Rebecca Steffey

Professor Donegan
PSY 211
28 January 2015
More Experiences = Bigger Brain, what does this mean to us? Well, researchers
Rosenzweig, and Bennett have a lot to say about that. Giving a child a toy is something a child
will obviously enjoy. And it is something that you would obviously see in a childhood setting
along with stuffed animals and other toddler and infant toys. If you are giving a child toys that
will help them learn their colors, and shapes then in the long run the brain will become more
developed than a child who sits in front of a television all day. This study was done to show the
different brain changes in both humans or as they used in this study, rats. The belief of this
research study was that children need a stimulating environment for optimal intellectual
development and brain growth (Hock 12). Rosenzewig hypothesized that animals raised in
highly stimulating environments will show off different types of brain growth compared to ones
that are in other places, like being off in a separate room, in a separate cage, with no interaction.
This type of study was an experiment, because they took three different rats and put them
in three different cages, one with food and water, one in a cage in a separate room, and one that
had a lot of different rats to live with. The subject of this experiment would be the rats of course,
and going along with that the independent variable would be the environment of the rats. The
dependent variable would be the brain development of the rats. The control group, which is the
subjects in an experiment who are not subjected to the independent variable is the rat that is

being secluded in their own separate cage (Ciccarelli, White, 29). The rat that is being secluded,
and the experimental group are the ones that have some interaction with the other rats.
The results of the experiment showed that the rats which were secluded in a different
room, had different brain structure than the ones that were in a cage with lots of other rats. There
was more interaction with the rat who got to be in or close to the cages with other rats, they had
more activity going on. The results showed that the rats that were able to interact were more
brain developed than the others. Also the cerebral cortex of the rats that were able to interact had
a heavier and thinker part of their cerebral cortex. This experiment is, the rats put into the cage
with other rats had 50% bigger synapses than the rats that were secluded.
These research findings are important, because they show that anyone who has more
interaction will have better brain growth or development. For example, if you are giving a child
toys to play with that teach them their letters, or numbers, then they are bound to learn more than
just sitting around and watching movies for example. Teaching children at a young age, would
better help humans, because if we can do anything we can to help make the brain develop better I
feel like it should be taken advantage of. Especially, if we start at a young age, then maybe it will
help them in the future for their own brain growth. With this experiment, I think it shows a lot of
cognitive perspective. The experiments main focus is on problem solving and learning. Which
also can lead to it connecting to the book by cognitive neuroscience, which focuses mostly on the
brain, and how it develops.
I think I can use this information in my real life, if we doing things to help make the brain
develop better it could help a lot of people in the future, not just myself. Brain development can
affect the people around you just like in the experiment, when the rats were secluded it affected
them more than the ones who got to actually interact with the other rats. Its the same way with

humans and I think that is really important for everyone to know about. So maybe then everyone
can help and participate in helping the brain grow and develop the way its supposed too.

Works Cited
Ciccarelli, Saundra, and Noland J. White. Psychology. Boston: Pearson, 2013. Print

Hock, Roger, Forth Studies That Changed Psychology, Person, 2009