Historical Perspectives PS1101- exam style questions

Which species are likely to be ancestors of modern humans?

6 million years ago- Bipedalism- E.g. Orrorin tugenensis

4.4 million years ago:Ardipithecus ramidus- Adapted for bipedalism and life in the trees- Brain size ~20% the sizeof the human brain

3-4 million years ago: Australopithecus afarensis (Lucy)- Walked upright (1-1.5m)- Brain 35% the size of modern human brain

2.4-1.4 million years ago: Homo habilis ("handy man")- Brain 50% the size of modern human brain- Primitive stone tools- Strong hands

1.89million-110,000 years ago: Homo erectus- Brain 60-70% the size of modern human brain- Use of base camps- Used fire (cook food, stay warm, repel predators)

400,000-40,000 yrs ago: Homo neanderthalensis• Large brains (but also large body mass (adapted to cold) - brains largerthan modern humans!)• Sophisticated tools, controlled fire, shelters, clothing, symbolic objects• Social structures, maybe language?!?

300,000 yrs ago to present: Homo sapiens ("intelligent man")• Specialised composite tools• Transition to producing food 12,000 yrs ago

Is tool use specific to humans?

No, other animals make simple tools too. E.g. monkeys using "stone hammers" to crack open cashew nuts

What are the earliest tools used by humans and their ancestors?

• Stone chopping tools (~2.5 million years ago)

• Hand axes (~1.2 million years ago)

• Standardised hand axes (~700,000 years ago)

-Other tools could have been used but these might have been made using biodegradable materials such as plants.

Which tools have been dated to more than 1.5 million years?

Stone chopping tools (~2.5 million yearsago)

When did modern language develop?

modern languages developed with modern humans 40-35,000 years ago.

- Argument based on the finding of more complexabilities at that time (finely made stone tools,composite tools, use of bone/antler, cave art)

What factors led to the development of language?

Those who could communicate with language, and pass that skill on, would have a survival advantage basic communication methods

Adaptive advantages of language: e.g. warn of danger, communicate good hunting places, instruct how to make tools, promote complex social structures

What key factors enabled spoken language to develop?

Bipedalism (the habit of standing and walking on two feet) may have led to anatomical changes enabling speech and the development of vocal range

Which theories propose innate mechanisms for language?

Chomsky (1950s/60s)- Innate mechanisms for language- Universal grammar (for all languages)-Hence children• learn language so easily-The LAD (language acquisition device) is a hypothetical tool hardwired into the brain that helps children rapidly learn and understand language

John Locke- argued that people are born blank slates

Can you explain what Rationalism is?

-Plato adopted this manner

-Sensory experiences are volatile and not necessarily predictable

-Logical deductive reasoning is needed to find the facts

-Philosophical idea that the fundamental starting point for all knowledge is not found in the senses or in experience, but instead can be traced back to some innate knowledge that we're born with

What is meant by the Matthew Effect?

is the tendency of individuals/ researchers to accrue social or economic success in proportion to their initial level of popularity, friends, and wealth

Attribute more success and credit to well-known people than deserved which in turn inflate their perceived impact

Can you explain Presentism?

(1965)

• Looking at the past and interpreting them in the values and context of the present- should be avoided

Which is meant by Anisim?

Believed that natural events are based on spirits or animate agents with human like characteristics with intentions

-Early civilisation relied on everyday practical knowledge to survive, knowledge was handed down

What is deductive reasoning?

a logical approach- from general ideas to specific conclusions

What is inductive reasoning?

from specific ideas to general conclusions

Who believed in entelechy? and define

Aristotle

(that everything in nature has an innate function)

What four elements did Aristotle believe that all things are comprised of ?

• Earth

• Wind

• Fire

• Water

What was the soul described as, and what were the 3 parts?

an inner essence, spiritual and was the basis of ourbeing/consciousness

Reasoning - Brain

Sensation - Heart

Appetite - Liver

Explain Aristotle's Laws of association.

