History Flashcards
Why is History Important?
“Those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it”
Presentist Bias
Tendency to analyse past ideas in terms of the present
Zeitgeist
Spirit of the times
Ibn Al-Haytham
Founder of psychophysics and experimental psychology
Historical Truth
- Requires interpretation
- We have to believe someone
Wilhelm Wundt
- Structuralism
Weber’s Law
- Change in a stimulus that will be just noticeable is a constant ratio of the original stimulus
- If 5 gram is the noticeable difference between 100 and 105 grams, then for 1000 gram, it will be 1050 gram
- Hence, Weber Fraction is 5/100
Introspection
- Study the structure of the mind and consciousness
- Mental elements make up our conscious experience
Structuralism
- Understanding what makes up the mind
- Problem is can’t divide current thoughts to analyse them to little building blocks
- Problem is stream of consciousness
Trypanon
- Drill turned by hand into skull
- Treat mental illness by letting out “evil spirits”
- Treat fractures and headaches
Brain
Neuro-biological processes that generate mental processes
Mind
- All subjective experiences
- Individual perceptions, memories, incentives
Behaviour
Wide variety of actions that can be observed
Egypt
- Heart was the seat of the soul
- Feelings and thinking came from heart not the brain
- The brain was discarded
Edwin Smith Papyrus
The seat of the soul was clearly different than the source of our behaviour
3 Cell Theory
- Cell 1 is the collection of information from sense
- Cell 2 is cognition and thinking
- Cell 3 is memory
Paul Broca (1824 - 1880)
Patient had brain lesion where he could understand but couldn’t speak
Karl Wernicke (1848 - 1905)
- Patient had brain lesion
- Speech production was intact but language comprehension was gone
Phrenology
- Franz Josef Gall and his student Spurzheim
- If you had a bump on your head, you were more specialised in that area
Phinnias Gage
Stick went through his skull and brain and personality changed
Lobotomy
Incision into the prefrontal lobe of the brain of mental illness
Lay-Persons
68% of the 300 participants answered that psychologists can “read people’s mind”
Problem of Demarcation
Asking what is scientific and what is unscientific?
Clever Hans
- Horse that can count by tapping his feet
- See docs
Subliminal Perception
- Puts the thought in your mind without even being consciously aware.