scientists performedan experiment to determined whether there is a connection between learning ability and food. they took two groups of 20 mice each, all from the same purebred strain. the mice were deprived of food for 3 days and then given a standard learning session in running through a maze. they were trained by giving them a mild eletric shock whenever they took a wrong turn. Immediately after each learning session, one group of mice was fed, but the other was not, a week later, all of the mice were tested to see whether they could still run the maze correctly. the group that had been fed had retained this ability, but the other group had not. The probable reason that the scientists used only mice from the same pure-bred strain is so that:

Question

scientists performedan experiment to determined whether there is a connection between learning ability and food. they took two groups of 20 mice each, all from the same purebred strain. the mice were deprived of food for 3 days and then given a standard learning session in running through a maze. they were trained by giving them a mild eletric shock whenever they took a wrong turn. Immediately after each learning session, one group of mice was fed, but the other was not, a week later, all of the mice were tested to see whether they could still run the maze correctly. the group that had been fed had retained this ability, but the other group had not. The probable reason that the scientists used only mice from the same pure-bred strain is so that:

a) genetic differences would not affect the outcome of the test
b) the experiment could be repeated with the same mice
c) the experiment wouldn't cost as much
d) the mice would all be the same color
e) the mice would all be the same size

Answer 1

The probable reason that the scientists used only mice from the same purebred strain is so that genetic differences would not affect the outcome of the test (option a).

By using mice from the same purebred strain, the scientists ensure that the mice in both groups are genetically similar. This helps eliminate the potential influence of genetic variation on the results of the experiment. If the mice had been from different strains, there could have been genetic differences that could have affected their learning ability and the outcome of the experiment.

To further explain how this relates to the experiment, if the mice were from different genetic strains, there could be inherent differences in their learning abilities that are unrelated to the food deprivation and subsequent feeding. Using mice from the same purebred strain helps control for these potential genetic differences, making the experiment more reliable and allowing the researchers to focus on the effect of food on learning ability.