Topic 1: Early Movements Flashcards
1
Q
Reaction Time
A
the period of time between presentation of and response to a stimulus
2
Q
Charles Bell (1774-1842)
A
discovered in modern times, the distinction between sensory and motor nerves
3
Q
Francois Magendie (1783-1855)
A
discovered, in modern times, the distinction between sensory and motor nerves
4
Q
Bell-Magendie Law
A
there are two types of nerves
sensory nerves carrying impulses from the sense receptors to the brain and motor nerves carrying impulses from the brain to the muscles and glands of the body
5
Q
Johannes Muller (1801-1858)
A
expanded the Bell-Magendie law by demonstrating that each sense receptor, when stimulated, releases an energy specific to that particular receptor
this finding is called the doctrine of specific nerve energies
6
Q
Doctrine of Specific Nerve Energies
A
each sensory nerve, no matter how it is stimulated, releases an energy specific to that nerve
7
Q
Emil Du Bois-Reymond (1818-1896)
A
considered to be the father of electrophysiology
like Helmholtz, he measured the rate of the nerve impulse
he also discovered the electrical nature of the action potential
8
Q
Adequate Stimulation
A
stimulation to which a sense modality is maximally sensitive
9
Q
Hermann von Helmholtz (1821-1894)
A
a monumental figure in the history of science who did pioneer work in the areas of nerve conduction, sensation, perception, color vision, and audition
10
Q
Vitalism-Materialism Debate
A
vitalist (such as Muller) maintain that life cannot be explained by physical processes alone
for materialists (such as Helmholtz), the same laws of physics and chemical processes account for both inorganic and organic matter
11
Q
Principle of Conservation of Energy
A
the energy within a system is constant
therefore, it cannot be added to or subtracted from but only transformed from one form to another
12
Q
Sensation
A
the rudimentary mental experience caused when sense receptors are stimulated by an environmental stimulus
13
Q
Perception
A
according to Helmholtz, the mental experience arising when sensations are embellished by the recollection of past experiences
14
Q
Unconscious Interference
A
according to Helmholtz, the process by which the remnants of past experience are added to sensations, thereby converting them into perceptions
15
Q
Young-Helmholtz Theory of Color Vision
A
seperate receptor systems on the retina are responsive to each of the three primary colors
red, green, and blue-violet
also called the trichromatic theory
16
Q
Resonance Place Theory of Auditory Perception
A
the tiny fibers on the basilar membrane of the inner ear are stimulated by different frequencies of sound
the shorter the fiber, the higher the frequency to which it responds
17
Q
Ewald Hering (1834-1918)
A
offered an atavistic explanation of space perception and a theory of color vision based on the existence of three color receptors, each capable of a catabolic process and an anabolic process
Hering’s theory of color vision could explain a number of color experiences that Helmholtz’s theory could not
18
Q
Christine Ladd-Franklin (1847-1930)
A
proposed a theory of color vision based on evolutionary principles
19
Q
Physiognomy
A
the attempt to determine a person’s character by analyzing their facial features, bodily structure, and habitual patterns of posture and movement
20
Q
Franz Joseph Gall (1758-1828)
A
believed that the strengths of mental faculties varied from person to person and that could be determined by examining the bumps and depressions on a person’s skull
such an examination came to be called phrenology
21
Q
Phrenology
A
the examination of the bumps and depressions on the skull in order to determine the strengths and weaknesses of various mental faculties
22
Q
Johann Kaspar Spurzheim (1776-1832)
A
a student and colleague of Gall, who did much to expand and promote phrenology
23
Q
Formal Discipline
A
the belief that the faculties of the mind can be strengthened by practicing the functions associated with them
thus, one supposedly can become better at reasoning by studying mathematics or logic
24
Q
Pierre Flourens (1794-1867)
A
concluded that the cortical region of the brain acts as a whole and is not divided into a number of faculties, as the phrenologists had maintained
25
Paul Broca (1824-1880)
found evidence that part of the left frontal lobe of the cortex is specialized for speech production or articulation
26
Clinical Method (Broca)
the technique that Broca used, it involves first demonstrating a behavior disorder in a living patient and then, after the patient had died, locating the part of the brain responsible for the behavior disorder
27
Broca's Area
the speech area on the left frontal lobe side of the cortex (the inferior frontal gyros)
28
Carl Wernicke (1848-1905)
