Summary biological and cognitive psychology
Carlson & Birkett CH1: introduction
Behavioural neuroscience or physiological psychology is the study of physiological
processes that control behaviour. Scientific explanation of behaviour takes two forms:
generalisation and reduction. Generalisation refers to explanations as examples of general
laws, which are revealed through experiments. Reduction refers to explanations of complex
phenomena in terms of simpler ones such as physiological processes.
Neurogenesis is the generation of new neurons (plasticity of the brain).
Dualism is the idea that the mind and body (brain) are separate. Monism is a belief that
everything in the universe consists of matter and energy and that the mind is a phenomenon
produced by the workings of the nervous system.
Ancient history
Ancient civilisations like the Egyptian, Indian, Chinese, and the Greek believed that the
heart was the seat of emotions and thoughts. Hippocrates was the first to believe differently;
the brain is the seat of emotions and thoughts. Aristotle disagreed; he thought the brain
served to cool the passions of the heart. Galen challenged this idea by stating the brain
wouldn’t have been so far from the heart and not all sensory nerves would be attached to it if
that were true.
1600s
Modern history of behavioural neuroscience starts in the 1600s. Descartes believed the body
was a machine that was controlled by environmental stimuli. Descartes called automatic and
involuntary movements in response to environmental stimuli reflexes. Galvani found that
electrical stimulation of a certain nerve caused the contraction of the muscle to which it was
attached.
1800s
In the 1800s Müller started applying experimental techniques to physiology (removing or
isolating organs, testing responses to chemicals, altering the environment to test how organs
react). His most important contribution was his doctrine of specific nerve energies; he
observed that we perceive the messages of different nerves in different ways because the
messages occur in different channels. This meant different parts of the brain receive messages
from different nerves so the brain must be functionally divided. Flourens then started with
experimental ablation; he removed various parts of animals’ brains to see what the animal
could no longer do and infer the function of the missing part of the brain. Helmholtz was the
first to attempt to measure the speed of conduction through nerves. It was believed this
process worked at the speed of light but Helmholtz found it was much slower: about 90 feet
(27.5 metres) per second. Purkinje studied the central and peripheral nervous systems and
discovered Purkinje fibres; neurons terminating on cardiac cells responsible for controlling
contractions of the heart. He was also the first to describe the individuality of fingerprints.
Santiago y Cajal proposed that the nervous system consisted of billions of individual
neurons instead of a continuous network.
,1900s
The highlights in contributions to neuroscience during the twentieth century include
discoveries ranging from the electrical and chemical messages used by neurons, to the
circuits and brain structures involved in a wide variety of behaviours. Brain-based
treatments for disorders such as depression and schizophrenia developed.
Evolution is a gradual change in the structure and physiology of plant and animal species as
a result of natural selection.
Functionalism is part of the evolution theory; it is the belief that characteristics of living
organisms perform useful functions. Physiological mechanisms of living organism don’t
have a purpose but they do have functions, which can be determined.
Humans possess several characteristics that enable them to compete with other species;
upright posture, bipedalism, the ability to walk long distances, eyes far enough from the
ground to see long distances, carrying tools and food, colour vision, fine motor control,
linguistic abilities, making plans, and forming complex civilisations. All these characteristics
require a large brain with a large number of neurons per gram. Because larger brains need
larger skulls that do not fit through the birth canal, the brain grows and develops for a long
time after birth in comparison to other species. Neoteny is the prolongation of maturation of
the human brain.
Animals are used in research because we cannot make progress in understanding and treating
diseases without them. The use of humans in research is also essential. The IACUC ensures
ethical treatment of animals and the IRB ensures ethical treatment of humans. Both humans
and animals need to be treated humanely and humans have the right to informed consent
and protection of their identity. Neuroethics is an emerging interdisciplinary field devoted
to better understanding of implications of and developing best practices in ethics for
neuroscience research with human participants.
Neuroscientists concern themselves with all aspects of the nervous system; its anatomy,
chemistry, physiology, developments, and functioning. Behavioural neuroscientists study
all behavioural phenomena that can be observed in humans and animals, they attempt to
understand the role of the nervous system, interacting with the rest of the body (especially the
endocrine system) in controlling behaviour. Neurologists are physicians who diagnose and
treat diseases of the nervous system, they practice medicine or study the behaviour of people
whose brains have been damaged by natural causes. This research is also carried out by
cognitive neuroscientists. To become a professor or independent researcher, one must
receive a doctorate; usually a Ph.D.
