fundamentals exam 1 Flashcards
preliterate civilisation
civilisation before writing was invented
animism
explanation of the workings of the world and hte universe by means of spirits with human-like characteristics
pictogram
info conveying sign that consists of a pictureresemblig the person animal or object it represents
phonogram
sign that represents a sound or a syllable of spoken language;forms the basis of wriiting systems
logograph
sign representing a spoken word, whch no longer has a physical resemblance to the words meaning
scholastic method
study method in which students unquestioningly memorise and recite texts that are thought to convey unchanging truths
place coding system
system in which meaning of a sign not ony depends on its form but also on its position in a string
fertile crescent
region in the middle east with a high level of civilisation around 3000 BCE; included the ancient mesopotamian and the ancient egyptian civilisations
dark ages
name given in the renaissance to the middle ages, to refer to the lack of independent and scientific thinking in that age
renaissance
cultural mvement from the fourteenth to the seventeenth century based on a rediscovery and imitation of the classical greek and roman civilizations
protestant reformation
movement against the roman catholic church, which was important for the development of science, because it emphasised the need for education, critical thinking, hard work and wordly success
zeitgeist
word used in the history of science to indicate that the time was right for a certain discovery; the discovery did not originate from a single genius, but from a much wider development leading to the discovery
matthew effect
the tendency to give more credit to well-known scientist than they deserve, increases the perceived impact of these scientist
scientific revolution
name given to a series of discoveries in the seventeenth century, involving galilei descartes and newton that enhanced the stats of science in society
geocentric universe
model of the universe in which the earth is at the centre; was dominant until the seventeenth century
heliocentric model
model of the universe in which the sun is at the centre
dualism
view of the mind-body relation accoding to which the mind is immaterial and completely indpeendent of the body; central within religions and also in descartes philoshopy
mechanistic view
world view according to which everything in the material universe can be undertood as a complicated machine; discards the notion that things have goals and intentions as assumed by the animistic view; identified with descartes
principa mathematica
book in which newton presented his laws of physics 1687; consdered to be the primary reason for the increased status of science
deductive reasoning
form of reasoning in which one starts from observations and tries to reach general conclusions on the basis of convergences in the observations
inductive reasoning
form of reasoning in which one starts from observations and tries to reach general conclusions on the basis of convergences in the observations; is needed in science to turn observed phenomena into scientific laws, but does not guarantee that the conclusions are true
experimental history
method introduced by bacon in which th enatural philosopher extracts the truth from nature by active manipulation and examining the consequences in the intervention
industrial revolution
name to refer to the socioeconomic and cultural changes in the 19th century caused by the invention of machines; involved, among other things, the replacement of the labour of peasants and craftsmen by mass production in factories and the resulting massive relocation form the countryside to the towns
age of Enlightenment
name given to the western philosophy and cultural life of the 18th century, in which autonomous thinking and observation became advocated as the primary sources of knowledge, rather than reliance on authority
positivism
view that authentic kknowledge can only be obtained by means of the scientific method; saw religion and philosophy as inferior forms of explanation
hmanitie
academic disciplines that continued the traditional study of the ancient calssics, increasingly suplemented with teachings of contemporary literature and art
romantic movement
movement in the late 1700s to early 1800s that reacted against the mechanistic world view and the emphasis on the reaso preached by enlightenment ; it saw the universe as a changing organism and stressed everythng that deviated from rationalism; the individual, the irrational the imaginative, the emotional the natural and the transcendental
individualisation
trend in a society towards looser social relations and a greater focus by individuals on themselves than on the groups they belong to
epistemology
branch of philosophy concerned wiht the nature of knowledge
rationalism
view accoidng to which knowledge is obtained by means of reasoning; usually through dedctive reasoning on the basis of innate knowledge
empiricism
view according to whcih knowedge is obtained by means of perceptual experiences; usually involves the idea of associations between ideas to combine the individual preceptions ; also emphasis on inductive reasoning
idealism
view within philosophy that human knowledge is a construction of the mind and does not necessarily correspond to an outside world; the truth of knowledge idepends on the coherence with the rest of the knowlege in the social group
realism
view within philosophy that human knowledge tries to reveal real properties of the outside world; the truth of knowledge is determined by the correspondence of the knowledge with the real world
ontology
the study of the universe and its entities
natural thelogy
study of the gods
universal science
study of the axioms and demonstrations on which theoretical knowledge is based