discovered an are on the left temporal lobe of the cortex associated with speech comprehension
29
Wernicke's Area
the area on the left temporal lobe of the cortex associated with speech comprehension
30
Gustav Fritsch (1838-1927)
along with Hitzig, discovered motor areas on the cortex by directly stimulating the exposed cortex of a dog
31
Eduard Hitzig (1838-1907)
along with Fritsch, discovered motor areas on the cortex by directly stimulating the exposed cortex of a dog
32
David Ferrier (1843-1928)
created a more detailed map of the motor cortex than Fritsch and Hitzig had
he also mapped cortical areas corresponding to the cutaneous senses, audition, olfaction, and vision
33
Ernst Heinrich Weber (1795-1878)
using the two-point threshold and the just noticeable difference, he was the first to demonstrate systematic relationships between stimulation and sensation
34
Kinesthesis
the sensations caused by muscular activity
35
Two-Point Threshold
the smallest distance between two points of stimulation at which the two points are experienced as two points rather than one
36
Just Noticeable Difference (JND)
the sensation that results if a change in stimulus intensity exceeds the differential threshold
37
Weber's Law
just noticeable differences correspond to a constant proportion of a standard stimulus
38
Gustav Theodor Fechner (1801-1887)
expanded Weber's law by showing that, for just noticeable differences to vary arithmetically, the magnitude of a stimulus must vary geometrically
39
Panpsychism
the belief that everything in the universe experiences consciousness
40
Psychophysics
the systematic study of the relationship between physical and psychological events
41
Absolute Threshold
the smallest amount of stimulation that can be detected by an organism
42
Negative Sensations
according to Fechner, sensations that occur below the absolute threshold and are, therefore, below the level of awareness
43
Differential Threshold
the amount that stimulation needs to change before a difference in that stimulation can be detected
44
Methods of LImits
a stimulus is presented at varying intensities along with a standard (constant) stimulus to determine the range of intensities judged to be the same as the standard
45
Methods of Constant Stimuli
a stimulus is presented at different intensities along with a standard stimulus, and the observer reports if it appears to be greater than, less than, or equal to the standard
46
Method of Adjustment
an observer adjusts a variable stimulus until it appears to be equal to a standard stimulus
47
Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920)
the founder of experimental psychology as a seperate discipline and of the school of voluntarism
48
School
a group of scientists who share common assumptions, goals, problems, and methods
49
Will
according to Wundt, that aspect of humans that allows them to direct their attention anywhere they wish
because of this emphasis on will, Wundt's version of psychology was called voluntarism
50
Voluntarism
the name given to Wundt's school of psychology because of his belief that, through the process of apperception, individuals could direct their attention toward whatever they wished
51
Mediate Experience
experience that is provided by various measuring devices and is therefore not immediate, direct experience
52
Immediate Experience
direct subjective experience as it occurs
53
Elements of Thought
according to Wundt and Titchener, the basic sensations from which more complex thoughts are derived
54
Sensation
a basic mental experience that is triggered by an environmental stimulus
55
Feelings
the basic elements of emotion that accompany each sensation
Wundt believed that emotions consist of various combinations of elemental feelings
56
Tridimensional Theory of Feeling
Wundt's contention that feelings vary along three dimensions
pleasantness-unpleasantness, excitement-calm, strain-relaxation
57
Perception
mental experience that occurs when sensations are given meaning by the memory of past experiences
58
Apperception
a term Wundt borrowed from Herbart to denote the part of the perceptual field that the individual attends to
59
Creative Synthesis
the arrangement and rearrangement of mental elements that can result from apperception
60
Franciscus Cornelius Donders (1818-1889)
used reaction time to measure the time it took to perform various mental acts
61
Mental Chronometry
the measurement of the time required to perform various mental acts
62
Principle of the Heterogony of Ends
according to Wundt, the fact that goal-directed activity often causes experiences that modify the original motivational pattern
63
Principle of Contrasts
according to Wundt, the fact that experiences of one type often intensify opposite types of experiences, such as when eating something sour will make the subsequent eating of something sweet taste sweeter than it would otherwise
