Psych 210 Uvic (Chapter 3)

Front 1

What was Aristotle's view of the brain?

Back 1

The brain was for cooling blood

** All human/animal sense-faculties lie in the heart.

Front 2

What issue was raised by the use of the Guillotine during the French Revolution?

Back 2

Could decapitated heads still have sensation or thinking deliberately.

** There appear to be some movement after decapitation.

Front 3

What is the reflect arc? What is it similar to?

Back 3

Reflex arc: The direct connection of stimuli and response via the spinal cord.

Similar to: Descartes conception of reflex

Front 4

How did Sherrington study the reflex arc?

Back 4

He isolated the spinal cords of dogs and observed the reflexive, unmediated, responses to certain stimuli.

Front 5

What can we learn from studying reflexes?

Back 5

We can learn what is possible without the brain.

This helps us better isolate and understand what the role of the brain really is.

Front 6

Although reflexes can be 'impressive', what is their limitation?

Back 6

They are 'inflexible' responses which are not always effective in every circumstance.

When isolated from the brain: The reflexive responses show no social reaction. It fails to recognize food as food. It shows no memory, it cannot be trained or learned, it cannot be taught its name. The mindless body reacts with the fatality of a penny-in-the slot machine

~ Sherrington & Roy (1893)

Front 7

How is the Bell‐Magendie law an example of a multiple ?

Back 7

They both discovered at about the same time that sensory and motor functions were separate in the brain/NS

Front 8

What was Galen's belief about sensory and motor pathway?

Back 8

Sensory: Pathway to cerebrum
**Nerves needed to be softer to receive sensory impressions (cerebrum is softer than cerebellum)


Motor: Pathway to cerebellum**

Front 9

What is the Bell-Magendie law?

Back 9

That sensory and motor functions are divided/separated in the brain/nervous system

Front 10

How did Bell advertise his findings?

How did he make his discovery?

Back 10

By simply distributing pamphlets to his friends

Bell experimented on rabbits

Front 11

How did Magendie advertise his findings?

How did he make his discovery? What did he experiment on?

Back 11

He publicly published his article.

Magendie systematically observed the neurons leaving the spinal cord and examined their different structures (which suggested different functions).

Experimented on puppies (several dorsal and ventral roots).

Front 12

What is Muller's Doctrine of Specific Nerve Energies?

Back 12

The type of sensory nerve stimulated determines the type of sensation experience.

i.e., Specific types of sensations are accompanied by certain types of sensory nerves

e.g., Phosphenes

Front 13

Who would agree with the following quote?:

"Nobody can be a psychologist, unless he first becomes a physiologist"

Back 13

Johannes Muller

Front 14

What did a student of Muller's claim about the crossing of sensory nerves?

What rare condition does this seem to describe?

Back 14

"If we could cut and cross the visual and auditory nerves, we would hear with our eyes and see with our eyes"

** Doctrine of specific nerve energies

Describes: Synesthesia (merging of the senses)

Front 15

According to Muller and the Doctrine of Specific Nerve Energies, what determines our subjective experience?

Back 15

The nature of our nervous system and NOT the apparent physical objects we experience.

** We are not conscious of physical objects but of sensory impulses

Front 16

How does Muller's view of Specific Nerve Energies represent a Physiological Cartesian Theatre?

Back 16

It creates a division between the inner world of experience/mental space which we directly experience and the external world.

Front 17

True or False?; Hermann von Helmholtz was a student of Muller

Back 17

True! He was a leading physicist and authority in optics and acoustics research.

Front 18

What were the main contributions of Hermann von Helmholtz?

Back 18

Helmholtz significantly contributed to the development of mental chronometry and measurements of nerve impulses.

Front 19

In order to become a 'worthy' science, what did physiological psychology wish to achieve?

Back 19

They wished to achieve quantitative measures of the mind.

Front 20

What were the methods of physiological psychology motivated by?

Back 20

Advances in astronomy: Eye-and-ear method of recording a star that comes into view and noting the number of seconds it takes to pass.

** Basis for mental chronometry

Front 21

What phenomenon occurred at the Greenwich Observatory (1795)?

How did Friedrich Bessel attempt to remedy this?

Back 21

Assistant astronomer fired over .5 sec slower star transit times

Bessel: Compared times of different astronomers and created personal equations to account for and cancel out any differences.

Front 22

What is Vitalism?

Back 22

The belief that living things are possessed by a vital 'life force' which is non-physical and outside the realm of science.

** Separates life from non-life

Front 23

What is Mechanism?

Back 23

The belief that behaviour of all organisms can be explained in terms of mechanical laws which apply to be living and non-living entities.

Front 24

What was Helmholtz's major disagreement with Muller?

Back 24

Muller was a vitalist and Helmholtz was a materialist.

