Unit: 1

INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY AS A SCIENCE OF

MIND AND BEHAVIOR
The word psychology was actually derived from the two Greek
words Psyche and Logos. Psyche meaning soul and logos
meaning discourse. Psychology is both an applied and academic
field that studies the human mind and behavior. Research in
psychology seeks to understand and explain how we think, act and
feel. As most people already realize, a large part of psychology is
devoted to the diagnosis and treatment of mental health issues, but
that's just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to applications for
psychology. In addition to mental health, psychology can be applied
to a variety of issues that impact health and daily life including
performance enhancement, self-help, ergonomics, motivation,
productivity, and much more.
Therefore, a generally accepted definition of psychology is "the
study of human behavior. Behavior can provide us with valuable
windows into a persons emotional and cognitive states, and if we
can understand the psychological influences on behavior, we can try
to better understand a persons inner experience.
Psychology can be roughly divided into two major sections:
1.

Research, which seeks to increase our knowledge base

2.

Practice, through which our knowledge is applied to

solving problems in the real world.

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AREAS/SUB-FIELDS OF PSYCHOLOGY: (Similarities and

Differences with other Sciences)
Cognitive Psychology
Cognitive psychology focuses on understanding the mental
processes of how people think.
Problem-solving, decision-making, language, intelligence,
and attention are just a few of the topics studied by
cognitive psychologists.
Developmental Psychology
Developmental

psychologists study

the

physical

and cognitive development that occurs over the course of

the lifespan.
These psychologists generally specialize in an area such as
infant, child, adolescent, or geriatric development, while
others may study the effects of developmental delays.
Experimental Psychology
Experimental psychologists utilize the scientific method
to study a while range of human behaviors and
psychological phenomena.
Experimental psychology is often viewed as a
distinct subfield within psychology, but experimental
techniques and methods are actually used extensively
throughout every subfield of psychology.

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 Some of the methods used in experimental

psychology include experiments, correlation studies,
case studies, and naturalistic observation.
Industrial-Organizational Psychology
Psychologists

in

this

field

apply

psychological

principles to research on workplace issues such as

productivity and behavior.
Some psychologists in this field work in areas such as
human factors, ergonomics, and human-computer
interaction.
Research

in

this

field

is

known

as applied

research because it seeks to solve real world problems.

Personality Psychology
Personality psychologists

study

the

characteristic

patterns of thoughts, feelings, and behavior that make

each person unique.
These psychologists often work in academic settings as
instructors or researchers.
Social Psychology

Social psychologists study social behaviors, including

how individual self-image and behavior is impacted by
interactions with others.

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 These psychologists often conduct research in academic

settings, but others work in such areas such as advertising
and government.
Other areas of related areas of psychology are Behavioral
Neuroscience, Clinical Psychology
Counseling,
Developmental, Developmental Psychology Forensic Psychology
Health Psychology, Neuropsychology Educational and School
Psychology Clinical-Personality
Social
Cluster.
Nature of psychology
1.

Study of experience

Psychologists study a variety of human experiences which are

mainly personal or private in nature. They may range from
experiences of dream, conscious experiences at different stages of
life and experiences when the consciousness is altered through
meditation or use of psychedelic drugs. The study of such
experiences helps the psychologist to understand the personal world
of the individual.
2.

Study of mental processes

Psychology as the study of mental processes tries to investigate the

activities happening in the brain which are primarily non
physiological in nature. These mental processes include perception,
learning, remembering and thinking. These are internal mental
activities which are not directly observed but inferred from the
behavioral activities of the person. For example, we can say that
somebody is thinking if he or she displays certain activities related
to finding solution to a mathematical problem assigned to him or
her.

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3.

Study of behavior

The range of behaviors studied in psychology is very broad. It

includes simple reflexes (e.g. eye blinking), common response
patterns such as talking to friends, verbal reports about feelings and
internal states and complex behaviors such as handling computers,
playing piano and addressing a crowd. These behaviors are either
observed directly through naked eyes or are measured through
instruments. They are generally exhibited verbally or nonverbally
(e.g. facial expression) when an individual reacts to a stimulus in a
given situation.
Thus in psychology the main unit of investigation is the individual
human being and his or her experiences, mental processes and
behaviours.

Mental processes
Other nature are helps in prediction the future development,
emphasizes on search of truth, beliefs in cause and effect
relationships.

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Some of the common definitions by different author are:

The science of the mind or of mental states and processes.

The science of human and animal behavior.
The sum or characteristics of the mental states and
processes of a person or a class of persons, or of the mental
states and processes involved in a field or activity.
General mental plays or strategy.
The mental makeup or structure of an individual that
causes him or her to think or act in the way he or she does.
Psychology studies the behavior of not only humans but
also animals.

Misconception of Psychology
Psychologists are mind readers
Authority of mental telepathy or fortune telling.
When I tell people Im studying Psychology, their first
response is generally so can you tell what Im thinking?
Some people also think that a psychologist is the same as a
psychiatrist, the type of people that lie you down on a sofa
and talk to you about your feelings.
Criminal profiling
Reinforcement (change in behavior)
Lie detector(heart rate/breathing)
Opposite attractive
Women talks more than men
It is better to vent your anger than to hold it.

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Common Sense and Psychology

Common Sense

Psychology

As a set of fundamental assumptions.

