Re: Behavioral Genetics: A pseudo science or real scientific discipline


>>From my past engagements with you I perceieved you as something of a
Skinnarian behaviorist, as someone who placed much more emphasis on
operant conditioning and the environment. I think that is reflected
here. The article I posted stated:

During the late summer
of 1999, a Princeton molecular biologist published the results of
impressive research in which he enhanced the ability of mice to learn
by inserting a gene that codes for a protein in brain cells known to be

associated with memory. Because the experimental animals performed
better than controls on a series of traditional tests of learning, the
press dubbed this gene "the smart gene" and the "IQ gene," as if
improved memory were the central, or even sole, criterion for defining
intelligence.


You replied, "There are a few mistakes here: first, and foremost,
glossing over the
subtleties of conditioning procedures as "memory" illustrates the
fundamental conceptual muddle of mainstream psychology. It is not that
the
term "memory" would not fit here, it is that "memory" applies to
virtually
all psychological phenomena. This is why the "kinds" of memory have
proliferated. This might not be too bad, but mainstream psychology has
no
interest, really, in the variables that are responsible for the few
generalities they obtain in "memory research." So-called short-term
memory
is treated as sort of pre-existing characteristic, but there is good
reason
to believe that STM is a loose collection of response classes that are
acquired when animals, human and otherwise, are exposed to delays
between
events correlated with other significant events and those significant
events. Animals learn to behave in extremely subtle ways that are
dependent
upon the particular setting and these responses, then, serve to
discriminatively control behavior when the delay is over and the
"opportunity to act" arises. Thus, STM is a product of more basic
conditioning processes and specific ontogenic circumstances are
necessary
for it to exist. The point here, which cannot be emphasized enough, is
that
"behavioral genetics" is applied within the context of a conceptual
muddle
that renders mainstream psychology virtually worthless."

I have not researched the study but are you suggesting there was no
enhanced ability of mice to learn
by inserting a gene that codes for a protein in brain cells known to be

associated with memory? Are you saying the STM of the mice is a product
of more basic conditioning processes and specific ontogenetic
circumstances necessary to exist and that the "IQ gene" merely
augmented that?

You write, "This reveals a most fundamental problem. For most of
psychology
"behavioral measurement" is, ironically, not what it appears. Indeed,
the
"measurement of behavior" is viewed as a way to "operationalize"
unobservable entities ("personality traits") that are, then, viewed as
the
"real subject matter." It is sometimes difficult to tell what has been
actually measured and manipulated since authors more often refer to the

alleged unobserved entities as the independent and dependent variables.

Behavioral genetics is just a set of experimental and statistical
procedures
that, as I said, are embedded in this conceptual morass."

Yup, I don't consider such behavioral measurement to be much different
from phrenology. You write regarding intelligence, "Or, perhaps, is
"intelligence" the phlogiston of psychology? No - that's
too much of a slur on phlogiston. Perhaps it would be better to ask if
"intelligence" is the vis anima of psychology." You are being very
sarcastic here but I think it is warranted. I still like Stephen
Hawking's quote, "It is uncertain whether intelligence has any long
term survival value. Bacteria do quite well without it."

MR


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