PSY270H5 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Electrophysiology, Parahippocampal Gyrus, Neural Coding
Document Summary
What does the mind do: perceives, attends, ignores, remembers, forgets, imagines, communicates, thinks, reasons, decides. 1850s: donder"s reaction time experiment (1868: critical experiment on how the mind can be studied scientifically, measuring how long it takes to select a response by careful experimental manipulations. Person hits a button when light is detected on screen. Two types of light are presented on screen. Buttons on either left or right are pressed depending on which side the button is one. Reaction time was measured (found that rt was slower. 1900s: introspection compared to task 1: study of conscious mental events by "looking within, scientists count the number of sensations that each part of the body has, wilhelm wundt, edward tichener. Eye has 38,850 sensations: problems with introspection. Reliance on consciousness (unconscious biases may influence perception and introspection) Processes producing thoughts are impossible to access.
