--- title: Cats May Be as Intelligent as Dogs: Study description: Cats may be just as intelligent as dogs (and humans), according to a new memory study from Japanese researchers. canonical: https://time.com/4650638/cats-dogs-memory/ author: Julia Zorthian article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-01-26T19:37:47.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T02:58:42.481Z article:section: Science og:title: Cats Are Just as Smart as Dogs, Study Suggests og:description: They could just be pretending not to remember things (or you) og:url: https://time.com/4650638/cats-dogs-memory/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt38f12b918f5cc0d5/6988b76e5f570f3596b23e19/cat-intelligent-memory-dogs-study-japan.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: cat intelligent memory dogs study japan og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Cats Are Just as Smart as Dogs, Study Suggests twitter:description: They could just be pretending not to remember things (or you) twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt38f12b918f5cc0d5/6988b76e5f570f3596b23e19/cat-intelligent-memory-dogs-study-japan.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Cats Are Just as Smart as Dogs, Study Suggests  by [Julia Zorthian](https://time.com/author/julia-zorthian/)  ## Julia Zorthian Jan 26, 2017 7:37 PM UTC  Cat unsurprised by study's findings Cat unsurprised by study's findingskvkirillov—Getty Images/iStockphoto  by [Julia Zorthian](https://time.com/author/julia-zorthian/)  ## Julia Zorthian Jan 26, 2017 7:37 PM UTC Cats [may be just as smart](http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-38665057) as dogs (and humans), [a new study](http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0376635716303242) suggests. Japanese scientists tested to see if 49 domestic cats could remember which containers they ate food out of following a 15-minute delay, and said container was emptied, according to the study’s abstract. Having an episodic memory is often associated with having a degree of self-awareness, and separate researchers had already determined that dogs displayed use of an episodic memory. The results revealed that cats could “retrieve and utilize \[the\] ‘what’ and ‘where’ information” they encoded from a single past event; in this case, the container they ate from. The researchers also said cats performed comparably to dogs in tests about understanding human gestures and facial expressions, the [_BBC_ ](http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-38665057)reports. “Understanding cats more deeply helps to establish better cat-human relationships,” study author Saho Takagi, a psychologist at Kyoto University, told BBC. “…Cats may be as intelligent as dogs, as opposed to the common view of people that dogs are much smarter.” Cats May Be as Intelligent as Dogs: Study ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4650638/cats-dogs-memory/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4650638/cats-dogs-memory/"},"headline":"Cats Are Just as Smart as Dogs, Study Suggests","datePublished":"2017-01-26T19:37:47.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T02:58:42.481Z","description":"They could just be pretending not to remember things (or you)","url":"https://time.com/4650638/cats-dogs-memory/","keywords":["animals","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt38f12b918f5cc0d5/6988b76e5f570f3596b23e19/cat-intelligent-memory-dogs-study-japan.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Julia Zorthian","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/julia-zorthian/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt38f12b918f5cc0d5/6988b76e5f570f3596b23e19/cat-intelligent-memory-dogs-study-japan.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"cat intelligent memory dogs study japan","caption":"cat intelligent memory dogs study japan","creditText":"kvkirillov—Getty Images/iStockphoto","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/animals/","name":"animals"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4650638/cats-dogs-memory/","name":"Cats Are Just as Smart as Dogs, Study Suggests"}}]}] ```