Chapter 8: Psychology and Psychophysics

Question 1

Charles Bell

Answer 1

Discovered, in modern times, the distinction between sensory and motor nerves

Question 2

Paul Broca

Answer 2

Found evidence that part of the left frontal lobe of the cortex is specialized for speech production or articulation

Question 3

Gustav Theodor Fechner

Answer 3

Expanded Weber’s law by showing that, for just noticeable differences to vary arithmetically, the magnitude of a stimulus must vary geometrically

Question 4

David Ferrier

Answer 4

Created a more detailed map of the motor cortex than Fritsch and Hitzig had. He also mapped cortical areas corresponding to the cutaneous senses, audition, olfaction, and vision

Question 5

Pierre Flourens

Answer 5

Concluded that the cortical region of the brain acts as a whole and is not divided into a number of faculties, as the phrenologists had maintained

Question 6

Gustav Fritsch

Answer 6

Along with Hitzig, discovered motor areas on the cortex by directly stimulating the exposed cortex of a dog

Question 7

Franz Joseph Gall

Answer 7

Believed that the strengths of mental faculties varied from person to person and that they could be determined by examining the bumps and depressions on a person’s skull. Such an examination came to be called phrenology

Question 8

Hermann von Helmholtz

Answer 8

A monumental figure in the history of science who did pioneer work in the areas of nerve conduction, sensation, perception, color vision, and audition

Question 9

Ewald Hering

Answer 9

Offered a atavistic explanation of space perception and a theory of color vision based on the existence of three color receptors, each capable of a catabolic process and an anabolic process. Hering’s theory of color vision could explain a number of color experiences that Helmholtz’s theory could not

Question 10

Eduard Hitzig

Answer 10

Along with Fritsch, discovered motor areas on the cortex by directly stimulating the exposed cortex of a dog

Question 11

Christine Ladd-Franklin

Answer 11

Proposed a theory of color vision based on evolutionary principles

Question 12

François Magendie

Answer 12

Discovered, in modern times, the distinction between sensory and motor nerve

Question 13

Johannes Müller

Answer 13

Expanded the Bell–Magendie law by demonstrating that each sense receptor, when stimulated, releases an energy specific to that particular receptor. This finding is called the doctrine of specific nerve energies

Question 14

Ernst Heinrich Weber

Answer 14

Using the two-point threshold and the just noticeable difference, he was the first to demonstrate systematic relationships between stimulation and sensation

Question 15

Absolute threshold

Answer 15

The smallest amount of stimulation that can be detected by an organism

Question 16

Adequate stimulation

Answer 16

Stimulation to which a sense modality is maximally sensitive

Question 17

Bell-Magendie Law

Answer 17

There are two types of nerves: sensory nerves carrying impulses from the sense receptors to the brain and motor nerves carrying impulses from the brain to the muscles and glands of the body

Question 18

Broca’s area

Answer 18

The speech area on the left frontal lobe side of the cortex (the inferior frontal gyros)

Question 19

Clinical method

Answer 19

The technique that Broca used. It involves first determining a behavior disorder in a living patient and then, after the patient had died, locating the part of the brain responsible for the behavior disorder

Question 20

Differential threshold

Answer 20

The amount that stimulation needs to change before a difference in that stimulation can be detected

Question 21

Doctrine of specific nerve energies

Answer 21

Each sensory nerve, no matter how it is stimulated, releases an energy specific to that nerve

Question 22

Formal discipline

Answer 22

The belief that the faculties of the mind can be strengthened by practicing the functions associated with them.Thus, one supposedly can become better at reasoning by studying mathematics or logic

Question 23

Just noticeable difference (jnd)

Answer 23

The sensation that results if a change in stimulus intensity exceeds the differential threshold

Question 24

Kinesthesis

Answer 24

The sensations caused by muscular activity

Question 25

Method of adjustment

Answer 25

An observer adjusts a variable stimulus until it appears to be equal to a standard stimulus

Question 26

Method of constant stimuli

Answer 26

A stimulus is presented at different intensities along with a standard stimulus, and the observer reports if it appears to be greater than, less than, or equal to the standard

Question 27

Method of limits

Answer 27

A stimulus is presented at varying intensities along with a standard (constant) stimulus to determine the range of intensities judged to be the same as the standard

Question 28

Negative sensations

Answer 28

According to Fechner, sensations that occur below the absolute threshold and are, therefore, below the level of awareness

Question 29

Panpsychism

Answer 29

The belief that everything in the universe experiences consciousness

Question 30

Perception (Helmholtz)

Answer 30

According to Helmholtz, the mental experience arising when sensations are embellished by the recollection of past experiences

Question 31

Personal equations

Answer 31

The idea that different observers have different reaction times, which can introduce biases when it comes to the measurements and observations

Question 32

Phrenology

Answer 32

The examination of the bumps and depressions on the skull in order to determine the strengths and weaknesses of various mental faculties

Question 33

Physiognomy

Answer 33

The attempt to determine a person’s character by analyzing his or her facial features, bodily structure, and habitual patterns of posture and movement

Question 34

Principle of conservation of energy

Answer 34

The energy within a system is constant; therefore, it cannot be added to or subtracted from but only transformed from one form to another

Question 35

Psychophysics

Answer 35

The systematic study of the relationship between physical and psychological events.

Question 36

Reaction time

Answer 36

The period of time between presentation of and response to a stimulus

Question 37

Resonance place theory of auditory perception

Answer 37

The tiny fibers on the basilar membrane of the inner ear are stimulated by different frequencies of sound. The shorter the fiber, the higher the frequency to which it responds

Question 38

Sensation

Answer 38

The rudimentary mental experience caused when sense receptors are stimulated by an environmental stimulus

Question 39

Two-point threshold

Answer 39

The smallest distance between two points of stimulation at which the two points are experienced as two points rather than one

Question 40

Unconscious inference

Answer 40

According to Helmholtz, the process by which the remnants of past experience are added to sensations, thereby converting them into perceptions

Question 41

Vitalism

Answer 41

Vitalism is the belief that living organisms possess a unique life force or vital force that distinguishes them from non-living matter. It suggests that this force is responsible for the characteristic properties of life and cannot be fully explained by physical and chemical principles alone. While historically influential, vitalism is no longer widely accepted in modern scientific thought.

Question 42

Weber’s law

Answer 42

Just noticeable differences correspond to a constant proportion of a standard stimulus

Question 43

Young-Helmholtz theory of colour vision

Answer 43

Separate receptor systems on the retina are responsive to each of the three primary colors: red, green, and blue–violet. Also called the trichromatic theory