EXAM 1- Frank Johnson –EXP3202 – CLASS NOTES What is Psychology?o Psychology focuses on a set of mental states that exist only on the ‘inside’ of the human braino As psychologists, our ability to detect and measure the diversity of human mental statesis influenced to a large degree by the type of society that we live ino I think the best place to study psychology is in an open society, where humans are free to act on their psychology (i.e., act on what’s inside).o When humans are free to act on ‘what’s inside’ we see astonishing intelligence and grace, but also staggering evil, ignorance, and disease (the price we pay for living in a free society). The diversity of human mental states is obviously quite large and wide-rangingo Which way it goes seems to be shaped by two forces- our environment and our biology- where what we sense and perceive is transformed into how we think and feel and what we actually doo Psychology is the interface between these two forceo Human psychology is unique because our psychology is not limited by the biology of our sensory and motor systemso While a small number of other animal species have developed the ability to exceed the biological limits of their motor systems- what we call ‘tool use’….o We are the only species to have created tools specifically designed to exceed the biological limits of our sensory systems, allowing us to perceive and think about the world in ways that were previously impossibleo This means that we are the only species to formally recognize the limitations of our sensory systems. We know that there is much more to the world than what we can senseo This achievement has changed us in ways that we are still trying to understand, but we can say with certainty that is has significantly broadened the interface between our environment and our biology-it has broadened our psychology Key Pointso As psychologists, we are trying to understand something that appears to be changing rapidly, with no obvious end in sight. Not true of other sciences. A warning to those whothink it is their job to explain the presento Nothing about the human brain predicted this change, but this change would have beenimpossible without it. Psychological evolution? Biological evolutions? Both? Can’t be biological and appears to be entirely psychologicalo Psychology seeks to understand how the potential for change is built into the human brain, and why it seems to have lain dormant for most of human history What is real?o We only experience the reality that is created by our brainso The physical sciences (Physics, Chemistry) have enabled us to ‘see’ the world as it truly existso ‘Psychophysics’ allows us to establish relationships between our brain-based reality and the true, physical worldo These relationships are rarely linear (i.e., the brain does not function like a ‘mirror’) Naïve realisto Someone who thinks that their brain is reporting the actual content of the world aroundthemo Perception of shape is actual a linear relationship When you see a rectangle, it really is a rectangleo Vision is an exaggeration of what is actually happening Till the visual system receives more light and makes an underestimation o Above the diagonal=overestimationo Below the diagonal=underestimation How does it all work?o The real worldStimulusreceptor neuronssensation/analysisperception/synthesisour version of the world (with color due to wavelength) When we sleep our sensory systems are down Our dream are our perceptions- Whatever mechanisms of perception, they can operate independently of sensory input…. If we were to lose all our senses we still have some sense of perception…o The real world (Physics)o Things Retina is tuned to photons (wavelength/color) Atoms, ions (sense of taste, smell)o Events (mechanical) Things vibrating Things bumping into other thingso Receptor neurons Detect variables in the environment and transduce it into an electrical signal If we do not have a particular receptor neuron for a thing or event than our mind is unable to understand it……- Unless you believe you have extra sensory perception (dreaming)o Drugs Alters the processing of incoming signals which depending on what it does can alter perception What are we made up of?o Cells: Bags of water that consume, transduce, store, expend energy Make proteins (DNA-RNA-Protein) Replication: Make more cellso Plasma Membrane: altered in ways to tune cells to particular stimulus that it will detect Neurons in the brain are connected If we lost one it wouldn’t really affect our brain Simple, interconnectedo Neurons: Yes/No/More Sensory Transducers Use of action potential to transmit messages Things and events in the physical world become a pattern of electrical signals- How do we differentiate?- Hypothesize: Patterns are different depending on where the stimulus is received from- Each are processed in distinct locations in the brain Organize Receptor neurons as 2 dimensional sheets of cells- Length and width…..no depth Stimuli encoded as 2 dimensional maps of electrical activity Note: Impossible to encode receptors as 3 dimensional- But in some cases we perceive 3 dimensional—How?o We have two eyes and two earso They are separate from each other allowing the brain to compare input from one another- Vision and hearing are 3 dimensional senses- Sound is perceived as being out in the environment- Vision is striking our eyes but we perceive it as being out in the environment Connections in the brain between neuronso Connections are only sent in one directiono 1:1 (relay)o Many: 1 Amplification/gain-sensation- Several weak responses and integrate them to one strong response complexity-perception- simple responses that equal once complex responseo 1: Many (arousal) Pattern of connections that release neurotransmitters (dopamine, serotonin, etc) Final wordso 1. Sensation= analysis. Perception= synthesis Break down our environment for analysis and put it together again for a full picture of perceptiono 2. Sensation: Detect or Identify? No sensory system can do both really well Human sensory system is designed to identify- Helps humans to identify other humans- This causes our vision to have high thresholdso 3. Perception: Model or Representations? Humans are able to use language to represent or explain a model- HOUSE describes a
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