64
Principle Toward the Development of Opposites
according to Wundt, the tendency for prolonged experience of one type to create a mental desire for the opposite type of experience
65
Volkerpsychologie
Wundt's 10-volume work, in which he investigated higher mental processes through historical analysis and naturalistic observation
66
General Impression
the though a person has in mind before they choose the words to express it
67
Edward Bradford Tichener (1867-1927)
created the school of structuralism
unlike Wundt's voluntarism, structuralism was much more in the tradition of empiricism-associationism
68
Celestia Susannah Parrish (1855-1918)
a student of Titchener who is also noted for creating the first psychology laboratory in the southern United States
69
Structuralism
the school of psychology founded by Titchener, the goal of which was to describe the structure of the mind
70
Stimulus Error
letting past experience influence an introspective report
71
Context Theory of Meaning
Titchener's contention that a sensation is given meaning by the images it elicits that is, for Titchener, meaning is determined by the law of contiguity
72
Franz Clemens Brentano (1838-1917)
believed that introspection should be used to understand the functions of the mind rather than it's elements
Brentano's position came to be called act psychology
73
Act Psychology
the name given to Brentano's brand of psychology because it focused on mental operations or functions
act psychology dealt with the interaction between mental processes and physical events
74
Intentionality
concept proposed by Brentano, according to which mental acts always intend something
that is, mental acts embrace either some object in the physical world or some mental image
75
Phenomenological Methods
the type of introspective analysis that focuses on intact mental phenomena rather than on isolated mental elements
76
Carl Stumpf (1848-1936)
psychologist who was primarily interested in musical perception and who insisted that psychology study intact, meaningful mental experiences instead of searching for meaningless mental elements
77
Clever Hans Phenomenon
the creation of apparently high-level intellectual feats by nonhuman animals by consciously or unconsciously furnishing them with subtle cues that guide their behavior
78
Edmund Husserl (1859-1938)
called for a pure phenomenology that sought to discover the essence of subjective experience
79
Pure Phenomenology
the type of phenomenology proposed by Husserl, the purpose of which was to create a taxonomy of the mind
Husserl believed that before a science of psychology would be possible, we would first need to understand the essences of those mental processes in terms of which we understand and respond to the world
80
Mental Essences
according to Husserl, those universal, unchanging mental processes that characterize the mind and how it connects us with the physical environment
81
Oswald Kulpe (1862-1915)
applied systematic, experimental introspection to the study of problem solving and found that some mental operations are imageless
82
Imageless Thoughts
according to Kulpe, the pure mental acts of, for example, judging and doubting, without those acts having any particular referents or images
83
Wurzberg School
a group of psychologists under the influence of Oswald Kulpe at the University of Wurzberg
among other things, this group found that some thoughts occur without a specific referent (that is, they are imageless), the higher mental processes could be studied experimentally, and problems have motivational properties that persist until the problem is solved
84
Mental Set
a problem-solving strategy that can be induced by instructions or by experience and that is used without a person's awareness
85
Hermann Ebbinghaus (1850-1909)
the first to study learning and memory experimentally
86
Savings
the difference between the time it originally takes to learn something and the time it takes to relearn it
87
George Elias Muller (1850-1934)
considered one of the early pioneers or giants of experimental psychology
Muller worked in psychophysics, perception, and memory
88
Hans Valihinger (1852-1933)
contended that because sensations are all that we can be certain of, all conclusions reached about so-called physical reality must be ficitious
although fiction are false, they are nonetheless essential for societal living
89
How is early science and physiology related to psychology?
scientific achievements helped to address the question: by what mechanisms do empirical events come to be represented in consciousness?
everything from sense perception to motor reactions was studied intensely and gave birth to experimental psychology
90
How were objective and subjective differences measured experimentally?
