Yale Undergrads Dumber than Rats

[JBeukema]

Jump into a T-shaped maze with a rat, and let's see who comes out the brightest. Researchers placed a rat in a maze in the shape of a T, then alternately placed rewards on either the left or the right of the T. The rat, entering at the base of the T, was allowed to run the maze repeatedly, but it didn't know whether the reward would appear on the left or the right, so it had to guess which way to scurry. Yet the researchers rigged the food dispenser so the rewards appeared according to a secret pattern.
Researchers gave Yale undergraduates the same test, except it was a virtual maze, and instead of edible treats, the Yale students were offered brownie points.
The race was on. Which team would figure out the underlying pattern and get the most cheese? The rat realized the treats appeared more often on the left and started going left every time. The Yale students studied the data and generated hypotheses, rapidly working out deeper algorithms to the reward placement, varying their strategies as new data enriched their hypotheses.
Final tally: The rat, once it discovered a pattern, scored correctly 60% of the time. Yale undergrads, once they discovered a pattern, scored correctly 52% of the time.
What was the secret pattern? The researchers placed food on the left 60% of the time, and the right 40% of the time. That's it.
The rat swiftly zeroed in on the optimum course of action and stuck with it, scoring as well as an infinite intelligence possibly could have achieved.

-Joe Quirk

Language Log: Rats beat Yalies: Doing better by getting less information?