As a set of Maximums or shared belief.
As a shared way of thinking.
Naturally like instinct/critical thinking.
First hand Observation

Psychology backed b
proof.
Psychology is logical
It helps in predicting
Able to support unive

HISTORY OF PSYCHOLOGY
Psychology can be classified as
a.
b.
c.

The Early age of pre scientific psychology

The Modern age of Scientific psychology
The Recent trends in contemporary psychology

1878 - G. Stanley Hall becomes the first American to earn a Ph.D. in

psychology. Hall eventually founds the American Psychological
Association.
1879 Wilhelm Wundt founds the first experimental psychology
lab in Leipzig, Germany. The event is considered the starting point
of psychology as a separate science.
1881 --Wundt

forms

the

professional

journal Philosophische

Studien(Philosophical Studies)

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1883 - G. Stanley Hall opens the first experimental psychology

lab in the United States at John Hopkins University.
1885 - Herman Ebbinghaus published his famous ber das
Gedchtnis ("On Memory"), which was later translated to English
asMemory. A Contribution to Experimental Psychology. In the work,
he describes his learning and memory experiments that he
conducted on himself.
1886 Sigmund Freud begins providing therapy to patients in
Vienna, Austria.
1888 - James McKeen Cattell becomes the first professor of
psychology at the University of Pennsylvania.
1890 -

James McKeen Cattell

publishes Mental

Tests and

Measurements, marking the beginning of the practice of

psychological assessment.
-William James publishes Principles of Psychology.
-Sir Francis Galton creates correlation technique to better
understand relationships between variable in intelligence studies.
1892 --G.

Stanley

Hall

forms

the American

Psychological

Association (APA), which initially has just 42 members.

- Wundts student Edward B. Titchener moves to America.
1894 - Margaret Floy Washburn completes her training under
Tichener.
1895 - Alfred Binet forms the first psychology lab devoted to
psychodiagnosis.
1898 - Edward Thorndike develops the Law of Effect.
1900 Sigmund Freud publishes Interpretation of Dreams.
1901 - The British Psychological Society is formed.

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1905 - Mary Whiton Calkins is elected the first woman president of

the American Psychological Association.
- Alfred Binet publishes the intelligence test New Methods for the
Diagnosis of the Intellectual Level of Subnormals.
1906 - Ivan Pavlov publishes his findings on classical conditioning.
- Morton Prince founds the Journal of Abnormal Psychology.
1907 Carl Jung publishes The Psychology of Dementia Praecox.
1909 - Calkins publishes A First Book in Psychology.
1912 - Edward Thorndike publishes Animal Intelligence. The article
leads to the development of the theory ofoperant conditioning.
- Max Wertheimer publishes Experimental Studies of the Perception
of Movement, leading to the development of Gestalt Psychology.
1913 Carl Jung begins to depart from Freudian views and
develops his own theories, which are eventually known as analytical
psychology.
- John B. Watson publishes Psychology as the Behaviorist Views It.
The work helped establish behaviorism, which viewed human
behavior arising from conditioned responses.
1915 Sigmund Freud publishes work on repression.
1917 - Then president of the APA, Robert Yerkes writes the Alpha
and Beta Tests for the Army to test intelligence.
1919 - John B. Watson publishes Psychology, From the Standpoint
of a Behaviorist.
1920 - Watson and Rosalie Rayner publish research the classical
conditioning of fear with their subject,Little Albert.
1925 - Gestal Psychology is brought to America with the publication
of Wolfgang Kohlers Perception: An Introduction to the Gestalt
Theory.

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1932 - Jean Piaget becomes the foremost cognitive theorist with the
publication of his work The Moral Judgment of Children.
1935 - Henry Murray publishes the Thematic Appreception Test
(TAT).
1942 - Carl

Rogers developed client-centered

therapy and

publishes Counseling and Psychotherapy. His approach encourages

respect and positive regard for patients.
1952 - The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders is
published.
1954 - Abraham Maslow publishes Motivation and Personality,
describing his theory of a hierarchy of needs.He also helps
found humanistic psychology.
1958 - Harry Harlow publishes The Nature of Love, which describe
his experiments with rhesus monkey'son the importance of
attachment and love.
1961 - Albert

Bandura conducts

his

now

famous Bobo

doll

experiment.
1963 - Albert Bandura first describes the concept of observational
learning to explain personality development.
1974 - Stanley Milgram publishes Obedience to Authority, which
presented the findings of his famousobedience experiments.
1980 - The DSM-III is published.
1990 - Noam Chomsky publishes On Nature, Use and Acquisition
of Language.
1991 - Steven Pinker publishes an article in Science introducing his
theory of how children acquire language, which he later details
further in his book The Language Instinct.
1994 - The DSM-IV is published.

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2000 - Genetic researchers finish mapping human genes. Scientists

hope to one day isolate the individual genes responsible for different
diseases.
2002 - Steven Pinker publishes The Blank Slate, arguing against the
concept of tabula rasa.
Summary
1.

Philosophical Stage
Aristotle (384 -322 BC) a study of mind/soul.
Plato (427 -347 BC) science of soul.

2.

