Block 1
The ability of a rat to learn is the most amazing one in this study carried out by Willard Stanton Small. Being the first to build a maze to for rats, Small used the maze to study the behavior of rats. He took the rats and placed them in a maze where they lived (Pineno 2010). At the center of the maze, he placed food. He then observed the ability of the rats to remember the corridors in the maze that normally give them a pathway to access the food in the middle of the maze. Small indexed and analyzed the time which the rats took to reach the food in the middle of the maze and the errors which they made while trying to maneuver their ways through the maze to the middle. He then suggested that these indices of behaviors of the rats were indicators of the rats learning. From observation, Small explained that a rat was trying to select its path’s in the maze, this he stated was as a result of the rat having recorded some previous images of its path in the maze from previous experience (Pineno 2010). He argued that the acceleration of the rat was always followed by a click in the tail, and this suggested a clear sign of the rat having remembered its path hence confirming it was on the right path. However, he observed that the rat would decelerate and would be seen to stop if it sensed or remembered that it was losing its path.
Another species that has challenged my idea of animal intelligence is the crow. The test in the Aesop’s Fable Paradigm shows that the crow has a tinge of intelligence. In the experiment, a thirsty crow is exposed to a pitcher half-full of water; the crow picks stones and drops them into the pitcher until the water level rises high enough for it to quench its thirst. Looking at this experiment, it is evident that the crow can “think” and find a solution to the water level being so low for it to drink. This in a way has influenced by previous thoughts on animal intelligence, though not exhibited in various instances, it’s observable that certain behaviors in animals are as a result of learning and therefore knowledge of how to solve a given problem or react to a given situation (Pineno 2010).
After looking at various animals and their reactions that illustrate intelligence, I have always questioned human intelligence as well and sought to rethink the claimed uniqueness of human intelligence. However, I have for sometimes shifted my stance on the uniqueness of the human intelligence (Pineno 2010). The declaration of the uniqueness of human intelligence or clamor by human beings as the most intelligent animals is a far as the human eye is concerned. One would argue that when looking at the intelligence of human beings in relations to that of other animals, everything is “subjective.” That is to say that it is only one side of the parties being compared that has a right to make observations and conclusions about both parties’ intelligence. It almost seems like the issue of looking at the intelligence of other animals as compared to human beings already has a bias.
It is, therefore, necessary to reduce the bias that exists in this context of comparing human intelligence and that of other animals. If there was a possibility of having a third party to observe the behaviors of a human being and for example a chimpanzee, the bias in judgment and “self-praise” would be eliminated (Pineno 2010). One could, therefore, conclude that human beings are the most intelligent in as far as human beings are concerned, on the other side, it could also be that baboons view themselves as the most intelligent animals from their eye.
Classical and operant conditioning operations preparations are appropriate when studying animal intelligence because it is very important to know what behaviors are as a result of a response to stimuli and which ones are as a result of learning and hence making intelligent decisions (Pineno 2010). Mr. Pavlov’s classical or respondent conditioning states that learning is an involuntary response to some experience that had occurred before the very response. This means that after the experience, they will always react in a certain way to a similar experience. This, therefore, eliminates the involvement of the brain in making a decision as to what response it to be given to the experience, it happens involuntarily. On the other, Skinner in his through his idea of operant conditioning, argues that learning took place when behavior changes as a result of experience got after a response to the experience. When studying animal intelligence, it is, therefore, necessary to prepare for behaviors and actions resulting from classical conditioning and operant conditioning (Pineno 2010). The study should, therefore, know how to delink behaviors that have occurred out of stimuli and those that have been as a result of intelligent decisions. Looking at the principle of the behavioral approach, it generalized behavior and emphasized on mental processes. This means that it ignored the behavioral influence of human intelligence in as far as the study of human behavior is concerned, and I think scientists were right to drop behavioral approach. The later model, classical and operant conditioning, focused on the study of observable features like environmental stimuli and consequent responses to such stimuli (Pineno 2010).
The cognitive revolution came in the 20th century and changed the whole aspect of human psychology. Instead of considering psychology as per one's outwards behavior or through mental processes, the cognitive revolution brought with it a positive approach to the psychology of human behavior and integrated both. Its proponents, therefore, suggested that psychology should focus on the study of human behavior in relations to mental processes that underlie such behaviors (Pineno 2010). Forthcoming studies are likely to concentrate more on challenging human intelligence as being supreme to that of other animals.
Block 2
An experiment on brooding of birds
Design of the experiment
Once the subject hen has laid her eggs and has started to lie on her, eggs, the natural eggs should be carefully replaced with the artificial once. The artificial eggs should be made such that they will react almost similar to the natural eggs when subjected to various weather conditions like varying temperature, atmospheric pressure, and humidity. If possible, the egg shell of the natural egg should be used to design the egg shell of the artificial egg. After successfully replacing the natural eggs with the artificial eggs, the hen is then timed to note the length of time she will take while still lying on the eggs after the elapse of the expected brooding period.
Testing the hypothesis
If the hen terminates the brooding just a few days after the elapse of the expected brooding period. Then we will reject our null hypothesis which states that the termination of brooding by a hen is not as a result of stimuli from environmental. This would only mean that our subject has learned from previous experience and has knowledge of when her brooding period should stop from when she starts brooding. However, if the hen continues to lie on its eggs and the period exceeds the expected time for several days, then we shall accept our alternative hypothesis that termination of brooding by a hen is not as a result of learning and intelligence but as a result of stimuli from the environment, in this case, the hatching of her eggs. Therefore, when the hen extends and continues to lie on her eggs several days after the elapse of the expected brooding period, the intelligence or lack of it as concerns chicken brooding will have been rendered nonexistent.
There are however several variations that can be introduced in the experiment to ensure that other variables that are likely to affect this experiment apart from then hen’s intelligence or lack of it are kept fixed. It would also be important to let the hen brood her artificial eggs in a room where other hens are brooding and observe the effect that other hens, which start brooding at the same period with the subject, will have on the behaviors of the subject when the others have their eggs hatched while the subject doesn’t.
References
Pineno, Oskar (2010). The Thinking Rat: The New Science of Animal Learning. Amazon
