Important terms/theories Flashcards
Mechanical theory about reflexes (Descartes)
Signal/sensation travels through nerves via brain back to the body part, leads to involuntary behavior –> Fout, pad is te lang!
Reflex arc (sensory and motor nerves) (Marshal Hall)
Sensory receptors –> via spinal cord –> interneuronen –> Motorneuronen –> motor command
Organology (Gall)
Difference in predisposition can be seen in cortical development (hersenen, schedelonderzoek, larger cortical area)
Cranioscopy (Gall)
Differences in cortical development can be seen in nodules of the skull (schedelknobbels, denk aan een talenknobbel)
Phrenology (Spurzheim)
Combination of organology and cranioscopy
Equipotentiality theory (Flourens)
Psychological functions are indivisible properties of the cortex as a whole (als je een deel van het brein afsnijdt nemen andere breidelen de functie over)
Reticularism (Golgi)
The brain and the bulding blocks of the brain are a continuous network
Cells that fire together, wire together / Long-term potentiation
The more often, the easier
Cells (neurons) grow towards each other (zo leer je dus bijv.)
Darwin’s localization theory brain
Evolutionary oldest in the lower part of the brain (reptielenbrein), evolutionary newest in the upper part of the brain (PFC)
Mesmerism (pseudowetenschap)
Believe in animal magnetism (=hypnoticism)
Spiritualism
Spirits influence the world around us
Computer analogy (Turing)
A psychological process (reasoning) can be done by a machine (the mind is software of the brain that is hardware)
Language Acquisition Device (Chomsky)
The LAD is an innate device with which you are able to learn language (according to Chomsky)
Computer analogy
Computer analogy: a psychological process (reasoning) can be done by a machine (the mind is software of the brain that is hardware)
Law of effect
Reward: behavior will be repeated
Punishment: behavior will be less/not repeated
Turing machine
Machine developed by Alan Turing.
This is a hypothetical machine that can simulate ANY computer algorithm, no matter how complicated.
Behaviorism
Positivism + Learning theory + Operationalism = behaviorism
A systematic approach towards understanding human behavior.
It assumes that behavior is an outcome of influences from environmental stimuli, your history, punishment and reinforcement (nothing you do is voluntary, there is no free will).
Aanhangers: Skinner, Pavlov, Thorndike, Watson
Animism
Universum verklaren met bovennatuurlijke dingen, zoals geesten (human-like spirits)
Protowriting
We don’t really see this as writing, though. Very simple writing (symbols didn’t stand for anything)
Pictograms
Symbols that represent sounds en phonograms (letters, geluiden, klanken)
Logographic
For every word there is a sign/logo (The word does not represent the cat itself, doesn’t look like it, just means cat, like the lettres ‘cat’)
Subitising
The ability to rapidly and accurately distinguish small entities (tellen basically)
Early on human could distinguish up to 3 entities
(also in tribes from nowadays (can count 1, 2 and many)
Grouping
Turfen (met 5) om tellen makkelijker te maken
Place coding system
Meaning of a sign depends not only on its shape, but also its position in series (required number 0) –> 142 (1 staat voor 100, 4 voor 40, 2 voor 2)
Ontology
Wat is het om te zijn, hoe zit de wereld in elkaar (ontologie –> being)
Epistemology
Wat is waar, kennis (epistemologie –> knowledge)
Aesthetics
Leer van schoonheid, waarom mooi/ waarom niet (esthetiek –> beauty)
Ethics
Wat is goed en wat is fout, normen en waarden (ethiek –> morality)
Panta Rhei
You never step into the same river twice (everything flows, no two things are the same)
Rationalism
Stroming, “Real knowledge derives from the ratio”.
Grotallegorie
By Plato: Je denkt dat de schaduwen de werkelijkheid zijn maar is niet zo, de waarheid is buiten dus die kennen mensen niet, als je mensen uitlegt geloven ze je niet. In de ideeënhemel is alles mooier. Je hebt wel de aangeboren kennis om tot dat vermogen te komen om de waarheid te zien want nativisme (believed in reincarnation in a way).
Tabula rasa
(Aristotle) Mensen komen als onbeschreven blad ter wereld (blank slate).
(Popular with John Locke and behaviorists as well)
Axioms
General laws that are no longer derived from other laws & are acquired through experience.
Syllogism
Argumentatie met p1, p2, c etc.
Stoa/Stoicism
(Zeno) Best to minimize your feelings, live by the reason and take the world as it is (Hond en paard metafoor)
Ultieme chillers, je moet het allemaal lekker laten gaan, geen zorgen maken.
Epicurism
(Epicurus) Happiness is the ultimate pursuit, living as balanced as possible to achieve this
- inspired Comte
Scepticism
(Phyrro) Doubt everything. No one can ever know for sure.