Structural Stage (Consciousness)

Wilhelm Wundt (1832 -1920) father of experimental
psychology.
Wundt defined psychology as science of internal and
immediate experience i.e. As the science of
consciousness, He focused on inner sensation, feelings
and thoughts.
Edward Titcher (1867 -1927) structure of mind
(structuralism).
William James (1842-1910) Function of
consciousness (functionalism). Principle of
psychology.

3.

Behavioral stage (Behavior)

J.B. Watson (1878 -1958) B behavior
Charles Darwin (1809- 1882) origin of species.
Francis Galton (1822 1911) Hereditary Genius.
Watson science of observable behavior.
behaviorism
Stimulus mediation Response
Stimulus Response

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4.

Modern definition
The science of behavior and mental processes.
Psychology as a Empirical Science
Psychology Studies Behavior: Overt Behavior
Psychology Studies Mental Process: Covert Behavior

Who is the father of modern psychology?

Wilhelm Wundt. Wilhelm Maximilian Wundt (16 August 1832
31 August 1920) was a German physician, physiologist, philosopher,
and professor, known today as one of the founding figures of
modern psychology.
Who is considered the first modern psychologist?
German physician Wilhelm Wundt is credited with introducing
psychological discovery into a laboratory setting. Known as the
"father
of
experimental psychology",
he
founded
the first psychological laboratory, at Leipzig University, in 1879.

Perspectives of Psychology

Biological Perspective
Cognitive Perspective
Behavioral Perspective
Psychodynamic Perspective

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 Humanistic Perspective
Social cultural Perspective
Evolutionary Perspective
1. Bio-psychological Perspective:
The biological perspective is a broad scientific perspective that
assumes that human behavior and thought processes have a
biological basis. Biology includes investigations into
biochemistry of behavior associated with neurotransmitters
and

hormones,

genetics

and

heritability,

and

the

psychophysics of sensation and perception. Physiological

psychology, neuroscience,
psychopharmacology

are

psychoall

neuroimunology

part

of

and

the biological

perspective. Because the biological perspective relies on

scientific methods, its scope of investigation is limited to
variables that can be controlled. Research methods are
quantitative and seek to produce findings that can be
replicated and that are generalizable across populations.
Practical outcomes of biological psychology include the
booming trade in psycho-pharmaceuticals, an understanding
of mental illness that provides viable remedies for certain
very serious disorders, and diagnostic brain scanning tools
that are at the leading edge of neuroscience.
2.

Cognitive Perspective:

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In response to the empty organism theory of behaviorism, the

cognitive perspective developed explanations for human
behavior that suggest that human behavior is at times
thoughtful and can be controlled by thought processes.
Indeed, the cognitive perspective suggests that much of
human behavior is mediated by thought processes like
memory and attention, belief systems, attitudes and language.
Cognitivists believe that humans bring significant conscious
processes into the mix and that much of human behavior is
mediated by conscious processes. Belief systems, value
systems, thought processes, reason and intelligence have a
significant impact on why we do the things we do and act the
way we act. The cognitive perspective suggests that much of
human behavior is significantly influenced by cognitive
processes and is thus amenable to our thoughtful control.

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3.

Behavioral Perspective:
In an attempt to bring scientific method to bear on the
understanding of human behavior, John B. Watson, using
ideas he had gleaned from the likes of Ivan Pavlov and
others, decided to declare that psychology should only
concern itself with observable behavior. A science of
behavior was built on only observable behavior. Assumptions
about underlying psychological causes of behavior were not
admitted. The unconscious was declared fictitious and its
study, a waste of time. Serious psychology would focus on
observable,

controllable,

behavior.

The

behavioral

perspective gained great momentum in the 20th century

because it was a powerful tool in training, education, and

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industry. Critics claimed that behaviorism was dehumanizing.

John B. Watson and others conducted a thorough explication
of Classical Conditioning and B. F. Skinner, responding
somewhat to the critics of behaviorisms dehumanization,
explained and expertly defended the processes of Operant
Conditioning.

4.

Psychodynamic Perspective:
Consider behavior to be motivated by inner forces and
conflict about which we have little awareness and over
which we have little control.
Probably the approach that has been most popularly
associated with the discipline of psychology for the past

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century is the psychodynamic, psychoanalytic perspective.

Sigmund Freud, who was medically trained in neurology,
developed a theory of personality that made the assumption
that human motivation was propelled by conflicts between
instinctual, mostly unconscious, psychological forces. He
called these intra psychic elements the id, ego and superego.
This psychodynamic theory caught on like wild fire and due
to its explanatory power for human behavior, became very
popular over the following century. Freud's therapeutic
method, called psychoanalysis, was developed to identify the
underlying conflicts between intra-psychic structures and
resolve them by bringing them to consciousness. Insight
therapy was one term used to describe Freud's treatment
approach. Freud also contributed the first developmental
theory of human personality. It suggests that human
development progresses through psychosexual stages. Each
stage

is

characterized

by

specific

behavioral

and

psychodynamic developments and challenges.

