History of Physiological Psychology

Question 1

Franz Gall (Mid-1700s-early 1800s)

Answer 1

phrenology

Question 2

Pierre Flourens(early 1800s)

Answer 2

first to study functions of sections of the brain; used extirpation (mostly in pigeons) to study behavioral effects of removing parts of the brain (also called “ablation”); discovered that while parts had specific functions, removal of one part weakens whole brain

Question 3

William James (1842-1910)

Answer 3

Believed it important to study how mind functions in adapting to the environment (early functionalism)

Question 4

John Dewey (1859-1952)

Answer 4

his article in 1896 directly led to inception of functionalism (breaks process of reacting to stimulus into discrete parts); Dewey believed that psych should study organism as a whole

Question 5

Paul Broca (1860)

Answer 5

Examined behavioral deficits of people with brain damage, demonstrated that specific functional impairments could be linked with specific brain lesions –> Broca’s area

Question 6

Phineas Gage (injured in 1848)

Answer 6

Became unpredictable, profane, intolerant; prefrontal cortex functioning

Question 7

Johannes Müller

Answer 7

identified law of specific nerve energies; each sensory nerve is excited by only one kind of energy (ex. vibration of air, light)

Question 8

Hermann von Helmholtz

Answer 8

first to measure speed of a nerve impulse; often credited with transition of psychology into a natural science

Question 9

Sir Charles Sherrington

Answer 9

first inferred existence of synapses; thought, however, that synaptic transmission was electrical (but it’s primarily chemical)