PSYC 4008 Exam 1 - Baumeister

Revolutionary Science

"Paradigm Shift" -When anomalies become serious , scientists began to question the paradigm. -Thus forming a discontinuous growth of knowledge.

Gall's Phrenology

-A "pseudo-science" -Believed that there was a relationship between mental characteristics and the shape of peoples' heads. -He collaborated with Johann Spurzheim who coined it the term "phrenology" -Spurzheim recognized 37 powers of the mind, and divided the skull into 37 areas.

Descartes thoughts on Body

-A non-thinking substance -An extended substance; physical/material -Reducible and determined. -Mass and form

Impressions

-Are strong and vivid. -The first things to come to consciousness -Being in the physical presence of something

Hume's Fork

-Belief (of truth vs. experience) only justified if it's a matter of fact confirmed by an experience or relation of ideas. -Did not believe cause and effect were justified by logic. -No guarantee that the future will look like the past.

Determinism

-Belief that everything in nature, even moral choices, thoughts and behavior, have a natural cause.

Descartes' view on free will

-Believed faculties of human mind is created by God. -God gives all humans will, and will is intrinsically free. Implication: Cognitive and moral errors are a results; willful human actions are beyond the pale of science.

David Hartley's Associationism

-Believed that complex ideas were compounds of simpler ideas. -Contiguity of time was the only principle. -Association can occur among sensations, ideas, and emotions. -Repetition was important in determining strengths of association.

John Mill's thoughts on mechanical and chemical compounding?

-Chemical compounding is the ideas which are simple, and is the basis of mental compounding. -This is the anticipation of gestalt psychology (whole is greater than the sum of its' parts).

Mill's Law of Association

-Considered similarity a principle of association. -Other principles: contiguity and intensity. -And frequency

Ideas

-Copied from or derived from compounded impressions; they are more faint. -Thinking about things of the object, etc. and its' characteristics. -Less vivid than impressions.

Subjective Idealism

-Grew out of Berkeley's work on visual perception,. -In many instances in vision, the perception of some property of an object remains fixed while physical property is changing. -He believes ALL perceptions were creations of the mind. -- a secondary quality.

Descartes view on consciousness

-He characterized mind as a substance through which thought immediately resides. -Consciousness is the essence of everything mental.

Berkeley's view on mind/body dualism

-He rejects; believes that mind and body are not separate, but are manifested from one substance -- monism. -That one substance is the MIND -- everything is mental. -This is known as "subjective idealism".

Leibnitz's Perception & Apperception

-His main contribution to psychology was his apperception; which distinguishes between perception and consciousness. -Some weak perceptions while entering the mind are too weak to evoke awareness of themselves, so these are conscious perceptions (apperceptions).

Problems with Solipsism

-It implies the existence of what it's trying to reject -- the existence of other minds. -Either: you're not real and there is only one mind of existence (not yours)... OR others aren't real, and you're the only mind that exists (but how the heck can you be speaking to another??? IMPOSSIBLE!)

Locke's view on mind

-It is a basic unit: ideas are the immediate object of all thoughts, which are irreducible. -Has two sources: 1. Sensation: impact of external world on nervous system. 2. Reflection (an innate faculty): reflection on input; mental processing of sensory info and remembered ideas, which can be produced into complex idea.

Problems with Idealism

-It is intrinsically solipsistic; the doctrine that only one mind exists.

Locke believed in__

-Knowledge of the existence of "any other things" come to us by sensation. -There are innate faculties, but not innate ideas. -Did not reject dualism

Parallelism

-Like two fine tuned watches, set to run in parallel independently.

Mills' Methodology (of identifying causes)

-Method of Agreement -Method of Difference -Joint Method -Concomitant Variation

Flourens' Contribution

-Most critic of phrenology. -He pioneered the technique of experimental cerebral ablation -- the surgical removal of specific parts of the brain.

Is Berkeley an empiricist?

-NO; He did not believe in the external world. -All knowledge comes from the experiences produced by our mind.

Empiricism is built on__

-One premise-- that all knowledge comes from experience. "tabula rasa" -- blank state.

Kant's "Great Insight"

-Our minds do not merely "correspond" to reality, they "constitute" it through the operation of rules that are innate and universal. -Our experience is a construction

Primary and Secondary Qualities of Matter

-Primary: Properties of objects that inherently in the object.; that such properties exists. -Secondary: Qualities we see object as having. -Our nervous system "constructs reality" ; which raises the question of how it is achieved.

