Rat, mind, and brain? Psychologists in a school of thought known as behaviorism often conducted research on the behavior of laboratory animals, such as rats learning to navigate through mazes. This kind of research had a key advantage: It allowed for accurate scientific measurement of observable behavior. However, psychologists in other schools of thought, such as humanistic psychology, noted that it also had a big disadvantage: Research on rats deflected attention from the scientific study of psychological experiences unique to humans. In today’s psychology, research with animals remains important in many branches of the field, but the large majority of research studies are conducted with people.