The neuro-physiological correlates of learning and intelligence

• Published in: Psychological bulletin 1936-07, Vol.33 (7), p.479-525
• Main Author: Harlow, H. F
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Cognitive Processes; Human; Intelligence; Learning; Neurology; Physiological Correlates
• ISSN: 0033-2909; 1939-1455
• DOI: 10.1037/h0060484

The importance of psychological theory in determining research on the neural correlates of higher mental processes is stressed. Data concerning the nature and laws of learning, the anatomical organization of the nervous system, and the effect of specific neural injury support theories assuming various forms of learning rather than theories postulating that all learning phenomena are of the same order. Encephalization and "corticalization" (shift of functional dominance from lower cerebral centers to the cerebral cortex with progressive development of central nervous system in animal scale) of motor and sensory functions and learning and intelligence are indicated by the increasing precision of localization of function as the animal order is ascended, by shift from bilateral to unilateral representation within a single hemisphere, and by hemispheral dominance of handedness, eyedness, and language functions in the human. The view of intelligence as the sum total of the activities of the various cortical centers with the higher synthesizing or associating centers mediating the most complicated mental processes is supported rather than theories of non-specificity, or dynamic theories, by available data and by fruitfulness of theories for future research. Bibliography of 117 titles.