early reaction-time study illustrated importance of individual differences and demonstrated the importance of discrepancy between objective and subjective reality
evident that there was not a point-to-point correspondence between physical reality and the psychological experience of that reality
researchers became interested in the physiology of the organism
91
What is the Bell-Magendie Law?
demonstrated that sensory nerves enter the dorsal roots of the spinal cord and motor nerves emerge from the ventral roots: separated nerve physiology into sensory and motor functions
significant because it demonstrated that specific mental functions are mediated by different anatomical structures
no longer possible to think of nerves as general conveyers of vibrations or spirits
sensory nerves carried impulses from sense receptors to the brain
motor nerves carried impulses from brain to muscles and glands
this suggested separate sensory and motor regions in the brain
92
Who was Johannes Muller?
demonstrated that each of the five types of sensory nerves results in a characteristic sensation
in other words, each nerve responds in its own way regardless of the stimulation which activated it
93
What is adequate stimulation?
each sensory system is maximally sensitive to a specific type of stimulation but may be stimulated by other forms of energy
there is a most adequate thing that stimulates each sensory nerve
94
What were early ideas of consciousness, sensations, and reality?
the central nervous system, not the physcial stimulus, determines our sensations
we can only experience our conscious experience
the world we experience --> Umwelt
if there is an intentional capacity where is it held?
95
Who was Luigi Galvani?
used electricity to elicit reflex action in the leg of a frog
final nail in the coffin for animal spirits
he can stimulate reflex action, so nerve can conduct electricity
still believed that he had isolated animal electricity that was transferred through fluid
96
Who was Emil DuBois Reymond?
established the modern basis of neural transmission
in describing electrical properties of neurons
97
What was Helmholtz's idea of the rate of nerve conduction?
measured the speed of nerve conduction, finding nerve conduction in humans to be between 165 and 330 feet per second
this provided further evidence that physical-chemical processes are involved in our interactions with the environment rather than some mysterious process
98
How was Helmholtz against vitalism?
disagreed with the concept of vitalism which states that life comes from a force beyond physical and chemical processes alone
because it was not physical, the "life force" was not conducive to scientific analysis
the materialist position (Helmholtz and others) stated that life could be explained in terms of physical and chemical processes and thus there is no need to exclude the study of life or anything else from the realm of science
though research he was able to demonstrate the application of the principle of conservation of energy to living organisms
99
What was early research on brain functioning?
toward the end of the 18th century, it was believed that a person's character could be determined by analyzing his or her facial characteristics
physiognomy: can understand individual personality through physical characteristics
100
Who was Franz Gall?
developed the first cohesive ideas about phrenology - the magnitude of one's faculties (in the mind) could be determined by examining the bumps and depressions on one's skull
101
Who was Johann Spurzheim?
popularized the practice of phrenology with books and demonstrations of its uses
translated Gall's work
lead to acceptance of it in the United States, seemed to offer a quick source of info
102
What is formal discipline?
several phrenologists claimed that particular faculties can become stronger with practice
a number of educators took this "mental muscle" approach by suggesting that practicing could make the faculties associated with a particular discipline stronger
103
What were the three classes of personality that were based on people's body types?
exomorphs: thin
mesomorphs: fit
endomorphs: fat
104
Who was Luigi Rolando?
critic of phrenology: looked more of the brain for a better explanation
research on cerebral hemispheres
electric impulses were more extreme higher in nervous system
105
Who was Pierre Flourens?
used the ablation method (destroying part of the brain and noting behavioral consequences) and investigated localization of function in the brain
findings were contrary to the phrenologists
observed that in some cases the function that was lost to an ablation was regained later
106
What were the six functional regions localized by Pierre Flourens?
cerebral hemisphere: sight, hearing
cerebellum: motor coordination
medulla oblongata: mediated all sensory and motor functions
corpus quadrigemina: vision
spinal cord: neural conduction
nerves: site of excitation
107
Who were Paul Broca and Carl Wernicke?
using the clinical method (observations in the clinical setting), they were able to localize language and communication functions in the brain
Broca's area: responsible for speech production
Wernicke's area: responsible for speech comprehension
108
What is electrophysiology?