Inspired Descartes (I think therefore I am)
Inspired David Hume (problem of induction)
Inspired nowaday science (question everything in experiments i.e.)
Preliterate civilizations
civilizations before writing was invented.
Learning theory
(Hippo) People learn by prior experience, cognitive influences, emotional influences and environmental influences
(kind of behavioristic)
Problem of other minds
(Hippo) You don’t know if things appear to other (people’s) minds as they appear to us (i.e. my red can be your blue, although we all use the name “red”).
Ptolemeic/geocntric modal
Earth is the centre of the universe and planets and the sun orbits the earth.
Epicycli
(Kepler): circles moving on another big circle around the earth (lussen)
Explain retrograde movements of planets
Heliocentric model
The sun is in the middle of the universe, earth and other planets orbit the sun
Thought-experiment with a boat
When a boat sails, you don’t feel that it’s moving, because you move with the same speed and movement as the boat.
–> this is a metaphor for the turning of the earth
Thought-experiment with a ball (and boat)
If you drop a ball, it will (for you) look like it’s dropping in a straight line because you move with the same speed
–> this is the same with the earth turning
Idol of the tribe
(Bacon)
Whole human race: Thinking errors (denkfouten/biases) that people make
- Optical illusion(i.e. human urge to see patterns everywhere, even if they’re not there)
- Confirmation bias (people that have survived something think it’s because of God or maybe because of their compulsion/ritual)
Idol of the cave
Prejudices that you share with others your culture/group that share your interests and habits
- Majority bias
- Prejudices (racism)
Idol of the marketplace
Language, biases as a consequence of language
- Reification
- Looping effect
Reification
Because you have a word for something, it suddenly ‘exists’ (like depression, although you can’t physically see or touch it).
Looping effect
When you call someone depressive (in clinical psychology f.e.), that person will behave depressive.
Idol of the theatre
Fallacy/thinking error because of authority
- authority bias (“Socrates says it, so it must be real”)
Novum Organum
First methodology book, by Bacon
About how prejudice can be overcome by use of methodology.
Experiment fructifera
(fruitdragend) experiments to find practical solutions (how much water needed for these apples)
Experiment lucifer(a)
(lichtdragend) experiments to create clarity (mental, theoretical, deeper)
Crucial instances
Everything with an alternative explanation (verklaring) –> so actually almost everything
Principa mathematica
Exact theory by Newton about simpler maths, easier formula’s (made with a combination of Compernicus’, Galilei’s and Kepler’s ideas)
Positivism
A movement that believed you can only obtain authentic knowledge by using scientific methods, science).
So, religion and philosophy are inferior.
Rationalistic! (but also empirical because you have to be able to proof everything)
Comte was a supporter of positivism
Romanticism
Counter-movement of positivism.
Unconsciousness and intuitions are most important.
Humanities (geesteswetenschappen), folk science (instead of real science).
Science is not the answer, it’s deeper.
(Freud was a real romanticist, later in time).
Introspection
Looking inside, studying yourself and your own thoughts as a scientific method
Donders experiment
He found that choice was the longest reaction time, then recognition, then simple.
Structuralism
Mental states are built on basic properties (basale eigenschappen)
i.e.: fear is a combination of sweat, muscle tension and palpitations
Gestalt-psychology
Opposite of structuralism
“Het geheel is meer dan de som der delen”
Dividing the mind into different parts will not increase our understanding of the mind (see optical illusions)
Hollistic viewpoint
“Het geheel is meer dan de som der delen”
The full things is more than just the adding of the parts it consists of (like optical illusions)
Stream of thoughts
Experiences/ideas are always moving –> panta rhei
useless thing die, but not fear because fear increases our chance for survival
Functionalisme
We should focus on the function of psychological phenomena rather than the structure!
Facial feedback hypothesis
When you fake smile, you become happier i.e. (so using the same muscles as you would when smiling, will give the same happy feeling)
Binet-Simon test
Used to measure kids’ mental age. Kids solve small problems to measure this. Sum score used (first time!)
Doubt experiment
(Descartes)
The only thing that exists is my doubt (je kunt alleen niet twijfelen aan dat je twijfelt)
Je kan twijfelen aan waarneming en experimenten
You can be fooled by a malicious genius (like the matrix)
Cogito ergo sum
(Descartes)
“I think, therefor I am”
Interaction problem
How does an immaterial mind interact with a material body?
Esse est percepii
(Berkeley)
“To be, is to be perceived”
A-priori kennis categories
Causality, time, order, space
We use this innate knowledge to structure perception (a-priori knowledge + empirical perceptions = proof)
Because of this science is possible again (solves Hume’s problem)
