Hist & Syst Exam 4 Ch. 12 Flashcards
Physiology
Helmholtz
Gall and Spurzheim
Purkinje: Purkinje shift (description, findings, methodology significance)
Psychophysics
Weber: two-point threshold (description, findings, significance)
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Fechner: just noticeable difference (description, definition)
Evolution
Darwin Mendel Spencer Galton Evolution theory
SG: Helmholtz: speed of a nerve impulse (description, phenomena measured)
Measured Reaction Time
Inspired by muller, but argued against him in saying that the speed of a neural impulse could be measured.
SG: Gall and Spurzheim: phrenology (description, definition)
- Studied skull contours
- Attempted to find physiological localization of mental faculties
SG: Purkinje: Purkinje shift (description, findings, methodology significance)
- Methodologies of subjective experience
o Allowed subjective experience - Shift: in light adaptation
o Difference between scotopic (low light) and photopic (full light) vision in light-dark adaptation
o “relative luminosity of colors in faint light differs from that in full light
SG: Psychophysics: significance of movement for psychology
- Emphasized subjective experience in study of relationship between physical stimuli and sensations
- Integrity of sensory experience is not completely reducible to physics and biology
- Precursor to psych as natural science (modern psychology)
SG: Weber: two-point threshold (description, findings, significance)
- Smallest distinguishable distance between two points on skin
- Objective measure of subjective experience
SG: Fechner: just noticeable difference (description, definition)
- Minimum detectable change in stimulus activity
- When do you discern that there are two points rather than one; what is the threshold
- JND is Weber’s law derived by Fechner
- His work is opposed to materialism
o Followed Spinoza – “double aspectism”
SG: Darwin: theory of evolution (empirical method, chance variation of species)
Evolution by natural selection
- “Multiply, vary, let the strongest live and the weakest die”
- Environment selects and the organism either adapts or doesn’t
- Survive and propagate
SG: Mendel: genetic theory (findings, significance)
- Father of genetics
- Laws of inheritance
o Proposed genetic theory that provided support for
SG: Spencer
applied Darwin theory to culture; not only you inherit genes but associations as well
SG: Galton
mental inheritance; mental testing can measure intelligence which is passed on genetically
SG: Evolution theory: impact (significance for psychology)
- Completion of “Copernican revolution”
- Not only not the center of universe, only a moving part
- Allowed for the formal study of psych to emerge as a discipline
Physiology of the nervous systerm
Bell-Magendie law; Johannes Muller; Luigi Galvani; Emil DuBois-Reymon; Helmholtz
Bell-Magendie Law
Bell-Magendie distinguished between sensory and motor nerves. They discovered that posterior roots of the spinal cord (dorsal) contain sensory fibers only, whereas anterior roots (Ventral) contain motor fibers.
Johannes Muller
Inspired by Bell-Magendie.
“Handbook of human physiology”
Muller fully articulated Bell-magendie’s doctrine of specific nerve energies and created 10 laws for neural transmission.
Nervous system is intermediary between sensed objects and the mind: we are aware of our neural responses, not environmental objects directly.
Luigi Galvani
Experiments with frogs and electricity to see the electrical properties of nerve transmission. Belief of animal electricity.
This was a use of measurement.
Emil DuBois-Reymond
Broke away from idea of “animal spirits” and described the electrical properties of the neural impulse.
Studied Neuroanatomy
Proposed modern basis for electrical nature of nerve transmissions.
Physiology of the Brain
Golgi & Cajal; Gall & Spurzheim; Rolando and Broca; Flourens; Sherrington
Golgi & Cajal
Esteemed for their neuroanatomical techniques.
Empirically studied nerve cells under a microscope and discovered neurons through examination of stained neural structures.
Gall & Spurzheim
Studied Phrenology. Inspired by Wolff and Kant and looking for a physiological location of mental faculties.
Luigi Rolando & Pierre-Paul Broca
Against phrenology, instead used pathological observations to look for physiological location of the brain function. (E.g., Broca’s Aphasia)
Pierre Flourens
Clear study of phrenology using “extirpation”. Removed parts of an animals brain to determine 6 main areas:
- Cerebral Hemispheres (Willing, judging, memory, seeing, and hearing)
- Cerebellum (Motor coordination)
- Medulla Oblongata (Mediation of sensory and motor functions)
- Corpora quadrigemina (vision)
- Spinal Cord (Conduction)
- Nerves (Excitation)
Charles Sherrington
Inspired behaviorist psychology.
Established the foundations of neurophysiology.
Discovered inhibitory and exhibitory actions at the synapse.
Physiology of Sensations
Thomas Young; Jan Purkinje
Thomas Young
Studying eyes from stimulus and response.
Developed a theory of color vision.
Helmholtz built off of this and it became a Young-Helmholtz theory
Jan Purkinje
Looked at subjective experiences in studying.
Difference between scotopic (low light) and photopic (full light) vision in light-dark adaptation.
Said subjective phenomena can be an appropriate tool to study for objective bases.
Because he used both subjective experience and the physiological, it paved the way for psychophysics which paved the way for psychology.
Psychophysics
Subjective experience in study of physical stimuli and sensations, but sensory experience is more than biology.
Weber; Fechner; Helmholtz
Weber*
“On Touch: anatomical and physiological notes”
3 manifestations of sense of touch: Temperature, pressure, and locality sensations.
For pressure he had a “two-point threshold” to measure the skin’s sensitivity: used a two-point compass to measure the smallest detectable distance between two points of sensitivity, and he said this distance was different with different stimulations. Also led him to be studying weight discrimination.
Goal of objective measure of subjective state.
Fechner*
Relationship between sensation and perception.
Attack on materialism.
Limen: Threshold.
Absolute threshold: means a quantitative expression that refers to the minimal amount of physical energy needed in a stimulus for it to be detected by the observing subject. Second meaning of threshold: the minimal amount of change in physical energy required for sensory detection.
Weber’s law:
The ratio of the change in stimulus value to the absolute value of the stimulus is equal to a constant.
This constant is what Weber calls the “Just Noticable a.k.a. the minimum detectable change in stimulus intensity. Difference”
Know how to write this formula out.
Inner and outer psychophysics
Helmholtz
“Handbook of the physiology of optics”
Measured speed of a nerve impulse.
Theory of hearing involved transverse fibers of the basilar membrane acting as tonal analyzer’s and selectively responding to varying tonal frequencies.
Doctrine of Unconscious Inference: Experiences explain perceptions, but perception is more than sensory physiology. It is clearly a mental construct.
Evolution:
Completion of Copernican Revolution; Precursor for a scientific Psychology.
Lamarck & Erasmus Darwin; Darwin; Mendel; Spencer; Galton
Erasmus Darwin & Lamarck
Darwin inspired by Lamarck who said changes in animals occur through the efforts of species to adapt to its environment.
Charles Darwin
Unpaid naturalist on the Beagle in the British Admiralty under Robert Fitzroy.
Species variation occurs by chance., not adaptive effort of the animals.
Survival of the fittest and natural selection.
Mendel
Monk. Inspired by Darwin
“Experiments on Plant Hybridization”
Founded study of genetics which was in support of natural selection.
Herbert Spencer
Inspired by Darwin
Evolutionary Associationism.
We as humans have inherited acquired associations and dispositions that are passed down.
Francis Galton
Grandson of Erasmus Darwin through 2nd wife! Said we can study inheritances of mental abilities through testing.
