It's well known that cats are clever, perhaps even devious creatures, but just how smart are cats? According to scientists, it's not your imagination: Cats are far more intelligent than you may realize and far more stubborn.

There is a decided lack of studies that have examined the intelligence of cats (there are plenty that have evaluated dogs’ intelligence, however). David Grimm is the Online News Editor of Science Magazine and is an expert on the science of dogs and cats. According to Grimm, by 2004, there were multiple papers on canine intelligence published by several labs around the world, yet there were no studies on how smart cats were up to that time.

Since 2004, there have been a few studies conducted with a focus on cats, but of course, the world could use more! The studies that have been conducted have found that the biggest obstacle for researching cats is their independent natures. Hungarian ethologist Dr. Ádám Miklósi wrote a paper about his study on how dogs and cats communicate with people. Miklósi stated that he found it quite challenging to work with cats because they didn’t usually cooperate, follow directions, or participate quite the same way that the dogs did.

Cats have smaller brains compared to dogs, but Dr. Lorie Huston for PetMD explains, "relative brain size isn't always the best indicator of intelligence. And the cat brain shares some amazing similarities with our own brains." For example, Huston elaborates, each part of a cat's brain is compartmentalized, specialized and connected to the others, allowing cats to understand, respond to and even manipulate their surroundings.

And as noted in Psychology Today by Dr. Berit Brogaard, "cats have more nerve cells in the visual areas of their brain, a part of the cerebral cortex [the area of the brain responsible for decision-making, problem-solving, planning, memory, and language-processing], than humans and most other mammals." That's why, for instance, your cat races from one end of the house to the other chasing a speck of dust that you don't even see. She's on a mission.

In addition to having top-notch vision, a cat's memory, both long-term and short-term, is impeccable, which you know if your fur baby gives you the evil-eye when you pack your suitcase. She remembers the last time you left the house with that suitcase you were gone for ages and she isn't happy about it.

According to research into animal intelligence, dogs are generally seen as the smarter of the two due to the fact that they’re much more trainable. Dogs have been domesticated for longer than cats and seem to be more sociable and willing to please humans, which is why they’ve been successful at various tasks such as guiding the blind, search and rescue and for police work.

But that’s only one way to measure intelligence. Cats can be viewed as more intelligent due to their unwillingness to follow humans and participate in studies, as they have their own mind and refuse to participate in meaningless tasks simply to please their owners. Additionally, where many may believe that the reason cats ignore them is because they can’t understand you, it’s actually due to the fact that cats don’t feel the need to acknowledge you as much as dogs do. As Literature Professor Mary Bly said, “Dogs come when they’re called; cats take a message and get back to you.”

Studies conducted on both cats and dogs give us further insight into which are smarter. According to one done in 2009, cats are not be as good at counting or identifying quantities of things as dogs or fish are. Yet in another study, it was discovered that cats are able to follow puzzles, but unlike dogs who will seek help from their owners, cats will simply keep trying until they get it. So, where dogs are definitely the more social of the two and are more likely to want to please their owners, cats are much more independent and prefer to do things for themselves. Essentially, this means that a cat’s intelligence is hard to directly compare to that of a dog.