Gustav Fritsch and Eduard Hitzig
using electrical stimulation of brain neurons, they found:
the cortex is not insensitive as previously thought
that when a certain area of the cortex is stimulated, muscular movements on the opposite side of the body are elicited, thus discovering the motor cortex
what would turn out later to be the sensory cortex was also discovered
109
Who was David Ferrier?
mapped out cortex and summed it in "Function in Brain"
there is some localization not in phrenological sense but much more specific
these findings and observations by other researchers extended the Bell-Magendie law to the brain
110
Who were Camillo Golgi and Santiago Ramon y Cajal?
discovery of the neuron
111
Who was Charles Sherrington?
focus on spinal cord neurology and reflex pathways
won the Nobel prize in 1932
trained many important neurophysiologists such as Eccles and Penfield
established basis for reflexology (responses to stimulation)
wrote highly influential text, influences behaviorism
set terminology for nyroscience
worked on reflex arc: looked at excitatory and inhibitory regions between nerves
112
What is the rise of experimental psychology?
by now, it was widely believed that conscious sensations were triggered by brain responses initiated by sense reception
but how are conscious mental events and the physiological processes of our sensory system related?
113
Who was Thomas Young?
developed a rudimentary theory of color vision that was built upon by Helmholtz
114
What was Helmholtz's theory of perception?
sensations are raw elements of experience and perceptions are sensations after given meaning by the person's past experience
to explain the transformation from sensation to perception dependent he relied on the ideas of unconscious inference of past experience
Helmholtz distinguished between sensation and perception
perception is giving meaning to sensation using previous experience
unconscious inference: relying on inference from past to convert what we experience into something we use
depth is because image is slightly different between eyes which we learn over time to mean depth
115
What was Helmholtz's theory of color vision?
devised a theory of color vision which proposed three types of color receptors corresponding to the three primary additive colors
the firing of these receptors in various combinations results in subjective color experiences corresponding to various wavelengths of light
116
What was Helmholtz's theory of auditory perception?
proposed a resonance place theory of auditory perception in which the pitches of sound we hear are determined to a great extent on where along the basilar membrane the most vibration is occurring in response to a sound vibration
117
What were Helmholtz's contributions to psychology?
the mind's task was to create a reasonably accurate conception of reality from various "signs" that it receives from the body's sensory systems; the mind is active
118
Who was Jan Purkinje?
employed a combination of experimentation and self-observation in his physiological research
Purkinje effect: luminosity of colors in dim light, twilight short wavelengths are brighter
discovered Purkinje cells and Purkinje fibers
phenomenology is study of conscious experiences
Purkinje integrated self-study and personalization
we need experiences and self-observations in physiological research
119
What was Hering's idea of space perception and color vision?
suggested that receptors for the eye provide information regarding depth: for Hering, space perception was an innate characteristic of the eye
proposed an alternative theory of color vision to Helmholtz: theory suggested receptors in the eye which respond in an opponent process manner, red-green, blue-yellow, and black-white
current view states that the Young-Helmholtz theory is correct at the retina level but that neural processes farther up in the system work in opponent process manners as Hering's theory proposed
120
Who was Christine Ladd-Franklin?
proposed a theory of color vision that was based on evolutionary theory and evolution of the physiology of the system
concluded that achromatic vision came first, then blue-yellow sensitivity, and finally red-green sensitivity
121
Who was Ernst Weber?
physiologist, touch and kinesthesis
first to demonstrate touch is made up of multiple senses (pressure, etc.)
