Julia Meyers-Manor quoted in article on livescience.com

Associate Professor of Psychology Julia Meyers-Manor was quoted in the article “Cats: The strange and fascinating history of our feline friends,” published today, Sept. 6, on livescience.com. The article states that cats have associated with humans for thousands of years, “help humans control vermin and also provide companionship.”

It added, “But cats don’t always make their smarts easy to measure. ‘They’re a nightmare to work with in the lab,’ said Julia Meyers-Manor, a psychologist at Ripon College in Wisconsin who studies animal (cognition).

“Compared with other animals, such as rats and dogs, few studies have been done on cat intelligence, Meyers-Manor told Live Science. Cats hate strangers and unfamiliar places, like labs, she said; they typically bury their faces in their owners’ arms and refuse to cooperate with the task at hand.”