Goldstein & van Hooff CH1: introduction to cognitive psychology
Cognitive psychology is the branch of psychology concerned with the scientific study of the
mind. The mind creates and controls mental functions such as perception, attention, memory,
emotions, language, deciding, thinking, and reasoning. It is a system that creates
representations of the world so that we can act within it to achieve our goals. Cognition
involves the mental processes, such as perception, attention, and memory; this is what the
mind does. The question of how the mind achieves what it does is what cognitive psychology
is about.
,1800s
In the 1800s, it was believed that it is not possible to study the mind. Cognitive psychology
did not exist. The first person to conduct an experiment that would be called a cognitive
psychology experiment nowadays was Donders. Donders wanted to measure the time it takes
for someone to make a decision. He first measured reaction time by using a simple reaction
time task to see how long it takes for someone to respond, he then measured the additional
time it takes for someone to make a decision using a choice reaction time task. This
experiment was important because it was one of the first to study cognitive psychology and it
showed that mental processes cannot be measured directly; they must be inferred from
behaviour. Wundt founded the first laboratory of scientific psychology eleven years after
Donders’ experiment. His approach to scientific psychology was called structuralism; our
overall experience is determined by combining basic elements of experience (sensations).
Analytic introspection is a technique in which trained participants described their
sensations, feelings, and thought processes in response to stimuli. Wundt wanted to use this
technique to create a “periodic table of the mind”. Although structuralism is not an effective
approach, Wundt’s studies were important because he influenced the study of the mind to
shift to the empiricist approach; emphasising the pivotal role of experiments (and
observations) in gaining knowledge about the human mind.
Person Procedure Results Contribution
Donders 1868 Simple reaction time vs It takes 100 milliseconds to First cognitive psychology
choice reaction time make a decision experiment and mental
processes must be inferred
from behaviour
Wundt 1879 Analytic introspection No reliable results First laboratory of scientific
psychology and shift to
empiricist approach
Ebbinghaus 1885 Method of savings Forgetting occurs rapidly in Quantitative measurement
the first two days after of mental processes
learning and learning a
second time takes less time
James 1890 Reported observations of Descriptions of a wide First psychology textbook,
own experience range of experiences some observations are still
valid today
1900s
Watson proposed a new approach called behaviourism; pairing one stimulus with another
stimulus affects behaviour. Behaviourists only study observable behaviour. The behaviourist
Pavlov created the idea of classical conditioning. The behaviourist Skinner then introduced
operant conditioning. After an entire generation of behaviourists, the mind returned in the
study of psychology. Tolman introduced the cognitive map; a conception within the mind of
external stimuli. Chomsky then found that language development in children was not
determined by imitation and reinforcement but by inborn biological processes. Psychologists
then began to realise that complex behaviours cannot be explained by only measuring the
observable behaviour in response to external stimuli. This shift in the 1950s is the beginning
of the cognitive revolution. The introduction of digital computers inspired psychologists to
propose the information-processing approach; an approach that traces sequences (different
stages) of mental operations involved in cognition. In 1967 the term cognitive psychology
was introduced in a textbook by Neisser.
, Structural models are representations of a physical
structure. Process models represent the processes that are
involved in cognitive mechanisms, with boxes usually
representing specific processes and arrows indicating
connections between processes.
Spacing refers to learning distributed over time. Repeated presentation and reviewing of
information will ensure more durable retention. Interleaving refers to studying different
topics in the same period, this requires people to discriminate between topics which improves
performance. Retrieval-based learning is the act of retrieving information from memory to
enhance learning.
Goldstein & van Hooff CH2: cognitive neuroscience
Cognitive neuroscience is the study of the physiological basis of cognition. Levels of
analysis refers to the idea that a topic can be studied in a number of different ways, with each
approach contributing its own dimension to our understanding. In cognitive neuroscience we
need to do both behavioural and physiological experiments to understand how the mind
works.
Anatomists in the early 1800s applied special stains to brain tissue that increased the contrast
between different types of tissue within the brain. This revealed the neural network when
viewed under a microscope. The neural network was called the nerve net during that time
because the images under the microscope weren’t detailed enough to reveal that the neural
network was not a continuous network. In the late 1800s, the Golgi staining technique was
developed which provided more detailed pictures and revealed that the neural network is
made up of billions of individual neurons. Ramon y Cajal used the Golgi stain on new-born
animals because the density of cells is small compared to the density of cells in the adult
brain, so it was easier to see the individual neurons. The neuron doctrine is the idea that
individual cells transmit signals in the nervous system, and that these cells are not continuous
with other cells as proposed by the nerve net theory.