Although Freud thought of himself as a scientist, and he was
indeed very thorough in recording his methods and outcomes,
he did not practice scientific methods. Psychoanalytic theory
was developed through case study analysis, a qualitative, not
scientific, method.
Other psychodynamic theories arose, like those of Carl Jung
and Alfred Adler, Margaret Mahler, and famous development

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lists like Jean Piaget and Erik Erikson, but all made the same
basic assumption: There is a dynamic mind, conscious and
unconscious, that influences the behavior of humans.
Elements of the unconscious psyche interact to produce
motives for behavior and thought processes.
Sigmund Freud (1856 -1939) He describes different ideas
about a) the world of unconscious, b) psychoanalytic method,
c) Structure of Psyche, d) Psycho Sexual Development.
Different phases of child psycho sexual development are a)
the oral stage, b) the anal stage, c) Genital Stage, d) the
Latency stage, e) the phallic Stage. Oedipus and Electra
phases Freud says that they are the results of the sexual
attraction or pleasure the children receive in the company of
the opposite sex parent.
5.

Humanistic/Existential Perspective:
The humanistic perspective arose in reaction to the
deterministic and pessimistic psychoanalytic view and the
mechanistic

behavioral

perspective,

to

support

more

optimistic views that humans are motivated by their potential

to be creative and productive in response to their social and
environmental conditions. The existential part of the
humanist view recognizes the reality of being in a world and
the opportunity that we have to choose a path for

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ourselves. Humanism is hopeful, focuses on subjective,

conscious experience, tries to solve human problems and
emphasizes the human potential to grow in a positive manner.
The humanist philosophy respects diversity and confronts
reality as it is, both the painful and pleasurable, the good and
the bad. Humanism assumes that people have choices about
their behavior and possess free will to act and also must
assume responsibility for choices and consequences. The
humanist perspective differs from the biological perspective
in that the assumptions about causes for behavior lie in
human self-efficacy, choice and free will as opposed to the
determinism of biological causes. Humanist and existential
philosophies are combined because they both emphasize free
will and responsibility as central to the nature of being.
6.

Socio-cultural Perspective:
The social/cultural perspective in psychology suggests that
human

behavior

is

influenced

by

social

context,

environmental cues, social pressures and cultural influences.

Anyone who has attended a football game will recognize that
human behavior is susceptible to influence of the crowd
mentality. We are all shaped by the context of our
environment and influenced by the perception of authority in
our social order. Social psychologists suggest that these

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forces are very powerful and explain a great deal about the
causes of human behavior and thought processes.
7.

Evolutionary Perspective:
The evolutionary perspective explains human behavior and
thought process as resulting from evolutionary processes. The
underlying assumption of biological evolution is survival of
the species. Human behavior is understood in the light of the
question: how does this behavior result from processes that
support the survival of the species?

Summary
Biological
Cause of behavior is your
brain.
To change behaviors, you
have to change the way the
brain functions
Behaviorism
How does the
environment impact the
way you behave?
Environmental conditions
like rewards/punishments
Cognitive
Based on mental process
(Speaking, Thinking etc.)

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 People act because they

think; People thin because
they are human
Humanistic
People are innately good and
capable of choice.
Main task of humans is to
grow and develop
Psychodynamic
Behavior is result of
unconscious dynamics, inner
forces.
Not based on observation
Socio-cultural
Behavior results from social
and cultural influences.
Ex: Kissing
Evolutionary
Mental abilities evolve over
millions of years
Ex: Vision

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Scientific Methods and Psychological Research

Psychology uses scientific methods for the systematic study of an
organisms behavior. The scientific methods are used to make
observations, form theories and the refine theories in the light of
new observation. Psychologists use these strategies to describe,
predict, and explain behavior and mental precision.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
1.

Descriptive methods
Case study method
Survey method
Naturalistic Observation method
Experimental method

Naturalistic Observation:

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Naturalistic Observation is also called objectives

observation, system observation or simply as observation
method. It can be divided into two categories as participant
observation and non- participant observation,
There are certain important steps involved in carrying out
the observation method which are as following: a)
Observation of behavior, b) Noting of behavior c)
Interpretation and analysis of behavior d) generalization.

Advantages
Disadvantag
i. The main virtue is directness; it makes iti. This method cannot legitim
possible to study behavior as it occurs.
relation between variables t
manipulated. Lack of con
replication more difficult.
ii. The researcher need not ask people about ii) This method is slow and
their behavior and interactions.
human observers / or costly
iii. Much richer information
iii) Internal experiences canno
ard activities, unless the exper
statements.
iv. Higher ecology validity
iv) There may be some errors
persons behavior. Biases ad p

2.

Experimental Research:
Experimental method is a research method in which
researcher systematically alters on or more independent
variable in order to determine whether such changes
influence some aspect of behavior.
i)
Raising a problem
ii)
Formulation of a hypothesis
iii)
To distinguish between dependent and independent
variable.

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iv)
v)
vi)

Controlling the environment or the situation.

Analysis of the result.
Verification of the hypothesis by the result of the
experiment.

Advantages
Testing casual relationship

Disadv
Artificial situation of the labo

ii) Replication (repeated)

ii) Difficult in attaining coop

subject.

iii) Control the environment

iv) Experimenter effects.

v) Limited field

3.

Survey Method:
Survey type research studies usually have larger samples where
investigators with the help of different printed questions ask
people to report their behavior or options. The questions are
based on the individual attitudes, values, habits or other
characteristics.

4.

Case Study:

Case study method is also known as case history, or clinical

method. It is one of the oldest research method used particularly
to reveal depths for the diagnosis and treatment of behavior
disorders in psychology.
5.

Descriptive research:
In this method the research naturally described the organism. In
everyday life all of us observe ad describe people, often

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forming different guesses about why they behave as they do.

