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42 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
What was Aristotle's view of the brain? |
The brain was for cooling blood |
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What issue was raised by the use of the Guillotine during the French Revolution? |
Could decapitated heads still have sensation or thinking deliberately.
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What is the reflect arc? What is it similar to? |
Reflex arc: The direct connection of stimuli and response via the spinal cord. |
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How did Sherrington study the reflex arc? |
He isolated the spinal cords of dogs and observed the reflexive, unmediated, responses to certain stimuli. |
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What can we learn from studying reflexes? |
We can learn what is possible without the brain. |
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Although reflexes can be 'impressive', what is their limitation? |
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 |
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How is the Bell‐Magendie law an example of a multiple ? |
They both discovered at about the same time that sensory and motor functions were separate in the brain/NS |
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What was Galen's belief about sensory and motor pathway? |
Sensory: Pathway to cerebrum |
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What is the Bell-Magendie law? |
That sensory and motor functions are divided/separated in the brain/nervous system |
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How did Bell advertise his findings? |
By simply distributing pamphlets to his friends |
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How did Magendie advertise his findings? |
He publicly published his article. Experimented on puppies (several dorsal and ventral roots). |
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What is Muller's Doctrine of Specific Nerve Energies? |
The type of sensory nerve stimulated determines the type of sensation experience. |
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What did a student of Muller's claim about the crossing of sensory nerves? |
"If we could cut and cross the visual and auditory nerves, we would hear with our eyes and see with our eyes" |
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According to Muller and the Doctrine of Specific Nerve Energies, what determines our subjective experience? |
The nature of our nervous system and NOT the apparent physical objects we experience. |
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How does Muller's view of Specific Nerve Energies represent a Physiological Cartesian Theatre? |
It creates a division between the inner world of experience/mental space which we directly experience and the external world. |
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What were the main contributions of Hermann von Helmholtz? |
Helmholtz significantly contributed to the development of mental chronometry and measurements of nerve impulses. |
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In order to become a 'worthy' science, what did physiological psychology wish to achieve? |
They wished to achieve quantitative measures of the mind. |
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What were the methods of physiological psychology motivated by? |
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. |
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What phenomenon occurred at the Greenwich Observatory (1795)? |
Assistant astronomer fired over .5 sec slower star transit times |
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What is Vitalism? |
The belief that living things are possessed by a vital 'life force' which is non-physical and outside the realm of science. |
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What is Mechanism? |
The belief that behaviour of all organisms can be explained in terms of mechanical laws which apply to be living and non-living entities. |
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What was Helmholtz's major disagreement with Muller? |
Muller was a vitalist and Helmholtz was a materialist. |
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How can the Vitalism-Mechanism problem be related to the Mind-Body Problem? |
They are essentially the same problem encountered by two different areas of inquiry. |
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How did Helmholtz go about discrediting vitalism with his study on frog legs? |
He measured the time between stimulation and response in frog legs when he stimulated them at different distances. |
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How did Helmholtz test his materialist views on human subjects? |
He got humans to press a button when stimulated on their thigh vs. toe |
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What was Helmholtz's attitude towards basic sensations? |
Believed that basic sensation are meaningless |
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What are Unconscious Inferences? |
Unconscious inferences: For Helmholtz, a process outside of awareness, determined by past experiences, which influences perception |
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What is Localization of Function? |
The idea that different functions are, more or less, located in different areas/structures of the brain.
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What are the main principles/claims of Phrenology? |
People have different levels of mental faculties |
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What practice was extremely popular in the 18th century which likely influenced the impact of Phrenology? |
Physiognomy: reading of character based on facial structures |
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What theory did Franz Joseph Gall confirm? |
Contralateral Brain Function |
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What did Gall believe about larger brains? |
Larger brains = more complex and, thus, more intelligent behaviour |
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How did the combination of contralaterality, larger brains and species specific convolutions influence Galls ideas? |
Contralaterality = Specific area; Specific function |
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Where did Phrenology go wrong? |
The choice to localize vague (if not arbitrary) psychological qualities (e.g., marvelousness) |
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How type of evidence was Phrenology accused of using? |
Anecdotal evidence! |
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What was the issue with the number and type of faculties proposed by Phrenology? |
With 27 or more vague and complex faculties, any discrepancies can be explain away. |
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What did Phrenology stimulate intense interests and study into? |
The localized functions of the brain! |
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Who can be awarded with discrediting Phrenology? |
Pierre Flourens! |
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What did Flourens conclude after discrediting Phrenology? |
1) Phrenology was wrong about the locations of faculties |
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Give an example of anecdotal evidence used by Gall and phrenology |
Localizing amativeness: Erotically-inclined widow collapsed into Gall's arms and he noticed the based of her skull was THICK |
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What did Flourens find them more he lesioned the cortex of a pigeon? |
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) |
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What reason might explain why Flourens thought that faculties were not localized? |
His technique! The way he sliced the brain (front to back) likely interfered with multiple faculties at once. |