What Flourens found in cerebral ablation

-Removal of frontal lobes abolished voluntary movement, and perception' -Removal of the cerebellum abolished coordinated movement -However, these did not show the specific structure/function relation postulated by the phrenologists.

Kant's view of self

-Saw the necessity of an enduring self -- continuous -Without it,we would have no way to connect experiences with one another. -Transcendental Self: it is above empirical views, and is necessary for all experiences. -He believed the self was the actual application of rules tied to experiences and memories, together.

Descartes concept of self

-Self is the soul, and not dependent on the body. -You are always the same soul; the same immortal substance.

Locke's theory of simple and complex ideas

-Simple Ideas: Derived from experiencing basic sensory properties of objects. -Complex: Result from compounding of simple ideas (which can be further complex through reflection).

Simple and Complex Impressions

-Simple Impressions: Cannot be broken down -Complex Impressions: Compounded impression; the holistic view of what is in front of you.

Locke founded what

-The British School of Philosophy called Empiricism.

Phineas Gage's Contribution

-The damage to his frontal lobe from an accident prompted speculation about the role of the frontal lobe in personality and their mediation between reason and emotion when: -An acquaintance claimed his personality changed from "dependable, conscientious, and respectable TO irreverent, socially inappropriate, emotional, unstable, and aimless."

Study of Reflex's relativity to psychology

-The measurement of rapid responses (reaction time) became an important tool for measuring the speed of mental processes -- mental chronometry.

Monadology

-The theory of monads: universe is composed of elemental substances call monads. -Monads are created by God, and the only un-created one is God himself; he is the Super. -Each monad differs from the other, but these differences are only known by God.

Hartley's products of Association

-They produced higher mental attributes including: -word meanings -recollection -memory -imagination

Descartes

-Trained in scholasticism. -He only accepted things that could not be doubted - his existence. -Concluded that he was a fundamentally thinking substance and the "thinking substance" is immaterial and does not require a body to exist -- soul.

Synchronous (simultaneous) Association

Accounts for the "fusion" of ideas.

Successive (temporal) Association

Accounts for the "trains of thought"

Idealism

All mind, no matter

Naturalistic

All that exists is of the natural world. -- No God.

Method of Difference

An instance in which the phenomenon under investigation occurs, and an instance in which it does no occur, have every circumstance save one, in common. -AKA: The control group comparison

The 3 Ways of Knowing

Appeal to authority - Agreeing with the powerful's opinion. Rationalism - truth is revealed through rigorous application of thought and reason (mathematics) Empiricism - Truth is revealed through observation of the natural world.

Concept of the Synapse

Arose after the method of staining nervous tissue using silver salts wold stain a limited number of cells at random, in entirety, showing the travel of electrical currents; which Golgi thought supported the reticular theory (the brain is a network of fused cells), but further experimental by Cajal showed that the neurons were not continuous and Sherrington provided more evidence that the communication was not continuous, which was solidified by the invention of the electron microscope in the 1950s which could measure the interneuron communication.

Doctrine of Physiognomy by Franz Gall

Exercising a mental capacity was like exercising a muscle -- it enlarged the part of the brain involved and changed the shape of the skull. -Conformation of the brain would correspond to the conformation of the skull.

Anomlies

Finding that do not occur/agree with the paradigm. - In normal science, these findings are ignored or explained away, and is often replaced with a new paradigm to include an explanation of the anomaly.

Synchonic Approach

Focuses on a particular slice of time without concern of how things develop to that stage. -Does not explain how antecedent events contribute to events in the period of interest.

Externalism

Focuses on broad intellectual, cultural, social, political, and economic "currents" indirectly tied to the event at the time. -Zeitgeist is the essence.

Internalism

Focuses on events most tangibly and immediately related to a particular historical event. -- Broader is less important.

Diachronic Approach

Focuses on how an event evolves through time; the relationships between each event.

What is Psychophysics?

Founded by Ernst Weber; quantifying the relation between stimulus intensity and the magnitude of psychological experiences. -This introduced the method of introspection; the idea that mental phenomena could be quantified -- first systematic scientific psychology

Deductive Reasoning

From a general premise to a particular conclusion. - If premises are true, then the conclusion is true. -However, premises can be false.

