AP Psychology Journal 1 Jared McMillan Of the 16 studies given, I chose to begin my journals with the study entitled MORE

EXPERIENCE=BIGGER BRAIN?. This study was a very good insight into just what makes an intelligent creature. The purpose of this study was to examine if a more vibrant, complex development makes a larger, more complex brain in an individual. The key question that began the purpose was, Many people leave their children stuffed animals, toys, etc. to play with. Is what they are doing really contributing to the positive development of this child? As new instruments to measure brain changes very precisely came along in the 1960s, a scientist named Mark Rosenzweig and his colleagues made an experiment to find out if more stimulating experiences in development led to differences in brain growth and chemistry in organisms of the same litter. From each litter, three male rats were chosen at random to either be kept in a colony, put in an enriched cage, or put into an impoverished cage. The enriched cage held many toys, several rats, and food accessible all the time. The impoverished cage held a single rat, and supplied adequate food and water. There was also a standard lab cage that was used as a control. After 4 to 10 weeks depending on the experimental period which was allotted, the rats were sacrificed and their brains dissected for study. Certain parts of their brains were weighed, measured, and analyzed to determine the effects of the varying environments. A certain brain enzyme was of interest in this study; acetylcholinesterase, an enzyme that contributed to brain cells transmitting impulses with efficiency. The study of this particular enzyme and the overall composure of the brain in the enriched group as compared to the impoverished group yielded many variances. Firstly, the cerebral cortices in the enriched group were heavier and thicker than the cortices in the impoverished rats. Greater activity in the acetylcholinesterase was also measured, as were larger neurons. There were not, however, more neurons in the enriched

rats than in the impoverished rats overall. The ratio of RNA to DNA in the brains of the enriched rats was also higher, implying more chemical activity. Though the differences Rosenzweig found were not monumental, they certainly were very noticeable and defined. In response to experience, however, it was found that the cortex weighed much more as a result. Over a long period of changing and eliminating variables, Rosenzweig and his colleagues have gotten a steady stream of information that leads to the highly likely possibility that experience does, in fact, lead to a more complex and developed brain. Sadly, this may only be related to rats, as there is obviously no way that humans could be subjected to this type of study. Admittedly, more research would be needed before any of this experience-related development could be applied to the brain of a human. The significance of this study is simply that research has been done to help confirm that experience does contribute to brain development in one type of creature at least, and although not able to be confirmed on humans, it is seen as highly plausible. The reverberations of these experiments may lead to new developments in the field of memory, such as new techniques for improving memory and keeping people from losing memory as they age. Overall, through this testing, new grounds have been broken when it comes to understanding experience-related brain development.