The Method Section: Brain Size and Intelligence

00:00 – Intro

02:42 – A history of brain studies

08:30 – Issues in comparative studies

10:09 – Marine Mammals as a study group

16:45 – Are dolphins really intelligent?

22:32 – Ending outro

Episode Description

This week on The Method Section, Tom investigates brain size and complexity and how it relates to animal intelligence. Does having a bigger brain correlate to the intelligence of an animal or is it the relative brain size and complexity that determines it? Or is it none of these? Find out a bit about the history of comparative brain size studies, what we learnt from them and why they needed to change! Tom takes a look at the marine mammals, specifically cetaceans and looks at their case of being intelligent, are they as smart as people think?

Music by: Joakim Karud – https://soundcloud.com/joakimkarud.

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