introspection
research method in the psychology consisting of a person looking inward and reporting what he she is experiencing; usually done under controlled circumstances
physiognomy
belief that the personality of an individual can be ddeduced from their appeareance, in particular from the shape of the head and the face
psychophysics
part of psychological rsearch dealing with the relationship between physical stimuli and the corresponding sensation
mental chronometry
using reaction times to measure the time needed for various mental tasks; on the basis of a comparisn of different tasks, models of the mental processes involved in the tasks are postulated
historical method
one of the tree research methods introduced by wundt ; consists of studying the human mind by investigating the products of human cultures; according to wundt particularly well suited to investigate the higher functions of the mind
functionalists
nae given to an approach in early american psychology research, that examined the practical functions of the human mind inspired by the evolutionary theory
structuralism
name given by titchener to his approach to psychology, consiting of trying to discover the structure of the human mind by means of introspection/ mental states are thus built from basic properties
wurzburg school
group of psychologist who used introspection as a research method, but came to different conclusiosn from those of wundt and titchener; in particular they claimed that many thought pocesses were not available to introspection (imageless thoughts)
psychological treatment
treatment of mental health problems consiting of conversations between the patient and the therapist; initiated by freud as an alternative to the prevailing medical and educational treatments
spiritualism
belief that the spirits of the dead can be contacted by mediums; flourished in english speaking countires at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century
eugenics
social philosophy claiming that the fate of a nation can be improved by selective breeding of the inhabitants
phrenology
view that mental functions are localised in the brain and that the capacity of a function corresponds to the size of the brain part devoted to it; gave rise to personality assessment by means of analysing bumps on the skull; initiated by Gall and Spurzheim at the beginning of the 19th cnetury
anthropomorphic interpretation
interpreting behaviour of non-huma living creatures by attributing human motives and human like intelligence to them
law of effect
behavioural law introduced by thorndike o refer to the fact that behaviours followed by positive consequences are strenghtened and more likely to be repeated
instrumental conditioning
name introduced by thorndike to refer to learning on the basis of the law of effect; called operant conditining by skinner
comparative psychology
study of behaviour of animals, usually with the intention to shed light on human functioning within the framework of the evolutionairy theory.
behaviourism
movement in psychology arguing that observable behaviours are teh most important aspect fo human functioning to be understood; denies to various extents the relevance of information processing going on in the mind; particularly strong in the usa and the first half of the 20th cent
philosophy of science
branche of phiosophy that studies the foundations of scientific research, to better understand the position of scientific research relative to other forms of information acquisition and generation
operational definition
definition of a variable in terms of how the variable has been measured; allows description of the variable in quantitative form
verification
principle that up to the 1950s formed the core of the scientific method: a proposition was meaningufl (scientific) if its truth could be empirically verified
radical behaviourism
strong version of behaviourism, defended by skinner, which denies the relevance of information processing in the mind and holds that all human behaviour can be understood on the basis of S-R associations
purposive behaviourism
version of behaviourism, defended by tolman, which saw behaviour as goal-related (means to an end); agreed with other behaviourist that psychology should be based on observable behaviour
turing machine
basic (hypothetical) machine operating on the basis of Boolean logic and able to simulate the processing f more complex machines operating according to these principles
homunculus
word (meaning little man) used to refer to the difficulty of explaining goal-oriented behaviour without making snse of an ultimate intelligent (human like) control centre)
information feedback
mechanism in which the current performance level is compared to the desired end-state and the discrepancy is used to bringthe performance closer to the end-state aimed for; imortant for psychology because it explained a great deal of goal-directed behaviour that previously seemed to reqire a homunculus explanation
turing test
test described by Alan Turing, which involves a human interacting wiht a machine and another human without being able to discriminate the machine from the human; machines that pass the Turing test are seen as the goal of artificial intelligence
algorithm
list of instructions that converts a given input, via a fully defined series f intermediate steps, into the desired output
cognitive psychology
movement in pyshcology arguing that observable behaviours are the result of information processing in the mind; started in the 1950s and curently the dominant form of mainstream psychology
mental representation
information pattern in the mind representing knowledge obtained through obsrvation or the application of an algortihm; forms a realm separate from the brain and could in principle be copied to another brain
