In the first task, the patterns varied on only one dimension—either orientation or spacing—and rats and humans performed it equally well. In the second, the patterns varied on both dimensions, and the rats did better than the humans. People used to think rats were practically blind; now we know that their visual abilities are pretty advanced. We’ve done research showing they can tell the difference between a movie that features a rat and one that doesn’t. David Cox and his colleagues at Harvard have reported that rats can recognize a 3-D object even if its size changes or it’s been rotated. The first task involved rules. The second focused on information integration. Humans learn in both ways. Our rule-based system was an evolutionary development: How do you tell if a berry is good for eating? You learn that this small red one is good, and then you save energy by bypassing the ones of a different shape or color. So our brains have been conditioned to look for rules. We’re taught them in school, at work, and by our parents, and we can make many good decisions by applying the ones we’ve learned. But in other situations there’s too much going on for simple rules to work, and that’s when information integration learning has to kick in. https://hbr.org/2015/01/rats-can-be-smarter-than-people?utm_campaign=Socialflow&utm_source=Socialflow&utm_medium=Tweet
Posted on: Sat, 03 Jan 2015 02:38:28 +0000
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