122
What was Weber's idea of touch and kinesthesis?
investigated the sense of touch and mapped out the sensitivity of touch for the entire body using the two-point threshold: sensitivity ranged from the most sensitive on the tongue to least sensitive on the back
work in kinesthesis led to the determination of the just noticeable difference (jnd): the least amount of change necessary to notice a difference along a particular dimension between two stimuli
123
What is Weber's law?
determined that Weber's law - the finding that the amount of change necessary to notice a difference (jnd), is a constant fraction relating the stimuli
this was the first quantitive law in psychology, first mathematic law concerning physical things and psychology
124
Who was Gustav Fechner?
physicist, sensation, and perception
opposition to materialism
double-aspectist: saw mind and body as two sides of the same coin, they cannot be distinguished or pulled apart
125
What was The Adventures of Dr. Mises written by Fechner?
he couldn't critic mainstream, so used the name Dr. Mises to write hot takes
critiqued the common assumptions
argued for a perspective that emphasized conscious experience
126
What was Fechner's ideas of psychophysics?
interested in the relationship between the body and the mind: led him directly to the study of psychophysics
speculated that for mental sensations to change arithmetically, the physical stimulus must change geometrically
research and further mathematical workings with Weber's law resulted in Fechner's formula describing the relationship between the mental and physical
127
What is the JND as the unit of sensation?
other research included studies on:
the absolute threshold which is the lowest intensity at which a stimulus can be detected
the difference threshold which is the amount a stimulus magnitude that needs to be changed before a person detects a difference
128
What are psychophysical methods?
developed various methods of research including the methods of research including the method of limits, the method of constant stimuli, and method of adjustment
129
What is the method of limits?
one stimuli being varied and compared to the standard vary in one direction, systematic
130
What is the method of average error?
participant has control over varying stimuli
131
What is the method of constant stimuli?
presenting constant and varied stimuli, vary more randomly
132
What were Fechner's contributions to psychology?
developed the field of experimental aesthetics: quantify reactions to works of art
aesthetics from above: traditional art critic approach, evaluate on basis on external standard or theory
aesthetics from below: based on observation, how do responses to art affect them
rift between psychologists and philosophers
133
Who was Charles Sanders Peirce?
Fechner's law was extended by the brilliant by eccentric logician/psychologist Charles Peirce
Pierce (along with his student Joseph Jastrow) conducted psychology's first blinded repeated-measures-random-assignment experiment, in which subjects were randomly assigned to compare weights without them or the experimenter knowing whether they were equivalent or not
Peirce and Jastrow showed that Fechner had over-estimated the threshold for detection of weight differences
they found that subjects were empirically correct about weight differences at a rate higher than chance even when they had no confidence in their own judgment
134
What are psychological schools?
within an academic discipline, a school is defined as a group of individuals who share common assumptions, work on common problems, and use common methods
135
What is voluntarism?
the name that Wundt gave to his approach to psychology was voluntarism because of its emphasis on will, choice, and purpose
voluntarism, then, was psychology's first school - not structuralism, as is often claimed
136
Who was Wilhelm Wundt?
can trace everything back to him
psych as outgrow of physiology research
physiology research was limited for higher order thinking
wasn't able to teach psych until 1879: moment when an institution recognizes psych. as an independent area of study
137
What was psychology's goal according to Wundt?
psychology's goal was to understand both simple (basic processes of the mind) and complex (higher mental processes) conscious phenomena
for simple phenomena, experimentation was to be used; however, for complex phenomena experimentation could not be used
only various forms of naturalistic observation could be used
138
What are the two types of experience according to Wundt?
mediate experience and data are obtained via measuring devices and thus not direct
immediate experience and data are events in human consciousness as they occurred
this was to be the subject matter of psychology
139
What were the introspection methodologies used by Wundt?
some experimentation but primarily introspection
his experimental introspection was not the unstructured self-observation used by earlier philosophers
Wundt's introspection used laboratory instruments to present stimuli
in most instances the subject was to respond with a simple response such as saying "yes" or "no", pressing a key
these responses were made without any description of internal events
used to study immediate experience but not the higher mental processes
140
What are sensations according to Wundt?
sensations occurred when a sense organ is stimulated and the impulse reaches the brain
described in terms of modality, intensity, and quality
141
What are feelings according to Wundt?
accompanied sensations and could be described along three dimensions (tridimensional theory of feelings): pleasantness-unpleasantness, excitement-calm, strain-relaxation
142
What is perception according to Wundt?
perception is a passive process governed by the stimulation present, the physical makeup of the person, and the person's past experience
the interaction of these factors make up the person's perceptual field
the part of this field the person attend to is apperceived
143
What is apperception according to Wundt?
