Literature Summary (Course Manual) Theoretical Psychology. Supplemented with lecture notes and information from the working groups.
Literature summary (course manual) Theoretical Psychology. Supplemented with lecture notes and information from the working groups.
ARISTOTLE The mind lacks content at birth: tabula rasa (blank slate). Empiric intake create
sensory images that come together in a supra-modal mental faculty: common sense.
He made a distinction between modality-specific images (sensory images) and supra-model
mental processes (images and associations). This was a beginning of associationism. He
formulated the Law of Contiguity: if two things occur together, then the one thing will remind us
of the other when occurred separately. The theory did not get further attention because of the
religious orthodoxy.
JOHN LOCKE Used the ancient association theory for the limits of the human mind. According
to him the mind is a blank slate at birth and knowledge is obtained through empiricism.
There are four basic assumptions according to Locke
1. Blank slate: the mind stars blank
2. Sensoristic: senses provide mental images
3. Atomistic: sensory images are building blocks (atoms) for complex mental contents
4. Associative: construction is done by association
Just like Aristotle he assumed that mental functions are modality-general and domain-general
(they operate the same way for different modalities and domains).
RENÉ DESCARTES Came with opposing theory: nativism. A person’s the way they are since
birth. This followed Plato’s ideas.
DONALD HEBB Speculated about the neural basis of the Law of Contiguity: neurons fire
simultaneously. What fires together, wires together. The neural mechanism involved is called
long-term potentiation.
RUMELHART & MCCLELLAND Worked out associationism as connectionism. The new
aspect: It formalizes associative networks and processes through mathematical equations in
computer programs to explain empirical findings and make predictions to test.
Other pseudo-scientific approaches and their current development
Physiognomy: character is reflected on face Self-fulfilling prophecy
Mesmerism: magnets cure mental disorders Suggestion
Spiritualism: contact with spirits Cold-reading
Mental healing: mental healing though correct Cognitive behavioral therapy
thinking
GALL Assumed that the mind consists of domain-specific functions: vertical faculties. Memory
is not a function, but there are different memory functions for different domains. He believed in
localizationism: the domain-specific function has a specific location in the brain, bilateral. The
size (bump on skull) would determine the development: phrenology. This was a pseudo-scientific
approach (popular beliefs that were not empirically tested)
, FLOURENS He was against localizationism and believed in holism: horizontal faculties. He
investigated this empirically (and wrote a book about it). He made lesions in the brains of animals
and studied the effects on perception, memory and motor functions. He found that the brain stem
and cerebellum were connected to movement, the cerebral cortex to higher level functions. He
was unable to find specific regions for these functions which led him to believe that the functions
(like intellectual and sensory faculties) are distributed across the whole cerebral cortex (holism).
He believed in domain-general functions.
FODOR Assumed that perception,
memory and thinking are domain-general
faculties: horizontal faculties. Published
the modularity of the mind in which he
combined aspects of the historical
theories of Gall (localizationism, vertical)
and Flourens (holism, horizontal). He
believed in a hybrid architecture of the
mind.
9 characteristics for the vertical faculties/
modules
1. Domain specific: processes faces but not other visual objects
2. Operation is mandatory: triggered by anything that looks like a face (smiley)
3. Limited central access to the mental representations: we can report on output (face) but
not on process steps
4. They are fast
5. Informationally encapsulated: has knowledge about the visual shape of faces. We know
smiley is not a real face but we still think it’s a face.
6. Shallow outputs: representation of visual properties of a face but not who it is
7. Associated with a fixed neural architecture: located in the fusiform gyrus
8. Exhibit specific breakdown patterns: damage gives rise to specific impairment
(prosopagnosia)
9. Ontogeny exhibits a characteristic pace and sequencing: (development) already present in
babies and fully developed in adolescents.
BROCA Made a big discovery about the localization of higher functions. His patient Leborgne
had lost the ability to produce speech after brain damage. His nickname was Tan because this was
all he could say. He could still understand language.
Damage in the left posterior inferior frontal gyrus (Broca’s area) was responsible for speech
production loss. It stores motor images of words. Therefore, holism was rejected and
localizationism accepted (a single faculty, higher mental functions are localized). Later
discoveries showed that the underlying fiber tracts including the arcuate fasciculus ware also
damaged in Tan’s brain.
WERNICKE Made an important discovery on speech comprehension in one of his patients.
Damaged to the left superior temporal gyrus (Wernicke’s area) resulted in language
comprehension problems (aphasia). It stores auditory images of words. Based on his findings and
those of Broca, he developed an association model of language (connected through fiber tracts
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