Professional psychologists do the same but more objectively
and systematically. The main problem in descriptive method is
that the researcher should be a skilled and experienced person
free of bias or prejudice to understand the behavior of the
organism.

Revised Questions
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

Define psychology.
Introduce major sub-field of Psychology.
Mention any three misconception about psychology.
Differentiate common sense and psychology.
How Freud defines Oedipus and Electra complex.
What are the four stages of history of psychology?
Define cognitive Perspective.

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8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.

What does psychodynamic perspectives talks about?

List limitation of experimental method.
What are the advantages of Naturalistic Observations?
Define Overt and Covert Behavior.
What are S-R and S O R paradigms?
Psychology is a science that studies human behavior and
mental process. Justify. (10)
14. How are behavior studies through experimental method?
What are its advantages and disadvantages? (10)

Unit: 2
Importance of Biology in Psychological understanding of
behavior,
The biological approach believes us to be as a consequence of our
genetics and physiology. It is the only approach in psychology that
examines thoughts, feelings, and behaviors from a biological and

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thus physical point of view. Therefore, all that is psychological is

first physiological. All thoughts, feeling & behaviour ultimately
have a biological cause.
A biological perspective is relevant to the study of psychology in
three ways:
1. Comparative method: different species of animal can be
studied and compared. This can help in the search to understand
human behavior.
2. Physiology: how the nervous system and hormones work,
how the brain functions, how changes in structure and/or
function can affect behavior. For example, we could ask how
prescribed drugs to treat depression affect behavior through
their interaction with the nervous system.
3. Investigation of inheritance: what an animal inherits from its
parents, mechanisms of inheritance (genetics). For example, we
might want to know whether high intelligence is inherited from
one generation to the next.
Each of these biological aspects, the comparative, the physiological
(i.e. the brain) and the genetic, can help explain human behavior.
Psychology is an academic and applied discipline that involves the
scientific study of mental functions and behaviors.

Psychologists

attempt to understand the role of mental functions in individual and

social behavior, while also exploring the psychological and
neurobiological processes that underlie certain functions and

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behaviors. For this reason, biology plays a very important role in the
study of psychology. Psychology determines what people perceive
to feel and behave, but underlying it all, ultimately determining the
way we act, feel and behave, is biology. A biological perspective is
relevant to psychology in the study of how the nervous system and
hormones work, how the brain functions and how changes in
structure and/or function can affect behavior
Neurons
Neurons are specialized cells that are the basic elements of
the nervous system that carry massages.
The basic unit of nervous system is nerve cell or neuron.
The most important feature of neurons is their ability to
communicate with other cells.
It is estimated that about two billion neurons exist in the
brain alone and the number of neural connections within
the brain to be one quadrillion.

Structure of Neurons
In playing the piano, driving a car, or throwing a ball to the basket,
different muscles are involved. The body system sends messages to
the muscles and coordinates these messages to produce successful
results. Such messages are passed through specialized cells called
neurons.
Components of neurons: the cell membrane, dendrites, the cell body,
the axon, myelin sheath and neurotransmitters.

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a.
b.

c.

d.

e.

Dendrites: They are cluster of fibers at one end of a neuron

that receives messages from other neurons.
Axon: It is a tube like long extension from the end of a
neuron that carries messages to other cells through the neuron.
The length of axons range from several millimeters to three
feet.
Terminal buttons: They are small branches at the end of an
axon that relay massages to other cells. Electrical messages
travel through neuron beginning with detection of messages by
dendrites, continue into the cell body(nucleus) and pass down
the axon.
Myelin sheath: It is the axons protective coating, made of fat
and protein. Its function is to prevent messages from short
circulating by insulating the axons.
Neurotransmitters: when a neuron receives a signal (heat,
pressure, light etc)from adjacent neurons or from sensory
receptors it fires or becomes active. This neural impulse is
called the action potential. It is a brief electrical change that
travels down the axon. When the action potential reaches the
knob like terminal buttons at an axons end, it triggers the
release to chemical messages called neurotransmitters.

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Structure of Neurons
Nervous system
The bodys speedy, electrochemical communication system consists
of all the nerve cells of the peripheral and central nervous systems.
It has two parts;

Central Nervous System (CNS)

Brain (hind brain, midbrain and forebrain) and Spinal cord.

Peripheral Nervous System (PNS)

Automatic nervous system (parasympathetic system and

sympathetic) and somatic nervous system.

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Structure and function of central nervous system

The central nervous system (CNS) controls most functions of the

body and mind.

Controls the brain and spinal cord

The Braindirects mental
maintains basic life functions

processes

and

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 The Spinal Cordreceives sensory input, sends

information to the brain, responds with motor
output
It consists of two parts: the brain and the spinal cord. The
brain is the center of our thoughts, the interpreter of our
external environment, and the origin of control over body
movement.
Structure of Brain
Hindbrain
Controls many functions key to survival,
including keeping airway clear, heart beat,
breathing, reflexes, sleep, respiration, balance.
Midbrain
Coordinates motion, relays information to other
sites; targeting auditory and visual stimuli,
regulating body temperature.

Forebrain
Cortical and sub-cortical structures; intelligent
adaptive behavior.

