My cat definitely, however, is unaware of the idea that the environment around him can be changed, and isn't static. He can figure out how to open doors, and that if something is playing dead it will run when he knocks it from a shelf, but those are the limitations of his ability to interact with the environment.
He's smart enough to know his treats are kept in a small bin on a shelf in my desk, that weighs under a pound, and is covered by a thick sheet of paper. He could knock the whole thing to the ground and get all the treats he wants. But because it looks too big to be an eatable animal playing dead, it simply doesn't occur to him he can push it open to get the treats inside.
That, I think, explains a lot of their behavior. The cat will scratch at the door to go outside. But when I open the door, he needs to take a moment or three to re-situate himself in his new environment, for him, his entire environment just changed unexpectedly. If I then poke my head through the door, he'll realize that its open now, and run through. But if I don't, he needs to re-assess his entire locale, realize that the open door means its passable, and ignore his confusion for how his environment changed so rapidly.
This is true with a lot of things. He'll complain that his litterbox is too dirty. I'll clean it. He'll leave the litterbox, and go do something else. Later, he'll come back, find that its clean, and go to the bathroom. Its not that he was being an asshole, he just knows enough to have figured out that meowing next to a dirty litterbox results in it eventually being clean, but doesn't seem to recognize that the action of me scooping in there is what is actively changing the environment, he needs to rediscover his litterbox as clean 1-5-10-15 minutes later.
etc
You can use this to your advantage to play games with the cat, interestingly enough. I play with him with this thing: https://www.chewy.com/snugglycat-ripple-rug-cat-activity/dp/...
Some days, he gets bored with it. So I unvelcro it, change its shape, and start playing again, and suddenly, its an entirely new toy, and he gets excited again! lol