Eun-Sung Chang

What is Naturalistic fallacy?

Intro to Psych

Week 2

Lecture 3 (1/30/17): Evolution

Marr’s Levels of Analysis

1. Computation ???? Evolution ???? Survive, Procreate

o What is the problem to be solved?

o What is the mind trying to do right now?

2. Algorithm ???? Mind

o What is the step-by-step procedure for solving the problem? o How is the mind doing that?

3. Implementation ???? Brain

o How is the solution actually realized physically?

o What is the actually machinery, and what is the machinery doing? • Understanding human cognition requires understanding all 3 levels

Natural Selection

• Idea by Charles Darwin

• Ex.) Human spine is poorly designed for creatures who walk upright  because we evolved from animals who walked on all fours

1. Organisms replicate, but not perfectly

o Ex.) Variability in offspring

What is Teleology?

2. Environment can sustain a limited number of organisms

o “You can’t always get what you want”

3. For any given environment, variability will lead some offspring to be more  likely to replicate than others

4. If new traits can be passed on to offspring/be inherited, they will tend to  accumulate

Pitfalls of Natural Selection

• Naturalistic fallacy – things are right because they are natural o “Is” does not equal “ought”

• Deterministic fallacy – things are inevitable because they are natural o Humans can choose to ‘disobey’ their genes

• Nature vs. nurture

o The environment influences which genes are expressed, and we can  also alter our environment

o Nature via nurture

• Teleology – things tend to get better

o Ex.) Smarter, stronger, faster, cooler, etc.

o There is no real “better” in an evolutionary or biological sense o Evolution does not entail getting ‘better’

Brain as the center of mentation?

Environment of Evolutional Adaptation

• You can be very particularly adapted to a certain environment, but if the  environment changes, your adaptations will not be beneficial o Ex.) Taste buds/eating preferences might have evolved due to  different resources

• People tend to spontaneously categorize others by race/gender/age o Examples of why someone might categorize others by: Don't forget about the age old question of what is Gastrulation?

▪ Ex.) Gender ???? to find a mate

▪ Ex.) Age ???? hierarchy, care giving, etc.

o No particular reason why humans categorize by race

• The human mind did not particularly develop to categorize by race, but  have developed to categorize by in-groups and out-groups

Lecture 4 (2/1/17): Brain

Materialism: Brains Make Mind

• The mental experiences don’t cause each other, the neurons trigger mental  experiences

• Steve Pinker

o “Brain cells fire in patterns.” ???? The mind is like a computer o “A pattern corresponds to a thought. One pattern causes another  pattern.” ???? One thing causes another thing, which causes another  thing, and so on (materialism) Don't forget about the age old question of What kind of political messages was Augustus trying to send with the “Augustus of Primaporta” and “Ara Pacis”?

• René Descartes

o Dualism – mind and brain have no relationship, mental events and  physical events do not correlate

A      ????      B

C      ????      D • Thomas Hobbes If you want to learn more check out What are the Patterns of Income Inequalities?

Mental Events (pineal gland) Physical Events

o Materialism – mind and brain have a causal relationship, mental  events and physical events correlate

A                B

C      ????      D

o Ex.) Smelling cookies

smells  ???? cookies! If you want to learn more check out What makes a federal system, like that of the United States, different from a confederate and unitary national government?

good

smells    ????       D

cookies

Mental Events Physical Events

Mental Events Physical Events

• Placebo effect – effective treatment due to patient’s belief o Ex.) Real medicine for depression

I feel  

better

takes     ????       SSRI Don't forget about the age old question of What is the Theory of Island Biogeography?

meds

o Ex.) Placebo effect

I feel        medicine We also discuss several other topics like What's wrong with "homosexual"?

better        helps!

takes    ????        

meds

Mental Events Physical Events

Mental Events Physical Events

• *The mind is what the brain does!

• Ex.) Brain region involved in addiction

1. Don’t I have free will?

2. How does the outside affect the inside?

3. Can “I” be tinkered with?

o Just because there is a biological basis, it doesn’t mean you are  tied/held to that biology

o Biology does not determine actions

• The brain is always involved

Brain Debates

• Brain as the center of mentation?

o Ancient Greeks had arguments about where the center of our  psychological experiences was located

• Tissue vs. ventricles?

o During the Renaissance, people thought the fluid protecting the brain  was the important part

• What makes a cell a cell?

o Camillo Golgi – found out a way to stain neurons

• Globalization vs. localization of function

o Idea that brain is like a sponge ???? incorrect because every part of a  sponge has the same function to mop up liquids

o Idea that brain is like a bicycle ???? correct because a bicycle is made  up of a bunch of gears that perform specific functions to form one  big machine ???? modularity

• Modularity – the brain is made up of specialized parts that all perform a  specific function

• Why is localized function so important?

1. Multiple brain regions imply multiple cognitive processes

o Ex.) Memory

2. Overlapping brain regions implies overlapping cognitive processes o Ex.) Gershmann’s syndrome: cannot differentiate between  adding/subtracting, left/right, nor which of your fingers are being  touched

• Ex.) Agnosia: patient could see the object and knew what the object was  once she felt it in her hand; could not identify object from visual  information

Methods of Localization

• Franz Gall’s Phrenology

o Thought there were bumps located in specific parts in the brain that  determined specific traits ???? you could tell a lot about a person by  feeling his/her skull

o Incorrect about bumps and traits, correct about localization • Accident

o Ex.) Phineas Gage (1848): rod went through skull, damage to frontal  lobe ???? maintained consciousness, not much physical damage,  became less conscientious and less friendly

o Neuropsychology – central method to diagnose what psychological  capacities have been altered after an accident

• Manipulation

o Researchers use nonhuman subjects

o Electrical stimulation on awake surgery patients

▪ Wilder Penfield – developed surgical mapping

▪ Measures parts of the somatosenory cortex and motor cortex • Non-invasive measurement

o There is a specific part of the brain in which people think about the  intention of others ???? shows how moral judgement works

o Electroencephalography (EEG)

▪ Can be a good indicator of how something is happening

▪ Cannot tell difference between closely placed brain regions o Functional neuroimaging

▪ Positron Emission Tomography (PET)

▪ Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI)

Brain Organization

• Dimensions of brain organization

o Frontal – reasoning, language, executive control

o Temporal – audition, language, object recognition

o Parietal – attention, objects in space, counting

o Occipital – vision

• What makes humans so smart?

Voluntary action, complex  

judgement, symbolic thought

Luxuries Necessities

Emotion, motivation, simple  judgement

Sensory information Basic motor programs Basic life functions (breathing,  heartbeat, etc.)

• Human brains have bilateral symmetry ???? left side of the brain controls  right side of the body and vice versa

o Left brain – sensory processing and motor control of right side,  linguistic analysis, specifics

o Right brain – sensory processing and motor control of left side,  paralinguistic analysis, generalities