information processing
encoding mental representations, transforming them by means of algortihms, and integrating them with existing knowledge; forms the core of cognitive psychology
boxes-and-arrows diagram
flowchart outlineing the different information stores (boxes) and nformation transformations (arrows) involved in the execution of a particular task with observable input and output; used by cognitive psychologists to detail the information processing involved in the task
computational model
computer program simulating the human information processing assumed to be involved in the execution of a particular task; requires researchers to be much more precise about what is going on than in a boxes-and-arrows diagram
top-down processes
process by which information from a higher procesing stage is fed back to previous processing stages and influences the processing at these stages; found to be a helpful (and even essential) elemenet in many compputational models
edwin smith papyrus
papyrus from ancient egypt that contains short descriptions of the symptoms and treament of diffferent forms of brain injury; named after the person who bought the papyrus in egypt and had it analysed
animal spirits
spirits that were thought by galen to travel over the nerves between the ventricles in the brain and body
ventricles
apertures in the middle of the brain, which for a long itme were thought to contain perceptions, memories and thoughts; seat of the animal spirits
reflex arc
notion introduced in the 19th century to describe the processes underlying a reflex: a signal is picked up by sensory receptors, transmitted to the spinal cord through an afferent nerve, transferred to inerneurons, which activate motor neurons that send a motor command over an efferent nerve to initiate the withdrawal movement
brain equipotentiality theory
theory sayig that all parts of the brain have equal significance and are involved in each task; first thought to apply to the complete brain; sinc ethe 19th century limited to the cerebral hemispehres
localisation theory
theory saying that brain processes are localised, meaning that only part of the brain underlies a particular mental function
neurotransmitters
chemical substance used to communicate between neurons; is released from the synapse when a signal arrives through the axon; can be affected by drugs
representation
in whcih things are denoted with symbols and reltions between things are represented with relations between symbols
stoicism
it is best to minimize your feelings
epicureanism
happiness is the ultimate pursiuit, which you achieve by living your life as balanced possible
skepticism
refrain from judgment. Pyrrho : maintains that one can never know anythign for sure
ontology
what is the world like
epistemology
how do we know what’s true
aesthetics
what makes things beautiful and others ugly
ethics
what makes some deeds good and some bad
ptolemaic system
all celestial bodies orbit around the earth
idols of the tribe
fallacies that all humans commit, and that are inherent to human nature ex: seeing order nd regularity where there is none
idols of the cave
fallacies we commit because we belng to a certain culture, have certain interests and habits (and are not the same for all people)
idols of the marketplace
fallacies we commit because we can talk about things for ex: some words dont refer to anything like “witch”. language treats such nouns as if they do refer to existing things
idols of the theatre
fallacies we commit because we believe what authorities say
eeg
outcome of measurement of electrical brain activity by means of sensors placed on the scalp; routinely used in hospitals for the detection of epilepsy
erp
signal obtained by averaging the EEG signals to stimuli that are repeated a number of times; allows researchers to look for differences in the signal as a function of characteristics of the stimuli
meg
emasurement of electrical brain activity by means of measurement of the magnetic field around the head; is one of the most promising brain imaging techniques, because it has the potential of both a high temporal and spatial resolution
pet
brain imaging technqiue based on measurement of a radioactive tracer injected into the bloodstream
fmri
brain imaging technique based on the measuremnet of blod with oxygen vs blood without oxygen; currently the most populat imaging technique because of its high spatial resolutin (allows good localisation); ahs rather low temporal resolution (cannot trace what ishappening at a speed of hundreds of registrations per second)
tms
stimulation of a brain region by means of a coil placed on the head; allows temporary interference wiht the processing of a small part of the brain
induction
the genralization of observed cases to all cases
functionalism
the functions of emotions and psychological phenomena
operationalism
using theory-measurement-operationalization
cognitive revolution
chomsky convincingly shows the flaws of behaviourism. the computer analogy offers a new possibility for psychology: humans as infomration processing systems
evolution theory
suggests an explanation for the origin of species based on evolution with thwo simple principles: accidental mutation and natural selection
anthropometric laboratory
francis galton. visitors could participate as subjects and carry out a few simple reaction time tasks
willhelm wundt and his lab
founder of the first formal laboratory for psychology. experimental observation, introspection, historical method
reductionism
Reductionisme is de opvatting die stelt dat de natuur van complexe entiteiten steeds herleid kan worden tot meer fundamentele entiteiten
holism
is the idea that various systems (e.g. physical, biological, social) should be viewed as wholes, not merely as a collection of parts.