Muller: Believed nerve impulses were too fast to measure (vitalist)

Helmholtz: Believed nothing was outside the realm of science (materialist)

Front 25

How can the Vitalism-Mechanism problem be related to the Mind-Body Problem?

Back 25

They are essentially the same problem encountered by two different areas of inquiry.

Vitalism-Mechanism: Physiology & Biology
Mind-Body: Philosophy & Psychology

Front 26

How did Helmholtz go about discrediting vitalism with his study on frog legs?

Back 26

He measured the time between stimulation and response in frog legs when he stimulated them at different distances.

4" from foot = .009s
1" from foot = .006s

** .003sec to travel 3" = ~90 feet/sec

Front 27

How did Helmholtz test his materialist views on human subjects?

Back 27

He got humans to press a button when stimulated on their thigh vs. toe

** Recorded the response times and showed the nerve impulses were measurable

Front 28

What was Helmholtz's attitude towards basic sensations?

Back 28

Believed that basic sensation are meaningless

Sensations acquire meaning only when they are transformed by our minds into perceptions

We/the mind makes unconscious inferences based on our experiences

Front 29

What are Unconscious Inferences?

Back 29

Unconscious inferences: For Helmholtz, a process outside of awareness, determined by past experiences, which influences perception

Experiences shape the mind and how it imposes itself on subsequent stimuli.

Front 30

Who placed distorted glasses on participants and observed their adaptations?

Back 30

Helmholtz (perceptual adaptation).

Front 31

What is Localization of Function?

Back 31

The idea that different functions are, more or less, located in different areas/structures of the brain.

i.e., specific brain areas have specific functions

Front 32

What are the main principles/claims of Phrenology?

Back 32

People have different levels of mental faculties

Faculties exits in specific areas of the brain

Therefore, well developed faculties should correlate with larger brain-areas and a corresponding bump on the skull.

Front 33

What practice was extremely popular in the 18th century which likely influenced the impact of Phrenology?

Back 33

Physiognomy: reading of character based on facial structures

Front 34

Why does the example of Linus Pauling show that we should be careful of claims, even of those who are considered to be reputable?

Back 34

Pauling won 2 Nobel Prizes (Chemistry and Peace)

BUT

He also promoted vitamin C as effective against cancer and heart disease. (WHICH IS FALSE!)... People believed him because of his status even though there was no evidence to support his claims

Front 35

What theory did Franz Joseph Gall confirm?

Back 35

Contralateral Brain Function

Front 36

What did Gall believe about larger brains?

Back 36

Larger brains = more complex and, thus, more intelligent behaviour

** Within species, brain convolutions are similar (hence, similar type and complexity of behaviour)

Front 37

How did the combination of contralaterality, larger brains and species specific convolutions influence Galls ideas?

Back 37

Contralaterality = Specific area; Specific function

Larger Brain = Larger area; Stronger faculty

Species specific = Qualities in same are for different skills

** Influenced the development of Phrenology

Front 38

Where did Phrenology go wrong?

Back 38

The choice to localize vague (if not arbitrary) psychological qualities (e.g., marvelousness)

Localization gone astray?

i.e., If we cannot properly define the dimensions, how can we possibly go about localizing them int he brain?

Front 39

How type of evidence was Phrenology accused of using?

Back 39

Anecdotal evidence!

Front 40

What was the issue with the number and type of faculties proposed by Phrenology?

Back 40

With 27 or more vague and complex faculties, any discrepancies can be explain away.

** Postdiction and Unfalsifiability!!

Front 41

What did Phrenology stimulate intense interests and study into?

Back 41

The localized functions of the brain!

Front 42

Who can be awarded with discrediting Phrenology?

What method did he use?

Back 42

Pierre Flourens!

Ablation: surgically lesioning brain tissue to observe the effects on behaviour/personality

Front 43

What did Flourens conclude after discrediting Phrenology?

Back 43

1) Phrenology was wrong about the locations of faculties

2) Faculties were, in fact, localized (brain works as a whole)

Front 44

Give an example of anecdotal evidence used by Gall and phrenology

How did Flourens disprove this?

Back 44

Localizing amativeness: Erotically-inclined widow collapsed into Gall's arms and he noticed the based of her skull was THICK

Flourens: Lesioned cerebellums of dogs and found amativeness in tact (motor functions impaired)

Front 45

What did Flourens find them more he lesioned the cortex of a pigeon?

Back 45

He found the greater the lesion, the grater the deficit!

** It appeared to have an effect on all faculties (if localized, lesions should leave some faculties in tact)

Front 46

What reason might explain why Flourens thought that faculties were not localized?

Back 46

His technique! The way he sliced the brain (front to back) likely interfered with multiple faculties at once.

A different approach (cutting vertically) may have showed more localization of function.