Lecture 1: From phrenology to
scientific theory
Early psychologists
Wilhelm Wundt (1832 – 1920)
- Suggested career at school: postman
- Three Nobel prize nominations
- First psychological laboratory: 1879 in Leipzig
- First psychological journal: Philosphische Studien
- Challenged 2500-year old theory of association
Lightner Witmer (1867 – 1956)
- Student of Wundt
- Founder of clinical psychology
- First psychological clinic
- First journal: The Psychological Clinic
Mary calkins
- Student William James
- Technique of paired associates (memory research)
- First female president of APA
Helen Thompson
- First studies of differences in men and women (in psychological sense)
- Used experimental methods in these studies
William James
- Started out as painter
- Bestseller: Principles of psychology
- Integrated psychological knowledge
Robert Woodworth
- Bestseller: experimental Psychology
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,Pre-scientific approaches
1) Associationism = mental processes proceed by way of associations
o Aristotle: tubala rasa (= being born with no content in mind, filled by
perception). The senses of sight, smell, touch, hearing, and taste provide
modality-specific sensory images that come together in a supra-modal mental
faculty, called the common sense. Aristotle distinguished between modality-
specific sensory images and supra-modal mental faculties, which work on the
images and associations.
o Locke (Enlightenment) assumptions:
1) blank state: we are born without built-in mental content
2) sensoristic: our senses provide the elementary mental images
3) atomistic: the elementary sensory images are the building blocks
(atoms) for the construction of more complex mental contents
4) associative: this construction is done by association
- empiricism = mind is a blank state at birth and all knowledge is obtained via senses
- nativism = people have innate mental abilities and knowledge
2) Law of Contiguity = basic law of associationism (Aristotle)
‘If two things repeatedly occur simultaneously, the presence of one of them will
remind us of the other’
3) Long-term potentiation = Neuronal basis of the law of contiguity; prolonged rise in
the efficiency of a synapse resulting from a change in the neuronal structure.
Discovered in 1973 in the hippocampus of rabbits
Hebb’s law (1949): if 2 nerve cells are simultaneously stimulated for a period of
time, synapse changes occur
4) Connectionism = Modern form of associationism
New addition: computer simulations
o Connectionism formalizes associative networks and processes through
mathematical equations in computer programs
5) Horizontal faculties = domain-general functions (Locke & Aristotle)
o Learning, memory, attention, perception and will work in the same way in
different content domains
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, 6) Vertical faculties = domain-specific functions (Gall)
o Phrenology (= Determining the development of a function by the size of the
bump on the skull):
1) Functions have a specific location in the brain (localizationism)
2) Function well-developed? > occupies more space in the brain
3) Double-sided (specific location in the left hemisphere and the
corresponding location in the right hemisphere)
4) Bumps on skull reflect a faculty (language, arithmetic)
5) Different memory-functions for different contents
The mind consists of specific functions only, with specific locations.
Pseudo-scientific approaches
Popular views, but not empirically researched
1) Physiognomy = the face reflects the character of someone (face reading). Modern
explanation: self-fulfilling prophecy.
2) Mesmerism = healing through magnetic forces (hypnosis/magnets). Modern
explanation: reiki
3) Mental healing = healing trough correct, positive thinking. Modern explanation:
placebo effect, CBT.
4) Spiritualism = contact with the spirits of the dead through mediums. Modern
explanation: exists under the same name.
o Alternative scientific explanation: ‘cold reading’ > analyzing behavior
Neuroanatomy, time and psychophysics
Flourens vs. Gall > holism vs. localizationism
Flourens experimented with the brains of pigeons and rabbits and the removal of
brainstem resulted in loss of vital functions, removal of cerebellum resulted in loss of
motor coordination and removal of cerebral cortex resulted in loss of higher mental
functions, but not of specializations. Thus he concluded that these functions are
distributed across the whole cerebral cortex (holism)
Broca’s discovery > localization of language aspects
Damage to left inferior frontal cortex -> speech production difficulties. This supported
the assumption that higher mental functions are localized, different from what
Flourens maintained
Wernicke’s language model > association model of language
He assumed that words are represented by associations of auditory
input, motor output and concept images.
Wernicke’s area stores auditory images of words (hearing) and
Broca’s area stores motoric images of words (speaking). Broca’s
area damaged? > difficulty producing spoken words,
comprehension is there. Wernicke’s area damaged? > difficulty
understanding heard words, but can speak. Fiber between Broca’s
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, and Wernicke’s area damaged? > repetition of heard speech impaired, but speech
production spared.
Concept images are the associated sensory images of the object that the word refers
to. Embodied cognition is the view that concepts consist only of perceptual features
and motor features. Wernicke: concept images are localized in a distributed fashion
across the cortex.
Speed of nerve impulses (1850)
Johannes Müller > ‘conduction of nerve impulse is infinitely fast, so it can’t be
measured’. Helmholtz > conduction of nerve impulse takes time and can be
measured. He measured this by embedding a motor muscle nerve of a dead frog that
was connected to a clock, and turning on the muscle nerve & measuring this nerve.
Speed of mental processes (1868)
‘Mental processes take time, which can be measured (Donders)’. Mental
chronometry = measuring the time required by mental operations to obtain insights
into the mind. Determining duration of mental processes: subtraction method. Three
types of tasks in the subtraction method:
1) Task A: simple reaction. Responding as soon as stimulus was presented, with
perception and action.
2) Task B: choice reaction. Responding by giving one of several responses as soon
as corresponding stimulus was presented, with perception, recognition, choice and
action.
3) Task C: go/no-go reaction. Responding by giving one response only when one of
several stimuli was presented, with perception, recognition and action.
- Recognition duration = C – A
- Choice duration = B – C
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