Exam 1 Flashcards
Ablation
The surgical removal of body tissue, usually brain tissue for my purposes
When you are devoting all of your attention to one thing. Sort of the opposite of perception
apperception.
A statement that the posterior roots of the spinal cord controlled sensation where as the anterior roots controlled motor movement; sometimes considered an example of a “multiple”
Bell-Magendie Law
On the mind-body problem, someone (like descartes) who believes that mind and body are two separate and distinguishable essences.
Dualist
The mind and body are one in the same.
Monism
Branch of philosophy concerned with studying the nature of and the origins of human knowledge
Epistemology
Principle associated with Lashley, proposing that if some portion of the brain is destroyed, other areas will be able to serve the same function.
Equipotentiality.
Someone who believes that our experiences in it; school of thought associated with such british philosphers as Locke, Berkeley, and Mill
Empiricism
Philosophical school of thought, related to empiricism, which emphasizes the rules by which relationships between ideas and experiences are formed
Associationism
Idea that exists or can be deduced in the absence of direct experience, through reasoning
Innate idea
For Descartes these were ideas that result one’s experiences in the world.
Derived Ideas
Point where the difference between two stimuli becomes just barely noticeable.
JnD
Concerns the issue of whether specific parts of the brain have specific functions
Localization of Function
Philosophical position that the only reality is physical reality and that living matter can be reduced to physical and chemical properties; held by most physiologist of the 19th century; opposed to vitalism
Materialism
Principle associated with Lashley, proposing a limit on equipotentiality; the greater the amount of brain destroyed the greater the difficulty for remaining areas of the brain to take over brain function
Law of Mass Action
Name given to the 19th century to reaction time research, in which the goal was to measure the time taken for various mental events.
Mental Chronometry
Consonant-Vowel-Consonant combinations, invented by Ebbinghaus as stimulus materials in his studies on the formation and retention of associations
Nonsense Syllables.
Calibrating the reaction of one astronomer against another; needed because different reaction time among astronomers yielded different astronomical measurements.
Personal Equation
The first serious localization of function theory; proposed that “faculties” were located in specific brain locations, that the strength of a faculty was proportional to the amount of brain assigned to it and that faculties could be assessed by measuring skull contours
Phrenology
Portion of the brain selected by Descartes as the locus of mind-body interactions
Pineal Gland
For Locke, attributes of some object that are inherent to that object that exist regardless of perception
Primary Qualities
For Locke, attributes of some object that depend on perception for their existence
Secondary Qualities
Study of the relationship between physical stimuli and the perception of those stimuli; pioneered by Weber and Fechner
Psychophysics
Philosophical tradition emphasizing the use of reason and logic to arrive at the truth; associated with Descartes
Rationalism
For Locke, ideas resulting from sensory experience or simple reflection
Simple Ideas
For Locke, Ideas that were combinations of simple ideas
Complex ideas
Doctrine proposed by Bell and Muller that different sensory Nerves convey different qualities; pointed out that we perceive the world indirectly through the action of our nervous system
Specific Nerve Energies
Locke’s term from Aristotle, fort he nature of the mind at birth; knowledge acquired through experience is analogous to writing on this white paper
Tabula Rasa
As stimulus A increases in intensity, it takes progressively larger differences between stimulus A and stimulus B for a person to detect a difference between the two; the jnd divided by the size of the standard stimulus is a constant
Weber’s Law/Ratio
A field of psychology that doesn’t really exist today it was founded by Wundt and its main focus is to study higher order thinking among cultures
Volkerpsychologie
Also known as sensory aphasia, It is a disorder characterized by the inability to comprehend speech, and although there is no difficulty producing speech, the speech product is incoherent or illogical.
Wernicke’s Aphasia
Also known as motor aphasia. Found in Broca’s patient Tan; speech apparatus is normal, their intelligence is normal, but the suffer a serious inability to express ideas verbally
Broca’s aphasia
I think therefore I am, the one idea that Descartes could not doubt. Sort of the credo of rationalism
Cogito ergo sum
A philosophical position that all events in the universe have a prior cause
Determinism
The idea that we have the power to choose, that nothing is determined
Free Will
S = k * logr
Or
Mental Sensation is equal to Weber’s ration multiplied by the logarithm of physical intensity
Fechner’s law
The idea that the earth is in the center of the universe
Geocentrism
The idea that the sun is in the center of the universe
heliocentrism
the belief that material things have no objective existence
Immaterialism
The idea that each neuron is a separate unit, not physically connected with other units but merely in contact with them. Cajal proposed this first
Neuron Theory
Psychological events and physiological events happened separately but at the same time. This belief goes against interactionism. It was proposed by David Hartley
Psychophysical Parallelism
Proposed by Golgi. The neurons are all interconnected. They are physically touching. There is no gap!