Mind/Body Interaction view of Descartes

He believes that the mind and body do interact, in two-way interaction: mind affects body, body affects mind. -This interaction was mediated by animal spirits, "A very fine wind, or rather a very lively and pure flame", flowing through the nerves. -Thought the pineal gland was the source of this mind/body interaction.

Helmholtz and Pitch Perception

He proposed that wave-length (of air pressure fluctuations) was responsible for pitch sensation and that wave amplitude was responsible for sound intensity.

Kant rejects the question "how the external world mold the mind" by asking ______

How does the mind mold reality? -The understanding (mind) does not derive its laws from but prescribes them to nature.

A Deductive Premise

If A does ___ then B is. (Premise 1) A occurs (Premise 2) Then B is (Conclusion)

Joint Method

If two or more instances in which the phenomenon occurs, have only one circumstance in common, while two or more instances in which it does not occur have nothing in common, save the absence of that circumstance.

Method of Agreement

Instances of a phenomenon, that only have one circumstance in common -ex: depression and the gene

The Liveliness Hypothesis

Is made up of Hume's impressions and ideas.

Descartes thoughts on the Mind

It is a thinking substance (possessed only by humans). - Non-extended substance; not of the physical/material world. -Has no location in space, no mass or form; it exists beyond the body -Not reducible or determined.

Materialism in Monism

It's all matter, no mind

Who was the philosopher who distinguished between mechanical and chemical compounding?

John Stuart Mill

The Principles of Association for each philosopher

Locke - Contiguity and Similarity Berkeley- Contiguity and Similarity Hume- Contiguity and Similarity, and possibly causality Hartley- Contiguity (in time, and repetition) Mill- Contiguity, Similarity, Intensity, and Frequency.

Materialism

Made of matter

Physicalism

Matter plus physical forces.

Which is the dominant and which is the subordinate?

Naturalistic theory is the dominant Personalistic theory is the subordinate

Kant is known as___

One of the greatest thinkers since early Greek philosophers

What did he create to explain mind/body correlation__

Parallelism

Normal Science

Progress is continuous. - A set of beliefs are shared among the community, and is aimed at confirming and extending this paradigm. - If you stick to this paradigm, you will be able to answer anything unanswered.

Ohm and Pitch Perception

Proposed that the brain performs a Fourier analysis on complex acoustic waves to resolve them into harmonic components; perceived pitch was due to the lowest frequency.

Sherrington's Contributions

Provided experimental evidence for neuron doctrine and suggested that communication between neurons was too slow for electrical currents to spread directly -- coining the term synapse.

Inductive Reasoning

Reasoning from particular observation to general conclusion. -- Only one premise and conclusion. -Premise can be true, but conclusion can be false.

Simple and Complex Ideas

Simple Ideas: All are in the first appearance are derived from simple impressions; resembles and requires impressions.. (That first look at something, soliciting a first thought; not in depth) -Complex Ideas: Compounding, transposing, augmenting, or diminishing impressions (elaborating all the possible qualities/characteristics of an object, despite what you had first seen).

Thomas Young's Hue Perception

Suggested that hue sensation could be accounted for by 3 different sensory nerves (trichromatic theory of hue perception)

The Bell-Magendie Law

The idea that dorsal roots of spinal nerves are sensory and ventral roots are motor.

The false dichotomy

The personalistic theory ignores the zeitgeist -Context does not play a role; everyone is influenced by surroundings and history.

What are multiples?

The same discovery made many times, and around the same time frame, by different people.

Leibnitz developed what theory__

The theory of monadology -- of monads.

Monism

The theory that all of reality is made up of one substance. -Has two types: Idealism and Materialism.

How does Hume use the term perception

To apply it to any mental content; distinguishing between impressions and ideas.

Concomitant Variation

Today's correlation method

Wheatstone's Retinal Disparity

Was discovered through depth perception

Kant believed in ____

an external reality; a real physical world.

Presentism

good: Using present events to understand the past bad: biased representations of the past, based on knowledge of events that occur in present. ugly: anachronistically introduced depictions or interpretations of past -- false statement of events,

Zeitgeist

the context in which historic events occur; it is inevitable.

In the personalistic theory _________

the person makes the time

In the naturalistic theory __________

the times make the person