Brian Hare, the founder and director of
Duke University's Canine Cognition Center, put it like this in an interview with
PBS: "Asking which species is smarter is like asking if a hammer is a better tool than a screwdriver.
"Each tool is designed for a specific problem, so of course it depends on the problem we are trying to solve."
However, various studies have concluded that, overall, cats are not smarter than dogs.
One study often cited is that of neurologist Suzana Herculano-Houzel, who has spent nearly 15 years analyzing cognitive function in humans and animals. One such experiment she performed involved counting the neurons in the cortexes of a cat, golden retriever and a mixed-breed small dog.
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The cerebral cortex of the brain is involved in many higher level processes, including thought, association and memory.
The cortexes of dead animals were liquified in order to measure the number of suspended nuclei from neuron cells. This meant researchers could estimate the number of neurons present.
An estimate of the number of neurons in the average huuman cortex is 16 billion, according to Herculano-Houzel's findings. Her research found the dogs had 429 million and 623 million neurons for the mixed breed and golden retriever respectively, while the cat had 250 million neurons in their cerebral cortexes.
She told PBS: "Neurons are the basic information processing units. The more units you find in the brain, the more cognitively capable the animal is.
Adding to this evidence of dogs' superior brainpower, a study in 2008 showed cats are not as good at counting or identifying quantities compared to dogs and fish.
Scientists answer if cats are smarter than dogs