PS1011 - Foundations of Psychology

who is a candidate for the first bipedal hominid around 6-7million years ago

• Orrorin Tugenensis

• Similar size to a chimpanzee

Key traits of Homo Habilis

• known as “handy man”

• had brain size of around 50% of modern humans

• used primitive stone tools

major cognitive markers for Homo Erectus

• used fire - for cooking and warmth

• utilised base camps

• had brains 60-70% the size of modern humans

How did homo neanderthalensis differ from modern humans

• They had larger brains - adapted to cold

• used sophisticated tools, clothing and symbolic objects

When did homo sapiens emerge and what defined their technology

• They appeared around 300,000 years ago

• used specialised composite tools

• transitioned to food production

Savanna Hypothesis

• the idea that climate change led to more grasslands which favoured hominids who could walk in-between scattered trees

What anatomical change in the skull indicates bipedalism

• The foramen magnum moved from the back of the skull to the base

Survival benefits of bipedalism

• freed the hands for tool-making and carrying items

• improved the ability to see danger and reduced heat stress from the sun

what does the development of technology tell us about cognition

• demonstrates an increase in problem-solving, planning and communication skills

why are stone tools considered limited

• it is likely that hominids used biodegradable materials before stone but these didn’t survive

Oldowan tools

• simple stones chipped for a cutting edge

• 2.5 million years ago

Acheulean tools

• 1.5 million years ago

• Standardised tools - two sided hand axes

Mousterian tools

• 200,000 years ago

• spear pints and scrapers

Upper Palaeolithic tools

• 45,000-10,000 years ago

• sophisticated needles, harpoons and fishhooks

release from proximity

• the ability of language and symbols to allow humans to communicate about things not physically present in space or time

Noam Chomsky - theory of language

• proposed humans have innate mechanisms and a “universal grammar” that allow children to learn language spontaneously

Selective pressures for developing language

• language provided a survival advantage by allowing hominids to warn of danger and share hunting locations and teach tool making

Semanticity

• signals convey specific meaning

Arbitrariness

• no physical link exists between a word and what it represents

Symbolism

• the capacity to represent objects or concepts using arbitrary but meaningful signs (like words or money) based on social agreement

Peirce’s three levels of reference

• Iconic - physical resemblance (red ochre/blood)

• Indexical - physical association (beads/status)

• Symbolic - purely arbitrary (words/money)

Genetic evolution

• long term changes to innate ability

Cultural evolution

• rapid adaptation to environments using the innate capacity for learning and language

significance of beads and art in the fossil record

tangible signs of symbolic behaviour - shows social signalling of identity and wealth

Matthew effect

• giving too much credit to famous people inflating their impact

Presentism

• judging the past using modern-day values and knowledge

Historicism

Studying the past for its own sale without comparing it to today

Zeitgeist

• the ‘spirit of the times’

• The idea that discoveries aren’t random but happen when society and preceding factors ae ready

Animism

• the belief that natural events are caused by spirits or agents with human like intentions and characteristics

Scholastic Method

• rote-learning based on unquestionable authority and core texts

Socratic Questioning

• constant questioning to find answers from within

• Relies on reasoning rather than authority

What did the ancient Egyptians believe about the brain

• generally thought it was useless and left it out of Canopic jars

• Edwin smith papyrus - this early document linked brain damage to leg function showing an early hint of the brains importance

What are Plato’s “forms”

• the idea that objects we see are imperfect versions of an ideal template or perfect form

How did Plato view sleep and dreams

• believed sleep is when the animalistic part of the soul takes over for pleasure/violence - rational people control these appetites through thought

Rationalism

• Plato

• knowledge comes from innate truths and logical reasoning, not volatile sensory experiences

Empiricism

• Aristotle/Galen

• Knowledge is gained through cumulative perceptual experiences and observations

Aristotle’s laws of association

• distinguished between spontaneous remembering and active recall

• Recall follows four laws - contiguity, similarity, contrast and frequency

Deductive Reasoning

• Top-down

• starts with an irrefutable (impossible to deny) truth to reach a certain conclusion

Inductive reasoning

• bottom up

• takes repeated observations to form a general rule ( thought it isnt always 100% certain)

Ockham’s Razor

• the principle of explanatory parsimony - the simplest explanation that trims away necessary detail is usually best

Plato’s tripartite soul

• Reasoning - the brain - the neck acts as a gateway to keep it pure

• Sensation - heart - emotions

• Appetite - liver

Aristotle’s “heart centered” view

• believed that the heart was the primary organ of life and emotion because it is “hot”

• the brain simply exists to cool the hearts tempers

Glens Ventricular Theory

• based on dissections - he argued that ventricles (holes in the brain) produced behaviour when spirits entered them

Hypatia

• famous scholar, mathematician and philosopher in Alexandria who followed neoplatonism (rooted in Plato)

Ibn Sina

• wrote the Canon - standard medical text for 500 years

• proposed humans have 7 interior and 5 external senses

Maimonides

• interested in psychosomatic disorders

• argued that religious texts could be understood through Aristotelian rationalism

Geocentric Model

• Aristotle.Ptolemy

• earth is the center

Heliocentric Model

• Copernicus/Galileo

• sun is the center - proven further by Galileo’s telescope

How did the printing press change science

• it allowed for wider reading and translation leading to new (and often controversial) interpretations of texts