method of doubt
descartes, doubting all perceptions, in dreams things are also not true. “i think, therefore i am”= cogito ergo sum
problem of interaction
descartes; how does an immaterial substance (the mind) interact with a material one (the brain)?
induction problem
Hume’s induction problem is a threat to all kinds of knowledge. ex. i see flame and it has heat, therefore you think flame always has heat = a necessary connection. however, induction is a logically invalid form of reasoning: the conclusion does not follow from the premises
heliocentric model
copernicus developed an alternative model for the solar system. we orbit around the earth and we have a moon.
pantha rei
“everything flows” heraclitus. doubts whether something ever stays the same “no man every steps in the same river twice”
peripatetic principle
aristotle walked around while teaching in his lyceum
plato
rationalist, ideal forms, reason, nativism
aristotles
empericist, unwritten tablet, exerience
augustine hippo
unconsciousness
pyrrho
skepticism
ptolemaus
ptolemeic system=all orbits around the earth
copernicus
heliocentric model= all orbits around sun
galilei
relativity. locked up in church
bacon
father of empericism, scientific method > observation ; reasoning (idols), inductive methods for experimental
newton
scientific knowledge> mathematical laws
descartes
dualist, rationalisme, grondlegger filosofie, cogito ergo sum, method of doubt, problem of interaction, mechanistic view, concludes that there is a phycsical external world, concludes that rason must be the source of knowledge
locke
empericist “tabula rasa”, experience
berkeley
empericist, spiritualisme/dualisme, perceptions, assumes that all knowledge enters through the senses and blames it by god,
thomas reid
common sense
hume
empericist, causality (association), problem of induction, believes that all knowledge comes from experiences, causal relations cannot come from experience alone,
wolff
grondlegger introspection, rationalist & empericist
kant
rationalist and empericist, tegen introspection (not reliable because there is no distinction betwween the investiagor and the investigated, no mathematical properties, consciousness never constant), senses > understanding> reasoning
comte
positivism, against introspection (not objective)
wundt
laboratory structuralism, for introspection, important methods : experimental observation, introspection, historical method
titchener
for introspection, structuralisme
james
functionalism
bridgeman
concepts are reduced to measurements
pavlov
theories for human behaviour, classical cond
thorndike
cats in puzzle boxes
watson
behaviourism, no more introspection; only behavioural analyses in terms of reinforcement and punishment, a psych without consciousness
skinner
radical behaviourism
chomsky
nativist, rationalist
donders
first to come up with duration of mental processes. deducte the time needed for a task with only repetition from a task with repitiion and discrimination, basis for the study of mental processes through reaction time tasks
organology
differences in predisposition can be seen in cortical development: well developed function, larger cortical area
cranioscopy
differences in cortical development can be seen in nodules of the skull
dissolution
opposite of evoution
release from control
cortical areas could no longer control, lower areas were given free play
reticularism
the brain is a continuous network
psychosomatics
couldnt put into wors properly so they only expressed themselves with organ language : chronic depressed rage then led to hypertension
law of hierarchical structure
cortical areas have a dominant role in relation to secondary lower laying areas
law of diminishing specificity
further information is processed in the brain, the less specific, global and abstract it will be
law of progressive lateralization
the cortical hemispheres more functional lateralization can be found than in lower lying areas
vesalius
functional division: confirmed the three ventricles in the brain in the 16th century
galen
ontdekte dat brain is the behaviour and centre not the heart
brain myopia
premature accptance of biological explanations is risky
