One of the most important topics for which psychologists use animal experimentation
is the study of interactive effects of genes and the environment
on the development of the brain and subsequent behavior. These studies
can only be done using animals as subjects because they require individuals
with a relatively short life span that develop quickly, invasive procedures to
measure cell and brain activity, or the manipulation of major social and environmental
variables in the life of the subject.
In the 1920’s, E. C. Tolman and Robert Tryon began a study of the inheritance
of intelligence using rats. They trained rats to run a complex maze
and then, over many generations, bred the fastest learners with one another
and the slowest learners with one another. From the beginning, offspring of
the “bright” rats were substantially faster than offspring of the “dull” rats. After
only seven generations, there was no overlap between the two sets, showing
that “intelligence” is at least partly genetic and can be bred into or out of
animals, just as size, coat color, or milk yield can be.
Subsequent work with selectively bred bright versus dull rats, however,
found that the bright rats would only outperform the dull rats when tested
on the original maze used with their parents and grandparents; if given a different
task to measure their intelligence, the bright rats were no brighter
than the dull rats. These studies were the first to suggest that intelligence
may not be a single attribute that one either has much or little of; there may
instead be many kinds of intelligence.
Traditionally, intelligence quotient (IQ) tests measure two kinds of intelligence:
one related to verbal skills and one related to spatial skills. Newer
theories and tests attempt to address the possibility that there are dozens of
different kinds of intelligence. The newer tests may help to identify special
talents that may otherwise go unrecognized, undeveloped, and unrewarded
in people who are not especially good at tasks measured by the more traditional
tests. The new theories of multiple intelligences are also being used in
the field of artificial intelligence to develop computer and robotic systems
which utilize less sequential processing and more parallel systems or netlike
processing, more like the human brain.
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