apperception and selective attention are the same
apperception is active and voluntary, hence the school called voluntarism
144
What is creative synthesis according to Wundt?
elements which are attended to can be arranged and rearranged as the person wills, thus arrangements not experienced before can be produced
145
Who was Franciscus Donders?
first to use reaction time studies
when light goes on press button
discrimination between stimuli by subtract simple reaction time from dis.
choice: different stimuli associated with different modes of response
146
What was Wundt's use of Donders' method?
mental chronometry
used a method developed by Franciscus Donders to measure differences in reaction time when various mental activities were required by the experimental situation
he eventually abandoned this pursuit because he found that reaction time varied too much: from study to study, from subject to subject, based on the sense modality stimulated, the intensity of the stimulus, etc.
147
What is the debate between psychological vs. physical causation?
physical causality is a reality because events could be predicted on the basis of antecedent conditions
prediction of psychological events is impossible: principle of heterogeneity of ends, principle of contrasts, principle toward the development of opposites
148
What are volitional acts according to Wundt?
Wundt was a determinist; that is, he did not believe in free will
according to Wundt, the laws of mental activity can be deduced only after the fact, and in that sense the psychologist studying them is like a historian
only understandable after the fact
can only understand an action through subsequent info
needs to be a historical science can deduce mental laws, but can only make predictions on low level psych functions
149
What is volkerpsychologie?
Wundt's research culminating in his 10-volume volkerpsychologie
verbal communication begins with a general impression and is a three-stage process
the speaker must apperceive his or her own general impression
the speaker chooses words and sentence structures to express the general impression
the listener, after hearing the words and sentences, must apperceive the speaker's general impression
150
What is the historical misunderstanding of Wundt?
Wundt has been portrayed in texts inaccurately
may be due in part to students of Wundt's who misrepresented of misinterpreted him
151
Who was Edward Titchener?
student of Wundt, then went to US
known to be a dictator, psych should be only experimental psych
opposed to applied psych, thought science was neutral
schism between experimental and applied
was a member of APA, but opposed formed his own group called the experimentalist
thought APA liked applied too much
152
What were the goals and methods of structuralism?
goals of psychology were the determination of what, how, and why of mental life
the what was learned through introspection
the how answered the question of how the elements combined
the why involved the neurological correlates of mental events
he only sought to describe mental experience or the structure of the mind: therefore, the school was called structuralism
153
What was Titchener's process of introspection?
more complicated and required more of the subject than Wundt's
introspection in Titchener's laboratory required the subject to describe the basic, raw, elemental experiences which form complex cognitive experience
he wanted sensations, not perceptions, if in the report the subject responded with the name of the object rather than the elemental aspects of the stimulus, the subject committed a stimulus error
154
What are mental elements according to Titchener's?
elements of consciousness (the mind) were sensations (elements of perceptions), images (elements of ideas) and affections (elements of emotions)
the elements could be known only by their attributes
attributes of sensations and images were quality, intensity, duration, clearness, and extensity
affections could have the attributes of only quality, intensity, and duration
Titchener did not agree with Wundt's tridimensional theory of emotion
emotions were described in terms of one dimension: pleasantness-unpleasantness
155
What is the law of combination according to Titchener?
he described how the elements combine by using the law of contiguity as many others had done before
156
What is the law of contiguity?
the tendency for events that are experienced together to be remembered together
157
What is the context theory of meaning?
what gives meaning to sensations is called the context theory of meaning
what gives sensations and events meaning is the images and events with which the sensation has been associated contiguously in the past
these associations form a core or a context
158
What are the neurological correlates of mental events?
believed that physiological processes provide a continuous substratum that give psychological processes a continuity they otherwise would not have
although the nervous system does not cause mental events, it can be used to explain some of their characteristics
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What is the decline of structuralism?
the decline of structuralism was inevitable as people began to question the use of introspection as a viable method in research
development of the study of animal behavior
the lack of interest in practical implications on the part of structuralists
the development of behaviorism and objective methods of research
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Who was G. E. Muller?
