Historical view

• Psychology come from the study of two disparate yet connected fields, Philosophy and biology.

Modern View

• Psychology is the study of behavior (in its broadest context).

Philosophical view

• The Platonic allegory of Cupid and Psyche, the passions that rule mankind.

Classical religious people

• The soul as seen from the hands of Augustine and Aquinas

Two ways at looking at man and how he interprets his world

• Socratic/Platonic view.

• All knowledge is already contained in the individual.

• Do not use your sensory experience to understand the world around you.

Meno’s Slave

• Through question and answer Socrates showed that an untrained slave could show he understood the relationship between the hypotenuse and the two sides of a square.

Cave allegory

• Prisoners are chained to a wall.

• They see shadows on the wall and depict this as real.

• The shadows are only reflections of people before a fire outside the mouth of the cave.

The issue for Psychology

• What distinguishes the barbarian from non-barbarian?

• The non-barbarian is locked in argument with his fellow non-barbarian.

What is the argument all about?

• The answer to four specific questions.

Question 1

• The problem of knowledge: how is it that I know anything (reason).

Types of knowing

• Experiential knowledge

• Intuitive knowledge

Question 2

• What does one know?

• The problem of reason.

• What is the one thing each of you know without error?

• Your own existence.

• Descartes “Cogito ergo sum”

Question 3

• How should I behave, i.e. origin of individual conduct (morality)?

Question 4

The problem of governance?

Scope of Psychology

The organism as a whole

• How is the individual effected by…….?

The Central Nervous System (CNS)

• The brain and peripheral nervous system is the organ system of behavior.

• Anesthetize the brain anesthetizes behavior at all levels.

3 methods of studying the brain

• Record

Levels of analysis

• Single neurons

• Multiple neurons

• Thousands of neurons

Reading the Living Brain

• Electroencephalography -- EEG

(cont.)

Method 2

• Lesion: to cut or remove

An example

• Kluver – Busy syndrome in monkeys

• Removal bilaterally of the temporal pole in monkeys.

Behavioral Changes Post Surgery

• High Oral behavior

• Pacing in the light

• Passivity

• High sexual activity

Kling – Riggs study (cats)

• Again removal of the “tip” of the temporal pole

Behavioral changes

• Extreme well directed aggressiveness.

Method 3 of brain study

• Stimulation

Scientific Method

Develop an idea

The idea

• ASSUME: LEARNING IS A GENETIC PROCESS

Rework the idea until a testable hypothesis can be construed.

Reworked idea

• THE ABILITY TO RUN A MAZE WITH NO ERRORS IS GENETICALLY DETERMINED

• ASK THE QUESTION: WHAT IS THE MOST APPROPRIATE ANIMAL TO USE TO ANSWER THE QUESTION PROPOSED BY THE HYPOTHESIS?

• Humans?

• Rats?

• Fruit flies?

• Squid – Octopus?

• RATS WHO RUN A MAZE WITH THE FEWEST ERROR TRIALS ARE BETTER LEARNERS THAN RATS WHO MAKE MORE ERRORS IN THE SAME NUMBER OF TRIALS.

How do I manipulate genes?

How do I manipulate learning?

• Selective breeding manipulates genes:

• Breed fast learners to fast learners, slow learners to slow learners.

• Can the individual be used as its own control or do I need a control group.

• Use groups: fast learners against slow learners. After 20 generations there should be two groups of maze learners with no overlap between groups.

• What is the most appropriate statistical procedure I need to use.