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intro psych - yale courseera > week 1 - intro & brain > Flashcards

week 1 - intro & brain Flashcards

1
Q

what is the phineas gage story?

[week 1 - intro & brain]

A

Gage was a foreman who had a tamping iron pass through the left side of his brain. Miraculous recovery, still able to hear, speak, move, understand language, think. But became fitful, irreverent, profane

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2
Q

what is the significance of phineas gage’s story?

[week 1 - intro & brain]

A

illustrates that the brain is the source of mental life; damage to brain can have profound effects on who we are and what we are

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3
Q

what is Descartes’ concept of dualism?

[week 1 - intro & brain]

A

we’re in part material, but also in part spiritual, separate, mental, psychological; in some way that doesn’t reduce to the material

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4
Q

what are the strengths of Descartes’ view of dualism?

[week 1 - intro & brain]

A

1 - humans are capable of doing things that no machine, no material entity ever could
2 - intuition - we don’t feel like bodies, think about brain/mind as separate from body - limitations of physical things

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5
Q

why have modern scientists abandoned Descartes’ view of dualism?

[week 1 - intro & brain]

A

-doesn’t help explain certain things that need to be explained
[e.g. language, memory, etc.]
-much better understanding what physical things can do similarly to us
[e.g. computers]
-evidence that the brain is in fact the roots of mental life
[e.g. disease/injury to brain, substances like caffeine/alcohol, etc.]

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6
Q

what are the different parts of a neuron?

[week 1 - intro & brain]

A

dendrites, axon, myelin sheath, cell body

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7
Q

what is the function of dendrites in a neuron?

[week 1 - intro & brain]

A

receive signals from other neurons:

  • excitatory (like pluses)
  • inhibitory (minuses)
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8
Q

what is the function of axons in neurons?

[week 1 - intro & brain]

A

channel through which information is transmitted

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9
Q

what is the purpose of the cell body of neurons?

[week 1 - intro & brain]

A

sums up the pluses and minuses - after a certain threshold, there’s neural firing

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10
Q

what is the function of the myelin sheath of neurons?

[week 1 - intro & brain]

A

fatty tissue, like insulation on a wire

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11
Q

what are the three types of neurons?

[week 1 - intro & brain]

A

sensory, motor, interneurons

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12
Q

what is the function of sensory neurons?

[week 1 - intro & brain]

A

take in information from the environment (external world)

e.g.: hot -> pain

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13
Q

what is the function of motor neurons?

[week 1 - intro & brain]

A

communicates between brain and motor control

e.g.: pulling hand back after touching hot things

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14
Q

what is the function of interneurons?

[week 1 - intro & brain]

A

connect different neurons without making contact with the external world, either through sensation or through motor action

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15
Q

how do neurons communicate with one another?

[week 1 - intro & brain]

A
  • axon of one neuron will communicate with dendrites of another neuron via synapses
  • one neuron fires -> axon releases neurotransmitters (chemicals) that shoot over synapse and affect dendrites in other neurons
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16
Q

what are the different subcortical structures? (3)

[week 1 - intro & brain]

A
  • medulla
  • cerebellum
  • hypothalamus
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17
Q

what is the function of the medulla?

[week 1 - intro & brain]

A

controls certain automatic function

e.g.: heart rate, blood pressure, muscle coordination

18
Q

what is the function of the cerebellum?

[week 1 - intro, brain, freud, skinner]

A

involved in body balance and muscle coordination

19
Q

what is the function of the hypothalamus?

[week 1 - intro & brain]

A

involved in feeding, sex, thirst, different appetites

emotions, visceral desires

20
Q

what are the different lobes of the cerebral cortex?

[week 1 - intro & brain]

A
  • frontal
  • parietal
  • occipital
  • temporal
21
Q

what is the function of the occipital lobe?

[week 1 - intro & brain]

A

vision

22
Q

what is the function of the temporal lobe?

[week 1 - intro & brain]

A
  • processing auditory info

- encoding of memory

23
Q

what is the function of the parietal lobe?

