides, cats seem to have no problem grooming themselves without one.  Only we seem to need the aid of a mirror.

Would a human raised in the wild by wolves, recognize herself the first time she looked in a mirror? Cats are highly intelligent, but their intelligence is cat intelligence, not human intelligence, useful to them, not to us.  Abstraction is great if you have hands and opposable thumbs to build things with, but not so much so when you walk on four paws.  There is not one kind of intelligence -- human intelligence -- but many types of intelligences, and I wish researchers would stop comparing animal intelligence to human intelligence as if human intelligence was the standard upon which intelligence is judged.  What matters is if an animal's intelligence is sufficient or excels at surviving.  That their intelligence doesn't work like ours matters not a whit.


Comments

  1. FredJune 14, 2017 at 11:03 AM

    Shadow Flutter,

    A Wikipedia article about the classic mirror test.

    http://tinyurl.com/pyr5p5o

    ReplyDelete
  2. MudpuddleJune 14, 2017 at 12:01 PM

    interesting musings; what if intelligence as we know it is an illusion, also... and what role does chance play in the evolution of intelligence? solely a reaction to environment? without an opposable thumb, would we still be intelligent? hmm speculations for the day...

    ReplyDelete
  3. ShadowJune 14, 2017 at 3:20 PM

    From what little I've read, the cost (in calories or some such thing) of maintaining our brain size is significant, significant enough that many evolutionary biologists don't believe we would have such a brain unless it paid off. If you believe that, then its hard to believe intelligence is some kind of illusion, which Dennett and others have implied. Personally I don't think we are close to understanding the brain because it resists reduction, and reduction is central to current science.

    The philosopher Thomas Nagel is probably the most influential critic of Dennett and others who think the workings of the brain can be described by reducing its complexity into irreducible parts. He believes such mental states as the subjective self, metacognition, and Theory of Mind resist reduction. He's written at least two books on the "Mind-Body" problem. He also authored (alone) possibly the most famous philosophy paper on the subject "What It's like To Be a Bat?" You can read it here. I was completely absorbed by it.

    http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/activities/modules/ugmodules/humananimalstudies/lectures/32/nagel_bat.pdf

    ReplyDelete

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