Lecture 2 - Pioneers in Psychology

Question 1

Describe the contributions of Helmholtz.

Answer 1

Bridged physiology and psychology Contrb’d to vision, color vision, law of conservation of energy, S&P theories, motion etc Said neural sigs travel faster than light

Question 2

How was the speed of neural signals discovered?

Answer 2

Helmholtz severed frog legs Stimulated one end of nerve and measured the arrival at the other end Found that the speed was 90 feet/second

Question 3

What is the 2 point threshold for touch sensitivity?

Answer 3

“How dense are nerve endings?” D0istance between 2 pts to distinguish reliably btwn the 2 Close pts feel like 1; must move them apart until feels like 2 Smaller distance indicates more dense nerve endings (face/lips)

Question 4

What is Weber’s Law?

Answer 4

The ratio of the amount of change necessary to notice a difference 2 weights - how much until it is noticed? (just noticeable difference)

Question 5

What did Fechner contribute?

Answer 5

Added a psychological component to Weber’s Law Brought more att’n to mind

Question 6

What is Wissenschaft? What came out of it?

Answer 6

German teaching philosophy of research, academic freedom and teaching Wundt’s research began under Wissenschaft education

Question 7

Describe Wundt’s contributions to psychology

Answer 7

Founder of scientific psychology Combined philosophy and physiology to develop psychology & create new scientific domain Principles of Physiological Psychology (1874) 1879 - developed the first psychology lab at Leipzig Developed Journal of Philosophical Studies Wrote 53k pages in his life

Question 8

What did Wundt say psychology’s goal was?

Answer 8

Discover facts of consciousness, as well as its combinations and relationships Ultimately discover laws which govern these relationships and combinations

Question 9

What was New Psychology?

Answer 9

Focus on higher mental processes - learning, thinking, language, culture Thru non-lab methods like observation and case studies And studying immediate conscious experience through experimental methods

Question 10

How did Wundt conduct experiments?

Answer 10

Self-observation and experimental studies

Question 11

What were the problems of Wundt’s methods?

Answer 11

Unsystematic Memory is faulty and influenced

Question 12

Describe Ebbinghaus’ memory methodology.

Answer 12

Produced nonsense syllables like TUV, ZOF, WAV Made random lists, studied them and tested self Very systematic, exact and thorough Began a new field of study

Question 13

What were Ebbinghaus’ findings?

Answer 13

Takes more repetitions to learn longer lists Least effort to memorize 7 syllables Performance is better if spread out Most forgetting occurs right after learning 50% w/in 40 min, 80% in 2 days, 90% after 30 days 2nd learning takes less time and repetitions But depends on how many repetitions in first learning

Question 14

Describe Kimura & Seal (2003).

Answer 14

Participants were given a nonsense world list, a verb list, and a concrete/abstract world list Findings showed that females > males for verb + concrete/abstract words But females = males for nonsense words Indicates that better female recall performance has something to do with the meaning attached to words

Question 15

Describe the contributions of James.

Answer 15

1890s - brought German ideas to Am Unis “Pope of new world” Wrote Principles of Psychology Extremely popular book, covered consciousness, S&P, assc’n, memory, reasoning and emotions Did not like lab work, suggested other methods like introspection and comparative methods Supervised Hall

Question 16

Describe the contributions of Hall.

Answer 16

Very passionate about psychology 1883 - opened first US experimental psychology lab at John Hopkins 1887 - Founded American Journal of Psychology 1889 - Went to Clark and founded another lab there Varied interests w/ no specific contrbs to any one field 1892 - Began APA 1909 - Brought Freud to US

Question 17

What is the Law of Conservation of Energy? Who developed it?

Answer 17

1847 - Helmholtz Energy within a system is constant even if changes occur

Question 18

What is the Trichromatic Theory? Who developed it?

Answer 18

Young & Helmholtz Eye has 3 color receptors - RGB Mixing them produces colors Stimulating all three = white

Question 19

What are problems with the Trichromatic Theory?

Answer 19

Works best at retinal level Cannot explain some types of color blindness

Question 20

What is the Opponent Process Theory? Who developed it?

Answer 20

Hering Color cells respond to opposing pairs Red-green, yellow-blue, black-white

Question 21

What is the Resonance Theory of Hearing? Who developed it?

Answer 21

1863 - Helmholtz Different sound frequencies detected by receptors in different areas of cochlea

Question 22

What is the problem of perception?

Answer 22

Hearing/seeing sensory systems are capable But the delivery is flawed eg) light waves, color, shape are distorted

Question 23

What is the Doctrine of Specific Energies?

Answer 23

Says that experience is central to perception because the nervous system mediates reality and the mind

Question 24

What contributed to the discovery/identification of neurons?

Answer 24

Powerful microscopes
Golgi - silver nitrate pictures of nerve cells
Cajal - foundation for modern neuron theory
Saw neuron as separate unit and improved Golgi stain

Question 25

What did Sherrington discover?

Answer 25

The existence of the synapse from spinal cord studies

Question 26

What is reciprocal innervation and who discovered it?

Answer 26

Sherrington
Muscles work together, controlled b the nervous system, to carry out complex actions like walking

Question 27

What is temporal summation?

Answer 27

Stimuli separated in time combine to produce a neural response

Question 28

What is spatial summation?

Answer 28

2+ points on skin are stimulation at same time

Question 29

What is the significance of summation?

Answer 29

Occurs where end points of neurons meet - the SYNAPSE

Question 30

What did Lashley contribute?

Answer 30

Looked at intelligence in an animal learning context, through rats in mazes and puzzle boxes

Said that learning is complex and old exp’ls were inadequate

Question 31

What were Lashley’s methods?

Answer 31

Rat mazes and ablation

Looked at effects on learning

Maze I -> III = simple -> complex mazes

Question 32

What did Lashley find?

Answer 32

As the % of damage increases, performance decreases depending on complexity of the maze

Rats are able to make cognitive maps of mazes

Maze learning is not connected to motor conditioning

Question 33

What is equipotentiality?

Answer 33

The capacity of any area to carry function of destroyed parts

Capacity varies by area

Argues against localization of function for learning

Question 34

What is the Law of Mass Action?

Answer 34

Efficiency of performing complex functions are reduced in proportion to brain injury

Question 35

Give a summary of advances in the 19th century in psychology.

Answer 35

1. Beginning - reflexes understood, but no neuron; phrenology was most advanced
2. End - sensory/motor nerves were discovered; neuron and synapse were identified; nervous system was being more understood