How would I approach this question?

psy2023

How would I approach this question? Just the basics of what you would expect to see in a question like this:

A researcher tells you that, in their lab, a pigeon learned to peck at a target in a skinner box in return for food faster than a rat learned to scratch itself in return for food. They claim that this shows that pigeons are more intelligent than rats. Give your arguments AGAINST this conclusion.

Reply 1

bob123445555

Original post by psy2023

How would I approach this question? Just the basics of what you would expect to see in a question like this:
A researcher tells you that, in their lab, a pigeon learned to peck at a target in a skinner box in return for food faster than a rat learned to scratch itself in return for food. They claim that this shows that pigeons are more intelligent than rats. Give your arguments AGAINST this conclusion.

maybe you can argue that the behaviour of birds pecking is a more normal behaviour compared to rats scratching themselves. So birds already have prior learned behaviour of pecking so it made it easier for them to know that they must peck in order to receive food. This doesn't suggest that birds are more intelligent than rats, it just means that the desired behaviour that the researcher wanted for the rats was a more difficult behaviour to learn.

i hope this makes sense.