[week 1 - intro & brain]

A

processes information about temperature, taste, touch, and movement

24
Q

what are different problems that can arise from brain damage? (5+)

[week 1 - intro & brain]

A
  • apraxia
  • agnosia
  • aphasia
  • sensory neglect
  • acquired psychopathy
25
Q

what is apraxia?

[week 1 - intro & brain]

A

problems of actions - unable to do an action, but not paralyzed

  • can make the movements but cannot coordinate basic movements into complex actions
    e. g.: waving goodbye or picking up fork to bring food to mouth
26
Q

what is agnosia? & subtypes

[week 1 - intro & brain]

A
  • disorders of perception - can see, but can’t recognize, “psychic blindness”
  • visual, e.g.: describe picture in terms of parts, but can’t recognize entire object
  • prosopagnosia: can’t recognize faces, e.g. can be mild, can recognize faces as faces but not who they belong to
27
Q

what is sensory neglect?

[week 1 - intro & brain]

A

block out one part of the world, e.g. left side - would draw all numbers on clock 1-12 on right side

28
Q

what is aphasia? & two subtypes

[week 1 - intro & brain]

A
  • disorder of language
  • Broca’s aphasia - can’t really speak (say gibberish/repeat same word)
  • Receptive aphasia - can speak, what you say doesn’t make sense, terrible time understanding other people
29
Q

what is acquired psychopathy?

[week 1 - intro & brain]

A

lose moral sense - sense of right and wrong, ability to control self, restrain self

30
Q

what is lateralization?

[week 1 - intro & brain]

A

difference between the two halves of the brain - what they coordinate/control, deal with the world in different ways

31
Q

what is contralateral organization?

[week 1 - intro & brain]

A

-right brain sees the left side of the world, left visual field, controls left side of body, etc.

32
Q

what are the functions of the right hemisphere of the brain?

[week 1 - intro & brain]

A
  • left side of body

- insight, imagination, music

33
Q

what are the functions of the left hemisphere of the brain?

[week 1 - intro & brain]

A
  • right side of body

- written language, spoken language, reasoning, logic, science

34
Q

what is the hard problem of consciousness?

[week 1 - intro & brain]

A

the conception of the mind from the materialist view is that the mind is an information processor - brain is the physical hardware that processes our mental lives - ideas, processes, heuristics
-> but we don’t fully understand how emotions and sensations work as the product of brain activities (neurotransmitters and electric signals)

35
Q

what are concerns about a scientific approach to psychology?

[week 1 - intro & brain]

A

-materialism poses a mechanistic conception of mental life, but we’re also concerned with humanist values (e.g. moral responsibility - free will, intrinsic value, etc.) - hard to reconcile

36
Q

what are ways to address concerns about a scientific approach to psychology?

[week 1 - intro & brain]

A
  • reject humanist values (no such thing as free will, morality, higher/spritual)
  • reject science
  • attempt to reconcile
37
Q

what is Francis Crick’s “astonishing hypothesis”?

[week 1 - intro & brain]

A

“You, your joys and your sorrows, your memories and your ambitions, your sense of personal identity and free will, are in fact no more than the behavior of a vast assembly of nerve cells and their associated molecules”

38
Q

what is materialism in psychology?

[week 1 - intro & brain]

A

idea that our mental life emerges from our physical brain -> what makes us special, our most intimate feelings and thoughts arise from material things - the brain

39
Q

what are synapses?

[week 1 - intro & brain]

A

tiny gaps between axon terminal of one neuron and the dendrite of another one

40
Q

what are two types of effects that neurotransmitters can have on neurons?

[week 1 - intro & brain]

A

excitatory: increase likelihood of neuron firing
inhibitory: decrease likelihood of neuron firing

41
Q

what is the function of the temporal lobe?

[week 1 - intro & brain]

A

processes memories, integrating them with sensations of taste, sound, sight, and touch

intro psych - yale courseera (14 decks)

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