Introduction to Psychology 08 28 2014 Psychology is the study of the human mind understanding people and problems on the human scale What makes us human Things that make us happy our way of viewing the world decision making why do we fall in love o Psychology tires to answer Art is expressive and helps us feel But feeling and understanding are different What people do and feel and why explanatory Job is the figure out the truth of what we think we already know People are rational actors that know what we want and arrange our behaviors to get it In doing this we have a good command of our physical and social environments Multitasking doesn t actually work People won t pay social tax but are willing to pay economic task Pick up kids late Not give to charity when PWYW scenario Body material and soul immaterial separate soul contains aspects of who we are after life soul can survive after body Thomas Acquinas interpreted the bible and catholic faith materialist Body important to being human Need body to be a complete person heaven Rene Descartes dualist Body is just a machine can be denied animal instinct o Pain pleasure recall of images and memory I think therefore I am separation of thinking parts undeniable soul interacts with body in pineal gland o gland is pushed and causes movements by animal spirits Mind to body soul is active in decision making and can be punished for sins Body to Mind little man in your head homunculus BAD ANSWER brain does it all don t need to solve mind body problem no soul Capgras delusion have the knowledge but not familiarity P disease have familiarity but not knowledge We may not be as in charge as we think we are a lot of cognition is below our awareness unconscious actions Where are out motivations Brain is a collection of parts that work together Introspection can t tell us everything we need to know need science THE BRAIN Made up of 100 billion neurons communicates through electro chemical signals neural transmission o neuron transmitters go across synapses to send signals goes to dendrite o can be reused synaptic reuptake o dopamine released by rewards wanting is different from liking 100 thousand miles of it first stop of signals Dendrite Cell body Axon Action potential o Changes permeability to get positive charge for a moment Triggers other membranes Sodium in and out Signal cannot flow in both directions Second stop of signals A lot of the white matter in the brain Gleo cells feed neurons 10 times more than neurons Myelin causes speed in neuron system Multiple sclerosis attacks it Excitatory neurons tell you to go Inhibitory neurons tell you to stop The greater amount decides what you do No half way firing Alcohol inhibits the part of the brains that inhibits you Large amounts of alcohol can inhibit everything and you pass out Thalamus doesn t control smell Hypothalamus is under the thalamus hypo means under Cortex is the size two 14 inch pizzas 4 lobes occipital frontal temporal parietal o occipital back of the head vision o temporal behind ear hearing and language o parietal lobe top of head combine sense info to make understand world right lobe special layout interacting with world left writing playing instrument math reasoning etc somatosensory cortex feeling o frontal lobe motor cortex more space for things that need a lot of control thinking planning etc Franz Gall Brain not homogenous different parts do different things Phrenology Find out how brain works animals injury technology Auburtin found the language center of the brain Paul Broca Found lesion on brain where language is so couldn t speak in autopsy of Leborgne Leborgne had epilepsy Phineas Gage had brain injury and his personality changed Lesions Stoke brain doesn t have enough blood brain has blood clot blood clot burst localized neurological lesion o Where blood isn t going is where brain gets hurt o People usually get better Degenerate disease Huntington s Parkinson s Alzheimer s Injury EEG measures brain electrical activity ERP has good temporal accuracy knows when something is happening Not good locally fMRI is good at localizing not good at telling us when PERCEPTION PART 1 Helmholtz our perception of the world is arbitrary and subjective not a property of the world Due to evolution Vision the sense that we know the most about Rod light and brightness o More sensitive to din light because each 120 rods pair to a ganglion cell very sensitive to light but poor resolution o Rely more on rods at night because of the little but of light making the world grey Cones color o Better special accuracy but less sensitivity 6 1 with ganglion Receptive field where in the world the light will have an impact on a particular rod or cone or ganglion cell Ganglion cell can detect edges o White on center response black off center response Different cells percept different colors and fire off depending on the o Have different frequencies that can specify hue and intensity color you see of color o Short medium long If only had once color perception would not be as good With only two can t resolve hue and intensity Color blind Missing long or short wavelength cone There s a region where color cannot be resolved Mainly in men 2 Not everyone who is knows it Most mammals have 2 cones birds and reptiles are tetrachromats Perception pt 2 Conscience experience is different for everyone Hard to know when they are the same Warmth red orange Cool blue purple People can agree on certain things Cochlea toward the temporal lobe from the eardrum Confuse color sensory system by mixing red green and blue light Illusion that the light is only one color may not red green or blue This is how televisions work Hering Hurvich and Jameson Cannot imagine a reddish green or a yellowish blue Opposing Color opponent process theory After images suggest fatigue red something fills in green o Same for blue and yellow Beyond the retina retina LGN visual cortex part of thalamus naturally Right visual field in right eye processed in right Right visual field in left eye processed in right Right visual field of left and right eyes are aligned Certain cells have a job to respond to a particular orientation Either orientation specific cells require experience to be developed or Brain makes all cells and weeds out the unnecessary ones Don t mix info from each eye so we can compare them depth perception Occipital lobe Ocular Dominance Columns Dorsal top of head Ventral bottom of brain Visual system doesn t report accurately but