lecture 2 Flashcards
what are the 4 different levels of Behavioral Neuroscience
- functional
- ontogenetic
- evolutionary
- physiological
what does functional mean
WHY a structure/behavior evolved
what does ontogenetic mean
HOW a structure/behavior develops
what does evolutionary mean
relating a structure or behavior across species (similar to comparative biology)
what are the 3 types of evidence?
- correlational
- casual (or sufficient, experimental)
- necessary
what does physiological mean
HOW the nervous system functions and is responsible for a
given mental process/behavior
what is correlational data?
noticing two variables are correlated with each other
what is a mistake people make with correlational data?
forgetting a 3rd variable (ex: population… there are so many pubs and churches because of big population)
what is casual data?
Getting rid of third variable (ex socioeconomic status) and randomly assigning people into groups to see if that approach has actual evidence
what is necessary evidence?
without it you CANT have the phenomenon
area x is needed to see colors… if i take out area x from you then area x is NECESSARY for color vision
EXAMPLE: songbirds
what is the functional, ontogenetic, evolutionary, and physiological account for their singing?
functional:
- attract females to reproduce, defend territory, high pitch sound is not heard by prey
ontogenetic:
- baby songbirds need to learn song from adult male songbirds (don’t correctly sing songs if away from adult male)
evolutionary:
- songbirds that are close on the evolutionary tree have similar songs
physiological:
- two nuclei (cluster of neurons) in the hippocampus: CNHV and RNA (sexually dimorphic nuclei)
- those two nuclei are larger in male songbird than female songbird
what are 2 manipulations of these two sexually dimorphic nuclei in the hypothalamus
- injecting testosterone into female songbird and increases size of 2 nuclei (females can now sing) - casual evidence
- damaging the nuclei in male songbirds (makes males to not sing anymore) - necessary evidence
what are the levels of psychology
Social Psychology: How do social pressures influence speech?
Cognitive Psychology: Does expectation or context affect
language
Developmental Psychology: How and when does language develop?
Is there a critical period for the acquisition of language?
Behavioral Neuroscience: What explains the production and comprehension of language?
