Brain Mechanisms in Problem Solving and Intelligence

1. Front Matter

   Pages 1-11

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2. Introduction

   • Robert Thompson, Francis M. Crinella, Jen Yu

   Pages 13-27

3. General Methods

   • Robert Thompson, Francis M. Crinella, Jen Yu

   Pages 29-49

4. Lesion Placements and Learning Syndromes

   • Robert Thompson, Francis M. Crinella, Jen Yu

   Pages 51-85

5. Maps of Learning Systems

   • Robert Thompson, Francis M. Crinella, Jen Yu

   Pages 87-94

6. General Findings

   • Robert Thompson, Francis M. Crinella, Jen Yu

   Pages 95-125

7. The Nonspecific Mechanism and Psychometric g

   • Robert Thompson, Francis M. Crinella, Jen Yu

   Pages 127-161

8. Interpreting the Results of the Problem-Solving Atlas

   • Robert Thompson, Francis M. Crinella, Jen Yu

   Pages 163-176

9. Implications of Centrencephalic Theory

   • Robert Thompson, Francis M. Crinella, Jen Yu

   Pages 177-204

10. Epilogue

    • Robert Thompson, Francis M. Crinella, Jen Yu

    Pages 205-212

11. Back Matter

    Pages 213-237

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This book is the outcome of a decade of research on the neu­ roanatomical mechanisms of learning in the young laboratory rat. It is essentially a discourse on the functional organization of the brain in relation to problem-solving ability and intelli­ gence. During the period between 1980 and 1989, well over 1000 weanling albino rats were subjected to localized brain damage (or sham operations in the case of the controls) under deep anesthesia and aseptic surgical conditions, were allowed tore­ cover, and subsequently were tested on a wide variety of prob­ lems designed to measure general learning ability. Since vir­ tually every part of the brain rostral to the medulla has been explored with lesions, it has become possible not only to map a number of "putative" brain systems underlying the acquisition of distinctive problem-solving tasks, but to isolate several neu­ roanatomical mechanisms that appear to be selectively in­ volved in the acquisition of particular kinds of goal-directed learned activities. Of particular interest was the discovery of a "nonspecific mechanism" (previously referred to in our re­ search reports as the "general learning system") inhabiting the interior parts of the brain. One objective of this volume was to make these maps available in a single source. Another was to provide a descrip­ tion of learning syndromes arising from local lesions to differ­ ent parts of the brain.

• 1989
• brain
• intelligence
• learning
• organization
• organizations
• problem solving
• research

• Late of University of California Irvine, Irvine, USA

  Robert Thompson

• State Developmental Research Institutes, Costa Mesa, USA

  Francis M. Crinella

• University of California Irvine, Irvine, USA

  Jen Yu

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