Memory includes the following components of remembering and recall

Remembering is spontaneous

Law of contiguity

Law of similarity

Law of contrast

Law of frequency

What does the Heliocentric model suggest?

• Copernicus

• Sun being centre of the universe (galaxy)

• Slow more away from rationalism

• Observation was based on naked eye

• Galileo later developed the telescope which helped furtherexplain planetary orbits

• Kepler - elliptical orbits

How did the development of the printing press help the development of science?

Reading and translation of texts allowed for wider understanding

Also for differences in interpretation which were controversial

What does Ockham's Razor explain?

-Attempts to trim down explanation to its most succinct form

-Strive for explanatory parsimony• Parsimony - the most complex ideas explained in the most simplest ofmanner

What were Locke's view of knowledge?

Assumed that the human mind started out without any prior knowledge (tabula rasa - a blank slate)

-Knowledge comes from 2 principle sources:

• Sensation

• Reflection - the active mental processing of sensation

-Experience and objects consist of 2 qualities:

• Primary qualities-Inherent properties of an object, Extension, shape, motion etc.

• Secondary qualities-Depends on sensation: Colour, smell etc

How did the changes introduced by Descartes to Aristotle's world view advance the development of science?

Descartes:

• Saw animals and humans as machines; mechanistic view of the world

• Intensely sceptical; kept the Platonic ideals and rationalism

What influence has the concepts of empiricism, induction, rationalism, idealism and realism had in developing science and psychology as a whole?

The empiricist movement relies on forming associations with past experiences that come from intuitive senses- George Berkeley (1685-1753)-His empirical observation lead to idealism

Idealism• Knowledge is a construction of the mind

Realism• Truth of knowledge depends on how well it matches with the real world

What did Golgi do?

Neuroscientific revolution:

• Introduced technique of staining

• This allowed neurons to be seen viamicroscope

What is phrenology?

• Based on bumps and dents in the scalp

• The larger the bump in a specific part of the head reveals increased aspects in the particular personal quality (and vice versa)

• One of the 1st notions of localisation of function

What is Cartesian dualism?

Descartes came to conclusion that sensations from the outside world (feelings and sensations) are separate from the thought (mind or soul)

Two (dual) separate parts to the human being

What is the systematic doubting principle?

Question everything and all previous authorities. Only Accept as true what is absolutely certain

• If you can be fooled by something, then it might not exist

• The only thing you cannot doubt is that you are doubting - that you are thinking

What did Gall notice?

Noticed that seemingly more intelligent animals tended to have larger brains

Bigger the brain, the more intelligent you were

Give examples of skills that developed through cultural evolution.

Tool invention

What is the neuronal recycling hypothesis and how might it account for cultural evolution?

Dehaene and Cohen's (2007)

Culturally acquired skillsuse evolutionarily older brain circuits

Is culture linked to the experience / expression of psychological disorders?

Culture can influence the symptoms that sufferersof mental illness report

Dein (1997) (review) characterisation of depression:- Far East / lower socioeconomic groups in Western cultures:• Somatic symptoms

Define Faculty Psychology

Based on Scottish realist philosophy

Mind is composed of a set of "faculties"

Innate, but influenced by nurture/environment

Wundt's new psychology: two parts?

1. Immediate conscious experience- Use of "internal perception" (form of self report)

2. Higher mental processes-Outside the lab. Observation, case study, etc.- Thinking, language, culture, social psychology

What does SRT stand for?

Simple reaction time

What does DRT stand for?

Discrimination reaction time

What does CRT stand for?

Choice reaction time

Who was FRANCISCUS DONDERS

First to use differences in human reaction time (RT) to infer differences in mental processing

What are modern applications of mental chronometry

-*Mental Imagery

-Visual Search

-Selective Attention

-*Attention Orienting

-Response Selection

-*Identification

What is the stroop task?

Study of automated behaviours and selective attention

Situation in which we process information in conflict with the type of information we need to respond to