PS261 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Dual Process Theory, Reflex Arc, Startle Response
Document Summary
Before it was commonly believed that all human behaviour was governed by free will. Human behaviour can be caused by the external world or by the mind. Some behaviours are automatic reactions to stimuli (reflex) Automatic reactions to external stimuli and mediated by reflex. Assumed mechanism of behaviour is the only one available to animals: nativism other than humans. Some ideas are innate (god) geometry (shortest distance between two points is a straight line. Simple sensations combined into more complex ideas by associations: hedonism. People do things to receive pleasure and avoid pain. Mind operates just as predictably as a reflex: rules of associations. Contiguity: if two events repeatedly occur together in time they will become associated. Devoid of any meaning to show learning: reflex. Decartes was wrong about animal spirits (hollow tubes) Bell and magendie separate sensory and motor paths for information to and from the cns. Sechenov provided a reflexive model of voluntary behaviour.
