Chapter 1
Describe independent variable
The variable that is deliberately manipulated by the experimenter.
Explain what is meant by the term dualism.
Dualism refers to the relationship between the body and the mind. The notion of dualism views the mind and brain as separate entities.
Explain what phrenology is.
Phrenology, as developed by Franz Joseph Gall is the study of bumps and indentations on the skull to determine a person’s character, intelligence and a range of other areas responsible for a variety of behaviours and functions.
Explain the difference between the central nervous system and the peripheral nervous system.
The central nervous system (CNS) comprises the brain and spinal cord. It controls the body via messages sent from the peripheral nervous system. The peripheral nervous system is made up nerves and ganglia outside of the brain and spinal cord.
Explain the role of the corpus callosum.
The corpus callosum is a set of neural fibres that richly connect the two brain hemispheres. When the signal is interrupted seizures may be the result.
Explain what is meant by the term plasticity.
Plasticity of the brain refers to the way it changes in response to stimulation from the environment; the brain is capable of learning throughout the lifespan because of this plasticity. The process of plasticity occurs at the synaptic connections in the brain.
Describe confounding variable
A variable other than the independent variable that has a systematic effect on the value of the dependent variable. If a cofounding variable exists, no valid conclusions about the research can be drawn.
Identify and explain one key difference between psychology and philosophy.
One key difference between psychology and philosophy is that psychology uses observation and systematic experimental research (the scientific method), whereas philosophy uses logic and reason to explain behaviours. Psychology is classified as a science because it is based on three processes: gathering factual information, forming theories to explain this factual information, and testing these theories. Philosophy tries to apply logic and reason to identify behaviour, and does not follow the same systematic approach as that of psychology.
Explain how case studies, autopsies and surgical procedures have contributed to our understanding of features of the brain.
Case studies provided opportunities for scientists to explore brain function by assessing the impact of damage on living examples. For example, when Phineas Gage had a steel rod go through his frontal cortex and his personality changed, scientists had an opportunity to explore brain function in a living person.
Autopsies provide the opportunity to examine brains of people who have died and their findings can be then applied to living people.
Surgical procedures such as the corpus callosotomy allowed researchers to gain an understanding of the corpus callosum and how it richly connects the two hemispheres. This added to scientific understanding about epilepsy.
Describe the two functions of the peripheral nervous system.
The two functions of the peripheral nervous system are to control the voluntary movement of the skeletal muscles, and to assist in controlling the involuntary muscles such as glands and organs.
Explain why the case of Phineas Gage is important in understanding localisation of areas of the brain.
Gage’s primary damage to the brain was in the area of the prefrontal cortex, which resulted in behavioural changes. He went from being a calm and responsible man to one who was emotionally volatile, impulsive, irresponsible and incapable of making good judgments or carrying out planned behaviour. Gage’s accident gave researchers valuable information about the functions of the prefrontal cortex and the localisation of function.
Explain what is meant by the term pruning. In your response, reference the development of neurons in children and adults.
The term pruning refers to unused neurons or synapses being ‘pruned’ or eliminated. These are the neurons that have not established a connection with a neighbouring cell. Pruning occurs during infancy and childhood but there is a second wave of pruning in early adolescence. Although developmental plasticity occurs during infancy and childhood, adults are still able to grow and learn through adaptive plasticity. Unused connections in both children and adults are pruned similarly.
Explain the null hypothesis.
The hypothesis that there will be no significant difference between groups; any difference observed would be caused by error or chance.
Explain the philosophical debate between free will and determinism.
‘Free will’ is where a person makes a conscious decision to act in a particular way. ‘Determinism’ is where actions are governed by both internal and external forces outside of a person’s control. This philosophical debate is still relevant today in psychology: whether or not a person is entirely ‘free’ to make decisions for themselves without considering others and the world around them, and what impact their decision may have (for themselves or others).
Summarise the mind-versus-body debate.
The mind-versus-body debate considers whether the mind is a separate entity from the brain and the body. The brain is physical and can be measured in terms of size, mass shape and density. The mind relates to self-awareness – our ability to reflect, think and reason. René Descartes was one of the first great thinkers to offer a systematic description of the relationship between the mind and the brain with his observation ‘Congo ergo sum’ (I think therefore I am). Descartes viewed the bind and body as two quite distinct systems – dualism. He believed an interaction exists between the mind and the body; that is, the mind creates our real experience of the world and interacts with our body.
Describe a neural pathway.
A neural pathway is a bundle of neurons that provides connections between one part of the nervous system and another. It can carry messages from the body to the brain (afferent pathways), from the brain to the body (efferent pathways) or within the brain itself.
The corpus callosum bridges the gap between the two hemispheres of the brain. Despite its importance in facilitating communication between the hemispheres, people are able to lead relatively normal lives when this is medically severed. Assess why this is possible.
This is because when the corpus callosum is severed the two hemispheres of the brain act independently. They no longer share information but the patient can adjust to this and lead a normal life.
Tan, Broca’s famous case study, was known to curse with relative ease at times of frustration. Other people with Broca’s aphasia have been able to sing as they did before their brain damage. Propose why this may be the case.
Tan is likely to have been able to curse in frustration and other people were able to sing because Broca’s aphasia doesn’t affect memory. Rather, it affects the ability to produce speech. So, although speech is laboured and few words are spoken (one or two word as outbursts at times), the lyrics to songs that have been learned over a period of time are potentially more like ‘muscle memory’.
Summarise the scientific method.