important findings on memory:
subjects spontaneously organize materials to be remembered into meaningful patterns
the first to document retroactive inhibition
in addition to his studies of memory, Muller became the leading researcher in psychophysics following the death of Fechner
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Who was Hermann Ebbinghaus?
researched learning and memory using a unique methodology
this was important because this was the first time that learning and memory had been studied as they occurred
it illustrated that those processes could be studied as they occurred
many of his findings are still cited today and most of the major conclusions reached are still valid today
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What was Ebbinghaus's method?
he developed nonsense syllables to use as stimuli in his research: these provided series of stimuli that were essentially meaningless
the subject is to learn (memorize) a series of syllables by looking at them subsequentially until mastery
then after various time intervals they were to relearn the same list
the difference in number of exposures to relearn the list in comparison to the number of exposure to mastery at the initial exposure was called savings
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What were the conclusions drawn through Ebbinghaus's method?
more rapid forgetting during the first hours following learning and slower thereafter
overlearning (continuing to study past mastery) decreased the rate of forgetting
distributed practice was more effective than massed practice
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Who was Ernst Mach?
proposed a distinct form of positivism that saw sensations as at the core of all science
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Who was Hans Vaihinger?
proposed that societal living requires that we give meaning to our sensations, and we do that by inventing terms, concepts, and theories and then acting "as if" they were true
166
What was early German psychology?
within 10 to 15 years of Wundt, many other German universities had also created laboratories in psychology, several of which would produce an even more direct connection to modern psychology
167
Who was Franz Brentano?
wrote in 1874, same year as Wundt
proposed radically differential psych: act psychology
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What is act psychology?
the important aspect of the mind was not what it was made of but what it did: studies should emphasize the mind's processes
mental processes are aimed at performing some function: his view was called act psychology
all mental acts incorporate something outside of itself (which he called intentionality): he employed phenomenological introspection-introspective analysis of intact, meaningful experiences
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Who was Carl Stumpf?
like Brentano, Stumpf argued for study of intact, meaningful experiences, phenomenology: the study of mental phenomena
influenced the development of Gestalt psychology; the three "founders" of Gestalt psychology studied with Stumpf
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What was the Clever Hans phenomenon?
Stumpf and a student Oskar Phungst helped investigate the Clever Hans phenomenon
recognized the trainer was giving cues when though he wasn't aware
171
Who was Christian von Ehrenfels?
a student of Brentano
highly influenced by Mach
proposed the notion of "form quality"
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What was the two types of introspection developed by Edmund Husserl?
one focuses on the intentionality described by Brentano
second focuses on subjective experience-the processes a person experiences
focuses on the essences of mental processes; he referred to it as pure phenomenology
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What were the methods of psychology developed by Husserl?
proper subject matter of psychology
the phenomenology's of Brentano, Stumpf, and Husserl all insisted that the proper subject matter of psychology was intact, meaningful psychological experiences
this approach was to impact Gestalt psychology and existentialism
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What was Husserl's phenomenology?
Husserl's goal was to create a taxonomy of the mind
describe the mental essences by which humans experience themselves
he sought to examine meanings and essences, not mental element, via introspection, which differed greatly from the structuralists
175
Who was Wilhelm Dilthey?
sought to challenge the dominance of the natural science approach
studying the person as a product of history
need to understand how we make meaning
human science --> different way to study without distorting it like natural science
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Who was Henri Bergson?
challenged the natural sciences approach concerning time, motion, and change
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Who was Oswald Kulpe?
Wundt's student, became rivals
thoughts don't need to be constrained, need not to correspond to something
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What is imageless thought?
in contrast to Wundt, Kulpe proposed that some though could be imageless and also that the higher mental processes could be studied experimentally
set out to do so by using his method called systematic experimental introspection
the imageless thought controversy continued for many years
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What is mental set?
the most influential work which came out of the Wurzberg school (where Kulpe was the leader) was the idea of mental set
mental set is a determining tendency, which causes the person to behave in certain ways completely unaware that they are doing so
the mental set can be induced by instruction or by simply the person's past experiences