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Peripheral Nervous System

Peripheral Nervous System is categorized as Autonomic Nervous
System and Somatic Nervous System.
System of nerves outside of the brain and spinal

cord

Send control to the glands and smooth muscles

Controls internal organs, usually not under

voluntary control.

Somatic Nervous system: the activities basically

related to muscles that control movements of the body are
regulated by somatic nervous system.

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a) Autonomic Nervous System

Automatic is categories into two parts as
i)
Parasympathetic System and
ii)
Sympathetic System

i) Sympathetic Nervous System:

Triggered when body temperature is too low
Revives up body activity to prepare for rigorous activity
Increased heart rate
Slowing down of peristalsis (rhythmic contractions of
intestines), so not using energy during digestion
Vasoconstriction: Contraction of skins capillaries

ii) Parasympathetic Nervous System

Triggered when bodys temperature is too high

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Restored bodys internal activities

Cardio slowing
Speeds up peristalsis
Vasolidation: Widening of skins capillaries
Stimulus
Body prepares for response
Body returns to normal

b) Somatic Nervous System:

The activities basically related to muscles that controls moments of
the body are regulated by somatic nervous system. It carries
information that receptors received from the environment to the
spinal cord, brain and nerves by affect nerves and passes back the
information from brain and spinal cord to the muscles through effect
nerves.

Endocrine system and its importance

The endocrine system is also essential to communication. This
system utilizes glands located throughout the body, which secrete
hormones that regulate a variety of things such as metabolism,
digestion, blood pressure and growth. While the endocrine system is
not directly linked to the nervous system, the two interact in a
number of ways.
Information travels through our bodies in two forms; as electrical
signals, or as chemical signals. The chemical signals are created and
carried throughout the body using the endocrine system. This system
works more slowly than the electrical signals, and is made up of

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glands that secret hormones (the carriers of the information) in the

bloodstream.
Endocrine system is a chemical communication network that sends
messages through the nervous system via the blood stream and
secretes hormones that affect body growth and functioning.
How are the endocrine and nervous system linked?
The brain structure known as the hypothalamus connects these two
important communication systems. The hypothalamus is a tiny
collection of nuclei that is responsible for controlling an astonishing
amount of behavior. Located at the base of the forebrain, the
hypothalamus regulates basic needs such as sleep, hunger, thirst and
sex in addition to emotional and stress responses. The hypothalamus
also controls the pituitary glands, which then controls the release of
hormones from other glands in the endocrine system.

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Major components of the endocrine system are:

Pituitary glands (base of the brain)
Although it is no bigger than a pea, the pituitary gland, located at
the base of the brain just beneath the hypothalamus, is considered
the most important part of the endocrine system.
It's often called the "master gland" because it makes hormones that
control several other endocrine glands.
Thyroid glands (Neck)
Adrenal glands (top of our kidney)

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Major functions of the endocrine glands are:

Regulate metabolism and growth;
Regulate absorption of nutrients;
Regulate fluid balance and ion concentration;
Regulates the bodys response to stress;
Regulates sexual characteristics, reproduction, birth and
Lactation (breast feeding)

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Revised Questions:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.

9.
10.
11.
12.
13.

What is endocrine System?

How is memory related to brain?
What are the differences between sympathetic and
Parasympathetic nervous system?
What are neurons?
What are the two components of central nervous system?
What are the structures of brain?
How is biology important in shaping human behavior?
Neuron play major role in transforming information from body
to Bain centers and brain to the body. Explain with a diagram
the functions of Neurons. (10)
With structure explain the function of central nervous system.
(10)
What are the major function of sympathetic and Parasympathetic
nervous system? (10)
What is endocrine system? Explain its function in human body.
How does sense of vision transmit to the brain? What are
illusions? Give two examples. (10)
Explain the function of Spinal Cord?

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Unit 3
Sensation and Perception
10 hours
Sensation: Meaning
Activation of the sense organ by a source of physical energy. A
particular feeling or effect that your body experiences. A particular
feeling or experience that may not have a real causes. The ability to
feel things through your physical senses.
Examples of Sensation
I experienced a stinging sensation in my arm.
She felt a burning sensation in her throat.
She craved new experiences and sensations.
She had the strange sensation that someone was watching
her.
I couldn't quite shake the sensation that I'd been fooled.
Her injury left her with no sensation in her legs.

How sensation and Perception related?

1) Sensation occurs:
a) Sensory organs absorb energy from a physical stimulus
in the environment.
b) Sensory receptors convert this energy into neural
impulses and send them to the brain.

2) Perception follows:
a) The brain organizes the information and translates it
into something meaningful.

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1.

2.
3.

Importance of Sensation
Sensations and perceptions are the basic means by which
people experience the world and build a worldview to
explain those experiences. Sensations are direct sensory
stimuli, such as seeing shapes and colors, hearing sounds
or feeling a touch.
Perceptions are the ways we interpret those sensations to
make sense of what we are sensing.
Sensations and perceptions shape the way humans see the
world. The ability to take in information from reality and
process it in meaningful ways allows people to form a
worldview that helps them to understand life and make
wise decisions. A lack or loss of sensations, such as
blindness or deafness, creates a gap in the experience and
makes it harder to understand events fully. A perception
failure leads to misinterpretation of life and an inability to
respond adequately to the current situation.

