Kafli 2 - Physiology (lífeðlisfræði), psychophysics (skynfræði) and the science of mind

Question 1

Hippocrates

Answer 1

• One of the first to recognise the brain as playing a particulary important role in thought and behaviour. He had the quote: “men ought to know from nothing else than the brain comes joy, laughter….”

Question 2

Descartes

Answer 2

• He believed that the body and the mind are separate entities

Question 3

Helmholtz

Answer 3

• His methods showed that with sufficient creativity one could measure things that had previously been considered impossible to measure.
• He had the eye theory of colours.
• He used a Frogs leg for experiment
• He also had his own theory (place theory) of pitch perception, one of two major such theories proposed in the 19th century.

Question 4

Weber

Answer 4

• The sensation of touch.
• He described our sense of touch as being divided into three dimensions.
  1. Where on the body
  2. Pressure of the touch
  3. Temperature (hot or cold)
• JND: the smallest change in stimulus of some sort that we are able to detect. Is a ratio between the baseline value of the stimulus and the change in its value.

Question 5

JND

Answer 5

• Just noticeable difference
• The smallest change in stimulus of some sort that we are able to detect.
• Is a ratio between the baseline value of the stimulus and the change in its value.

Question 6

Fechners law

Answer 6

• Fechner had the insight that the ratio nature of the JND implied that we perceive intensity on a logarithmic scale.

Question 7

Perception of colour in vision

Answer 7

• Different colours reflect different lengths of waves of light.
• Thomas young was first to propose what’s known as a trichromatic theory of colour vision, in the early 19th century.
• He proposed components sensitive to three colours, red, blue and yellow.
• James Maxwell supported the idea, but his results suggested that green was one of the key colours, instead of yellow.

Question 8

Ewald Herning

Answer 8

• Ewald Hering’s theory known as the opponent process theory, is based on the idea that there are three unique components that contribute to our sensation of colours.

Question 9

Ewald Herning

Answer 9

• Ewald Hering’s theory known as the opponent process theory, is based on the idea that there are three unique components that contribute to our sensation of colours.
• He suggested that these components consisted of opposing pairs of colours, yellow and blue, red and green, black and white.

Question 10

Place theory

Answer 10

• It drew an analogy between the anatomy of parts of the inner ear, and the internal construction of a piano.
• Helmholtz

Question 11

Frequency theory

Answer 11

• Rutherford
• Pitch was percieved on the basis of a relationship between the frequency of sound-waves, and the rate of firing of nerves in the auditory system. (lower pitched sounds were associated with lower frequency firing).

Question 12

Brain psychology

Answer 12

• Hippocrates and contralateral organisation
• Descartes and the pineal gland
• Generalisation vs localisation of function (flourens, Broca, hitzig, Fritsch).
• Muller and the law of specific nerve energies.
• Helmholtz and the speed of nerve conductance.

Question 13

Sensory perception

Answer 13

• Young/Maxwell/helmhotlz trichromatic theory of colour
• Herings opponent process theory.
• Helmholtz (place) and rutherfords(frequency) theories of pitch perception

Question 14

Müller

Answer 14

The law of specific nerve energies.