I understand that the IQ test as it currently exists is designed specifically for humans.
Has there been any attempt to translate animal intelligence into an IQ number as it relates to humans.
I believe average IQ for a human is 100, so would a dog be 50? 30?
What about an ape?
IQ comparisons between humans and animals is an apples and oranges comparison.
If you ask a cat to play chess and it will seem pretty dumb.
If a cat asks you to run up a tree and grab a bird just as it takes flight you will be the dumb looking one.
I have seen loose comparisons such as a dog having the equivalent intelligence of a three year old. I think that more relates to how big a vocabulary a dog can understand compared to a three year old and perhaps some level of problem solving. Not sure though.
We can’t communicate well enough with animals to provide a meaningful rating of intelligence. We can take some relative measurements between different species based on how easily they can learn and solve problems. Even then we can’t be sure of the results because a cat may grasp and understand advanced calculus but still refuse to tell us about it or demonstrate that ability.
There are certain markers of intelligence that are used to distinguish between animals, and some of that has been roughly translated into human equivalency. One of the big ones is whether or not an animal can recognize itself in a mirror. Dolphins and crows can, but many other animals can not. Another would be tool use - crows can use tools and do things such as put pebbles in a vase to bring the water level high enough for them to drink out it, but I don’t know how this correlates to human intelligence.
There are lots of very interesting comparisons of cognitive abilities of primates, particularly what makes us different from the rest of the apes. There was a fascinating Nova episode that touched on a lot of comparisons between apes and human children. You can even watch that episode for free on the PBS website.
I read that whales have the highest IQ, which would correlate to 120 or so in humans. I do not remember how they arrived at that, but whales, of course, communicate with each other,
That sounds like the claim in the movie Lucy that dolphins use 20% of their brains, as contrasted to humans who use 10% of them. No, it’s not true. There’s no evidence that whales or dolphins or any other animal is smarter in any sense than humans.
You cannot directly compare across species. Cecil on why that’s difficult. What you can do is test enough of each species until you figure out the descriptives. For humans, the mean IQ is 100 and the standard deviation is 15 or 16 (depending on the measure). If dog IQ was say, 50 and 5, you could determine whether they were different and if you have a particularly smart dog.
There are several metrics, such as how fast they learn tricks, but it doesn’t encompass all aspects of intelligence. Cats and certain dog breeds can be very intelligent, they just don’t care to demonstrate it to the human.
True, but that’s not the stupidest part about that statement!