PSYCH 1X03 Lecture Notes - Neuroimaging, Reductionism, Habituation
8 Mar 2013
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Rene descartes: mind-body dualism, i think therefore i am , mind and body are distinct entities that are causally linked. Muller: different areas of bodies connected to different parts of brain. Helmholtz: measured speed of nerve impulse, 90 ft/sec. Learning: pavlov"s dog, schools of thought. Understand structure of consciousness in its basic elements and how they are related. Goal of structuralists was to reduce consciousness into its core components such as sensation, feeling and images. Individuals were trained to observe their own experiences and report them through introspection. A subject in a typical experiment would be exposed to sensory stimuli under carefully controlled lab settings. The subject would then attempt to objectively report their experience. The critical flaw of introspection was that subjects were reporting private data, a personal interpretation of what they experienced with no independent verification of the claim. Psychologists also criticized the strategy of reducing human experience to simple sensations, rather than studying the whole.