The scientific method is a standardised way of making observations, gathering data, testing hypotheses and interpreting results to establish theories in order to describe and measure human behaviour.
Distinguish between the structural and functional approaches to psychology.
The structural approach to psychology involves reducing our conscious experiences into smaller, more basic elements to be examined (independent elements). The functional approach focuses on people’s conscious adaptation to the physical and social environment, or the ‘whole picture’ (dependent elements – on each other or the surrounds).
Using examples, differentiate between neuroimaging techniques and electrical brain stimulation.
Neuroimaging techniques such as CT, PET, MRI and SPECT allow researchers to build on our already extensive knowledge of the brain and nervous system. They are used to treat, diagnose and understand the brain’s functionality. The use of techniques such as these makes researching the brain safer for individuals, and allows scientists to link the connections between physiological processes and behaviours. Electrical brain stimulation differs from neuroimaging because these devices have been applied directly to actual brain tissue. Penfield developed a technique that used electrical brain stimulation that involved opening up the patient’s skull (while only using a local anaesthetic) and destroying (lesioning) the neurons in the brain where seizures originated. It allows the patient to be actively involved in their own brain surgery. As no two brains are identical, Penfield would systematically map the brain using the ESB device while they were awake on the operating table to make sure that he did not accidentally damage unaffected areas.
Mel was baking cupcakes for her friend’s birthday on the weekend. She was distracted talking to her mother and picked up a hot tray. Before Mel had time to think about what she was doing, she had dropped the tray. Explain how Mel was able to react so quickly.
Mel was able to react so quickly due to something called the ‘reflex arc’. This is a communication between Mel’s sensory and motor neurons using the interneurons. These interneurons assist in sending the message very quickly from ‘sensing’ (sensory neuron) the danger – the hot tray – to her brain. Her brain reacts by getting Mel to ‘move’ (motor neuron) her hand in order to avoid being burned. This is an automatic reaction that happens quickly to prevent her from coming to harm.
Broca and Wernicke were able to study patients who had existing injuries. Propose another way that their research could have been conducted.
With the lack of technology at their disposal it would have been difficult for them to carry out research other than on dead people. However, they could have done longitudinal case studies on their patients and mapped any changes of behaviour and function.
Wilson was raised in a deprived environment, at the age of 10 he was found and transferred into a foster family that provided an enriched environment. Using your understanding of plasticity, consider how plasticity may help this child recover when they are in a more nourishing environment.
While developmental plasticity occurs during infancy and childhood (during the time when Wilson was in a deprived environment), adaptive plasticity occurs during our entire life. This means that although neural networks would potentially not have been formed as excessively in a deprived environment for Wilson before 10 years of age (he may not have developed certain pathways), when moving to the foster home and a more enriched environment, these pathways would be given the chance to form. His brain will adapt and therefore recover in the more nourishing environment.
For the situation below, determine what the variables are:
Primary school children who watch violent cartoons on television have more nightmares than those who watch humorous cartoons.
The independent variable is whether the children watch violent or non-violent cartoons; the dependent variable is the number of nightmares reported by the children.
Jake has been playing rugby at an elite level for three years. Recently he has been struggling to increase his performance. He finds that he is getting anxious before a game, because he doesn’t want to let his team down. Determine what kind of psychologist Jake might choose to see.
Jake would choose to see a sports psychologist because this type of psychologist assists individuals (or teams) to maximise their performance and achieve their goals. They also assist in improving mental skills, and managing stress and performance anxiety. A sports psychologist could help Jake with his issues.
Evaluate this statement: ‘fMRI scans provide superior knowledge compared with EEG recordings’.
fMRI measures changes in blood flow associated with neural activity. fMRI can capture whole-brain changes in metabolic activity related to brain activity with good spatial resolution (approx. 1 mm). In this sense, it is may be superior to EEG, but fMRI and EEG measure different things – electrical activity versus metabolic changes. A further downside of EEG is that activity is measured at a few places on the scalp (electrodes) and it is hard to specifically trace back to where the brain activity is coming from.
Communication between neurons can be interrupted by substances, such as alcohol and pain relief medication. Consider the implications of disrupting neuron communication. In your response, acknowledge the advantages and disadvantages.
Communication between neurons can be interrupted by substances, such as alcohol and pain relief medication. Consider the implications of disrupting neuron communication. In your response, acknowledge the advantages and disadvantages.
Distinguish between the forebrain, midbrain and hindbrain.
The forebrain is responsible for higher order thinking processes and includes the cerebral hemispheres. The midbrain connects the hindbrain with the forebrain and controls arousal levels, attention and consciousness. The hindbrain has the primitive parts of the brain comprising the cerebellum, pons and medulla, adjacent to the spinal cord.
Evaluate the changes that take place in the brain during adolescence. Choose one of the following topics: emotional stress, driving and decision making, social interaction and responsibility or critical thinking.
Student responses will vary; a sample response is provided below:
There are many, many changes that take place in the brain during adolescence because the brain is still growing, developing and forming connections. Although Australians are considered to be adults from the age of 18 years, our brains continue to grow and develop until our mid-20s. During adolescence, there is an increase in the number of neurons and synapses in the cerebellum, the part of the brain responsible for balance, muscle tone and motor skills.
There is also an increase in the number of connections between the two hemispheres of our brain and the amygdala becomes more active in adolescence. During times of emotional stress, the adolescent brain may rely more heavily on the amygdala. The amygdala play an important role in processing emotions so when adolescents are hyper-emotional or make bad decisions, this could be due to the amygdala rather than the prefrontal cortex, which is still developing.