Sensory threshold
In discussion of sensation in the field of psychology, the absolute
threshold refers to the smallest perceptible stimulus that causes a
sensation. A light that is just barely bright enough to see or a touch
that is the lightest touch you can feel is at the absolute threshold of
sensation. The difference threshold refers to the smallest possible
change in a stimulus that will register in your sensations as a
difference. These thresholds are important because they define a
person's direct experience of the world. Threshold - a dividing line
between what has detectable energy and what does not.
For example - many classrooms have automatic light sensors.
When people have not been in a room for a while, the lights go out.

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However, once someone walks into the room, the lights go back on.
For this to happen, the sensor has a threshold for motion that must
be crossed before it turns the lights back on. So, dust floating in the
room should not make the lights go on, but a person walking in
should.
Difference Threshold - the minimum amount of stimulus intensity
change needed to produce a noticeable change. the greater the
intensity (ex., weight) of a stimulus, the greater the change needed
to produce a noticeable change.
For example, when you pick up a 5 lb weight, and then a 10 pound
weight, you can feel a big difference between the two. However,
when you pick up 100 lbs, and then 105 lbs, it is much more
difficult to feel the difference.
Webers law: A basic law of psychophysics stating that a just
noticeable difference is a constant proportion to the intensity of a
initial stimulus (rather than a constant amount).
Signal-Detection Theory - detection of a stimulus involves some
decision making process as well as a sensory process. Additionally,
both sensory and decision making processes are influenced by
many more factors than just intensity.
a) Noise - how much outside interference exists.
b) Criterion - the level of assurance that you decide must be met
before you take action. Involves higher mental processes. You set
criterion based on expectations and consequences of inaccuracy.
For example - at a party, you order a pizza...you need to pay
attention so that you will be able to detect the appropriate signal
(doorbell), especially since there is a lot of noise at the party. But
when you first order the pizza, you know it won't be there in 2
minutes, so you don't really pay attention for the doorbell. As the
time for the pizza to arrive approaches, however, your criterion

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changes...you become more focused on the doorbell and less on

extraneous noise
Habituation and adaptation
Sensory adaptation is the tendency of the sense organs to adjust to
continuous, unchanging stimulation by reducing their functioning
or sensitivity.
An adjustment in sensory capacity after prolonged exposure to
unchanging stimuli is adaptation.
Humans also have the ability to adapt their sensations to more
efficiently gather relevant information from their settings.
For example, when there are many overlapping or potentially
overwhelming stimuli, the human brain can use "signal detection"
to filter out noise and enhance perception of relevant details, as
when you hear your name spoken in a noisy room or glance around
a room for red objects.
Similarly, a constant sensation will become less vividly noticed
over time, such as when you stop noticing a background noise, to
make room for novel stimuli that may be more relevant.
Habituation is a decrease in response to a stimulus after repeated
presentations.
For example, a novel sound in your environment, such as a new
ring tone, may initially draw your attention or even become
distracting.
After you become accustomed to this sound, you pay less attention
to the noise and your response to the sound will diminish. This
diminished response is habituation.
Habituation is one of the simplest and most common forms of
learning.

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Characteristics of Habituation

If the habituation stimulus is not presented for a long

enough period of time before a sudden reintroduction, the
response will once again reappear at full-strength, a
phenomenon known as spontaneous recovery.
The more frequently a stimulus is presented, the faster
habituation will occur.
Very strong stimuli tend to result in slower habituation. In
some cases, such as very loud noises like a car alarm or a
siren, habituation will never occur.
Changing the intensity or duration of the stimulation may
result in a reoccurrence of the original response.
Habituation can generalize to similar stimuli.

Types of sensory experiences

We can divide easily the sensation process into five categories on
the basis of sense organs as:
Tactual Sensation: skin -touch

Taste Sensation: tongue -taste

Olfactory Sensation : nose -smell
Auditory Sensation: ear -hear
Visual Sensation : eye -sight
Types of sensation
Superficial sensation: touch, pain, temperature, and twopoint discrimination.
Deep sensation: muscle and joint position sense
(proprioception), deep muscle pain, and vibration sense.

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Visceral sensations: relayed by autonomic afferent fibers

and include hunger, nausea, and
visceral pain Special sensessmell, vision, hearing,
taste, and equilibrium

Structure and functions of Visual (Eye)

Is accomplished by the organ called the eye and the portions of the
brain associated with receiving and interpreting light waves
Our eyes and brain are only able to interpret a portion of the light
spectrum, which is why we can not see x-rays or infrared
light. Wavelength is the distance between any point in a wave and
the corresponding point on the next cycle.
The Eye has:
Cornea- how light get through and maintains the shape of
the eye
Lens- focuses the light
Pupil- controls the amount of light
Retina- is the back of the eye ball where the light waves
are focused
The rods are visual receptors that respond to brightness
they are important for seeing in dim light.
Cones- are visual receptors that respond to hue, or color
variations. They are most important for color vision in
bright light.
Optic nerve- transmits the information from the retina to
the brain [occipital lobe]. At the spot where the optic
nerve is there is a "blind spot" because there are no
receptors there.