Reticular Doctrine
The idea that there is some unknowable force to life, usually some holy force.
Vitalism
The belief that the world is like a machine, with proper study you can figure out everything you want to know about it
Mechanism
actions that are controlled by the will which requires an intact brain. Idea from Robert Whytt
Voluntary Actions
action that is controlled by the spinal cord. Idea from Whytt
Involuntary actions
This philosopher gave us the Allegory of the Cave
Aristotle
Should be remembered for his work with Specific Nerve energies because he truly found that first, instead he is recognized for a law he was completely wrong about
Charles Bell
Applied the scientific method to studying sight. He learned that We do not see objects directly, rather we make judgments about them based on visual information.
Berkeley
These two found localization of function within the brain by looking at people who’d suffered from strokes.
Bouillaud & Aubertin
Brought attention to the localization of speech in the brain. He had the patient who could only say “tan”
Broca
The founder of the Neuron theory. With the use of the golgi stain he argued that neurons were separate units that were not physically touching.
Cajal
A famous rationalist in who came up with Cogito ergo sum: I think therefore I am. He proposed that you can only believe that which you cannot doubt.
Descartes
Famous for studying memory in a scientific way. He found a way to quantify memory, And figured out some ways to quantify intelligence.
Ebbinghaus
A big fan of Weber he took the idea that we do not perceive our world directly as it is and he found a way quantify just how off our perception is. He discovered the JnD
Fechner
They found the primary motor cortex. In the very back of your frontal lobe.
Fritsch & Hitzig
The man who had a metal rod go through his frontal lobe and he lived, thus teaching us about the function of the frontal lobe
Phineas Gage
Most important contribution for our purposes was the experimental method.
Galileo
The phrenology guy, but he also figured out that the brain had white matter and gray matter. He also explained what the corpus callosum did.
Gall (Franz)
The frog leg guy.. He finds that nerves use electricity to make muscles contract
Galvani
He found a way to stain neutrons, and with the neurons he stained he determined that neurons were interwoven, and that they physically touched, he would be wrong
Golgi
This guy was a dualist but instead of buying into interactionism like Descartes, he proposed a stance known as psychophysical parallelism
Hartley (David)
A physiologist who proved once and for all the the heart was just a pump, it was not making life.
Harvey (William)
This physiologist figures out how often our nerves fire and learns about things like the all-or-nothing principles, refractory periods of nerves, the Trichromatic theory of color perception, and a bunch more about the eye
Helmholtz
He tried to map the human experience in terms of basic elements, like in chemistry. He thought there were two elements: Ideas and Impressions
Hume (David)
This man argues the psychology cannot be a science, because we cannot quantify the mind. This man gets proven wrong… a lot
Kant (Immanuel)
This man searched for the engram, or the center for all memory in the brain. He did this by ablating parts of mice’s brains and having them run a maze to see if they’d forgotten it
Lashley (Karl)
One of the most influential british empiricist, gave us the idea of the tabula rasa
John Locke
Using a six week old puppy :’( he exposed the spinal cord and cut the posterior fibers while leaving the spinal cord intact. He sutured the wound and watched the animal. by doing this he found out that the anterior root of the spinal cord controlled motor responses, and that the posterior root controlled sensory responses
Magendie
Elaborated on the specific energies doctrine and developed it more fully.pointed out in addition to making a point between different sensory qualities that in perception we are not directly aware of the external world. We are only aware of the action of our nervous system, which conveys the world to us.
Johannes Muller
While he’s best known for defining the 3 laws of motion, he also studied light and how we perceive color.
Sir Isaac Newton
This guy figured out that cortex had some inhibitory effects. And that excitatory and inhibitory efforts within the nervous system wok together closely. He coined the term “synapse”
Sherrington
He figures out perceptual thresholds and has a law named after him concerning the jnd
Weber
This german neurologist worked with those who suffered from sensory aphasia. They effected area is named after him
Wernicke
He studied decapitated animals (mostly frogs) and he showed that muscle movement was still possible after death.
he thought Voluntary actions are controlled by the will which requires an intact brain and involuntary action is controlled by the spinal cord
Robert Whytt
She used the british empiricist ideas to promote women’s rights. If everyone is born a blank slate, then how could men possibly be superior to women. It’s just the simple fact that they send boys to school and not girls that makes them smarter
Mary Wolstonecraft
The father of modern Psychology
Wilhelm Wundt
