PSYC314 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Monism, Neocortex, Hemispatial Neglect
29 Aug 2016
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Document Summary
Dualism- physical and psychological matter completely separate. Monism- mind is phenomenon produced by nervous system. Consciousness- experiencing awareness; having sense of existence: belief that perception must enter consciousness to affect behavior is incorrect. Blindsight- ability of person who cannot see object to reach for it (like when thrown) w/o conscious awareness. Due to primitive brain (head/eye movement) being distinct from mammalian- primitive responds to sudden movements. Rubber hand illusion- hide real arm behind wall and place rubber arm within sight where arm would be; brain adopts rubber arm as real- feel sensation, fears harm to it. Cerebral hemispheres: longitudinal fissure, split brains- connected by nerve bundle called corpus callosum through each neocortex. Reading book held in left hand- right brain is bored doing. Natural selection and evolution: functionalism- understanding a biological trait by understanding its usefulness to the organism, alfred russell wallace- english naturalist; independently formed natural selection theory, evolution of large brain. Correlates w/ body size, particularly skull size.
