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Scooby
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Sorry, Your Dog Actually Isn't The Cleverest, According to Science
Recent research has found that when it comes to neuronal density, dogs have cats beat hand over fist. But that neuronal density doesn't seem to translate into intelligence, according to the findings of psychologists from the University of Exeter and Canterbury Christ Church University.
They conducted a meta-analysis of more than 300 studies on animal intelligence, and found what they describe as several cases of "over interpretation" in favour of dogs, compared to other animals such as wolves, cats, chimpanzees, pigeons, hyenas, horses and dolphins.
"During our work it seemed to us that many studies in dog cognition research set out to 'prove' how clever dogs are," said psychologist Stephen Lea of the University of Exeter.
"They are often compared to chimpanzees and whenever dogs 'win', this gets added to their reputation as something exceptional. Yet in each and every case we found other valid comparison species that do at least as well as dogs do in those tasks."
Recent research has found that when it comes to neuronal density, dogs have cats beat hand over fist. But that neuronal density doesn't seem to translate into intelligence, according to the findings of psychologists from the University of Exeter and Canterbury Christ Church University.
They conducted a meta-analysis of more than 300 studies on animal intelligence, and found what they describe as several cases of "over interpretation" in favour of dogs, compared to other animals such as wolves, cats, chimpanzees, pigeons, hyenas, horses and dolphins.
"During our work it seemed to us that many studies in dog cognition research set out to 'prove' how clever dogs are," said psychologist Stephen Lea of the University of Exeter.
"They are often compared to chimpanzees and whenever dogs 'win', this gets added to their reputation as something exceptional. Yet in each and every case we found other valid comparison species that do at least as well as dogs do in those tasks."
