PSYC1004 Study Guide - Final Guide: Donald O. Hebb, Cochlear Implant, Neurotechnology
Biological Psychology
All pshologial pheoea - hopes, fear, plans, virtuous behaviour and decadent behaviour, etc. - are
eplaiale i ters of rai futio.
• Biological psychology - the scientific study of the biology of behaviour.
• Attempt to explain behaviour by finding the physiological (physical) reasons behind behaviour
- Reductionist
- Systems approach
• Principles:
1. There are biological basis of our behaviours.
2. Animal research can provide insight into human behaviour.
3. Our behaviour is, at least partially, based on our genes.
4. Different parts of the brain/different neurotransmitters serve different functions.
What is this important?
• The world around us is dynamic. We are receiving a constant stream of information.
• How we receive information, how we interpret information?
• We respond to our interpretation of the information in our environment: actions or behaviour?
How might the brain work?
• Large scale organisation (clockwork motion with your foot + draw number 6 in air)
• Left side/right side motion
• Different parts of the brain are responsible for different behaviours, eg:
➢ Language - left hemisphere
➢ Spatial processing - right hemisphere (responsible for controlling left hand, eg: one-
handed rubix cubes).
Hebbian Learning to Frequency Oscillations
• Donald Hebb: In order to understand the behaviour of living organisms it made sense to study the
neural machinery responsible for that behaviour.
• The Organisation of Behaviour: A Neuropsychological Theory, Hebb proposed that neural structures
that he called 'cell assemblies' constituted the material basis of mental concepts.
• He believed that repeated transmissions of neurological impulses between neurons lead to permanent
facilitation of future impulses along the same pathway
• Also otherwise known as learning.
• Neurons talking to each other - basis for robotic prosthetics
• Neurotechnology - cochlear implant, bionic eye, limb replacement, brain computer interface.
Nature vs. Nurture
• Behaviour is dependent upon both environment and biology.
• Therefore, in order to understand human behaviour you need to understand both the biological
behaviour and human environment.
• Eg: IQ - environment (1/4 of the variance) but correlation disappears by adolescence.
o Adoptive siblings no more similar than strangers (correlation = 0).
o Monozygotic twins correlation =0.86
o Dizygotic twins correlation = 0.6
• Eg: Personality - identical (monozygotic) twins reared apart are far more similar in personality than
randomly selected pairs of people. Likewise, monozygotic twins are more similar than dizygotic twins.
Also biological siblings are more similar in personality than adoptive siblings.
• Eg: Addiction - gene variant allowing pleasure signals to move around brain faster, when eg: alcohol is in
play. Such people are more vulnerable to the behavioural changes alcohol can bring.
o Also genetic factors can explain different impulsivity levels. About 50-60% of the risk of
developing alcoholism can be attributed to genetics.
Principle: There are biological correlates of behaviour.
• What we see is psychological, not physical
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• The brain behaves in a way that tries to make sense of the world.
• The brain is wired to detect specific signals, eg: biological motion.
• The brain is predisposed to understand certain stimuli - lights on human.
Sensation and Perception
• Sensations - the passive process of bringing information from the outside world into the body and to
the brain.
• Perception - the active process of selecting, organising and interpreting the information brought to the
brain by the senses.
1. Sensation occurs:
a) Sensory organs absorb energy from a physical stimulus in the environment.
b) Sensory receptors convert this energy into neural impulses and send them to the brain.
2. Perception occurs:
a) The brain organises the information and translates it into something meaningful.
Top-Down vs. Bottom-Up
• The bottom-up processing is basically low-level information that's used to build up higher-level
information (i.e. shapes for object recognition).
• The top-down processing refers to a person's concept and expectations (knowledge) that influence
perception.
• It is important to understand the relationship between sensation, perception and psychology because it
is a recognition that every human being experiences the world differently.
• Eg: Blue & Black or White & Gold dress.
Distortions of Sensory Reality
• Eg: Loss of vision, loss of hearing, loss of smell/taste.
• Synaesthesia - a tendency to combine senses in an unusual way, eg: see colour in response to sound.
Neuroscience
• fMRI - blood flow tells us which parts of the brain are working.
o When we think, blood flows to the working parts of the brain.
• EEG - electrical activity tells us when cells are firing. The brain is always working and responding.
o Portable and cheap but pictures not as pretty, but does happen in real time.
o Can use EEG to look at cells firing, eg: epileptic seizure, whereas cannot use fMRI to do this.
• Magnetoencephalography (MEG) - tells us where and when activity is occurring in the brain.
o Neural activity, great images, real-time but expensive.
• Changing the brain – tDCS, TMS.
• Eye movements - tell us about attention
• Electromyogram, skin conductance - stress, emotion
Applied Biological Psychology and Perception: Dyslexia
What is dyslexia?
• Approx. 10% of the population can be diagnosed as dyslexic.
• Dyslexia is primarily a difficulty in phonological recording, but many dyslexic readers have associated
sensory difficulties.
• We consider a child to be dyslexic when there is no other obvious explanation for their reading
difficulty.
• For an individual to be diagnosed as 'dyslexic' they must show the following:
o Reading substantially below average for their age (difficult to know how low counts).
o Adequate teaching exposure.
o Adequate socio-economic opportunity.
o No other disturbances of an organic origin, eg: autism, retardation, etc.
o Normal to above average IQ.
• This is a 'definition of exclusion', and in many ways, this definition is an experimental one, i.e. it is useful
for identification and communication purposes, but may be impractical in the 'real world'. Eg: Can a
child from an emotionally challenging background, or a child with ADHD have dyslexia?
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Document Summary
Biological psychology (cid:858)all ps(cid:455)(cid:272)hologi(cid:272)al phe(cid:374)o(cid:373)e(cid:374)a - hopes, fear, plans, virtuous behaviour and decadent behaviour, etc. Are e(cid:454)plai(cid:374)a(cid:271)le i(cid:374) ter(cid:373)s of (cid:271)rai(cid:374) fu(cid:374)(cid:272)tio(cid:374)(cid:859): biological psychology - the scientific study of the biology of behaviour, attempt to explain behaviour by finding the physiological (physical) reasons behind behaviour. Principles: there are biological basis of our behaviours, animal research can provide insight into human behaviour, our behaviour is, at least partially, based on our genes, different parts of the brain/different neurotransmitters serve different functions. Large scale organisation (clockwork motion with your foot + draw number 6 in air) Left side/right side motion: different parts of the brain are responsible for different behaviours, eg: Spatial processing - right hemisphere (responsible for controlling left hand, eg: one- handed rubix cubes). Hebbian learning to frequency oscillations: donald hebb: in order to understand the behaviour of living organisms it made sense to study the neural machinery responsible for that behaviour.