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Structure of eye

Function of eye
Human vision is one of the most complex visual systems
among animals.
The main sensory organ of the visual system is the eye,
which takes in the physical stimuli of light rays and
transducer them into electrical and chemical signals that
can be interpreted by the brain to construct physical
images.
The eye has three main layers: the sclera, which includes
the cornea; the choroid, which includes the pupil, iris, and

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lens; and the retina, which includes receptor cells called

rods and cones.
The human visual system is capable of complex color perception,
which is initiated by cones in the retina and completed by impulse
integration in the brain. Depth perception is our ability to see in
three dimensions and relies on both binocular (two-eye)
and monocular (one-eye) cues.

Auditory sensation
The ear consists of three areas:
outer ear;
middle ear, and
inner ear.
The middle ear is the area we are most interested in when looking
at the cause and effects of OM.
Outer ear
The outer ear consists of the pinna, the part you can easily see and
feel, and the ear canal. The pinna helps to gather the sound waves
around us. These sound waves travel down the ear canal where they
strike the ear drum. The ear drum separates the outer and middle
ear.
Middle ear
When sound waves strike the ear drum they cause it to vibrate,
which in turn causes the three small bones in the middle ear to
move. These three small bones are collectively called the ossicles
or easily known as the middle ear bones. The ossicles consist of
the:
malleus (hammer);
incus (anvil), and
stapes (stirrup).

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The stirrup is connected to a tiny membrane on the inner ear called

the oval window.
Inner ear
The oval window forms the entrance to the inner ear or cochlea.
The cochlea is coiled and filled with fluid. If we magnify a section
of the cochlea, we can see that the inner cochlea is lined with tiny
hair cells.

Function of Hearing
Sound funnels through the pinna into the external auditory canal, a
short tube that ends at the eardrum (tympanic membrane). Sound
causes the eardrum and its tiny attached bones in the middle portion

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of the ear to vibrate, and the vibrations are conducted to the nearby
cochlea.

Motor and reflex effects: position of the eyes and head.

Maintaining balance.
Effects on higher functions: thought, memory, language,
body language, emotions.
Sensory effects: position and movement of the head.
Sensorial effects: perception of sound.
Effects
on
state
of
consciousness
and
vigilance: triggering of sleeping and waking phases.
Maintaining alertness.

Theories of Hearing
Hermonn von Helmhotz proposed the place theory of hearing in
1863. He suggested that the sensation of pitch is determined by the
place on the basilar membrane that is stimulated. The nerves
attached to basilar membrane are sensitive to different frequencies
and send out different impulses from different locations.
Von Bekesy [1960] expanded the place theory by suggesting the
traveling wave principle, which is sound waves traveling through
the cochlea move the basilar membrane at a location that vibrates at
the particular pitch. However, there are problems with both
theories and more research is needed.
Wernicke's area, of the brain is important in speech perception.
Damage to that area leads to aphasia, a disorder in which a person
loses the ability to understand speech. In most right handed people
Wernicke's area is located in the left hemisphere.

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Perception
Definition
The sorting out, interpretation, analysis and integration of stimuli
by the sense organs and brain.
The mental process of recognizing and interpreting an object throu
h one or more of the senses stimulated by a physical object.
Perception can be defined as our recognition and interpretation of
sensory information. Perception also includes how we respond to
the information. We can think of perception as a process where we
take in sensory information from our environment and use that
information in order to interact with our environment. Perception
allows us to take the sensory information in and make it into
something meaningful.
Characteristics of perception:
They are sensation, organization, interpretation, and categorization
of input according to past experiences.
The process of sensory perception takes place very quickly
in the human brain, usually within less than one second.
Different types of perception are possible through the
complex activity of the nervous system that receives input
from each of the five senses.
This input then converts to signals that travel to the brain
via the spinal cord as well as the peripheral nervous
system.
Each of the characteristics of perception is both a physical
process and a subjective experience according to different
personalities, biases, and backgrounds.

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Subliminal and Extrasensory perception

Extrasensory perception:
Extrasensory perception or ESP includes reception of information
not gained through the recognized physical senses but sensed with
the mind.
The term was adopted by Duke University psychologist J. B. Rhine
to denote psychic abilities such as telepathy (mind readers),
clairaudience, and clairvoyance(perceive remote events) and their
trans-temporal operation as precognition(seeing events before they
happens) or retro cognition.
ESP is also sometimes referred to as a sixth sense. The term
implies acquisition of information by means external to the basic
limiting assumptions of science, such as those organisms can only
receive information from the past to the present.
Parapsychology is the study of paranormal psychic phenomena,
including ESP. Parapsychologists generally regard such tests as the
ganzfeld experiment as providing compelling evidence for the
existence of ESP.
The scientific community rejects ESP due to the absence of an
evidence base, the lack of a theory which would explain ESP, the
lack of experimental techniques which can provide reliably positive
results, and considers ESP a pseudoscience.

Subliminal perception: It refers to the perception of messages

about which we have no awareness. The stimulus could be a written
word, a sound, or even a smell that activates the sensory system but
that is not intense enough for a person to report having experienced

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it. In short we are able to perceive at least some king of

information of which we are unaware, theres little evidence that
subliminal message can change our attitude or behavior in
substantial ways.
Subliminal (or below the threshold) message for one person, may
be supraliminal (above the threshold) for another person.
Subliminal perception: When we detect stimuli that are below our
absolute threshold for conscious awareness.
(Pathways in Brain and top-down and bottom-up processing)

Top down Processing: Perception is constructed by cognition.

Bottom up Processing: Perception directs cognition.
Psychologist Richard Gregory argued that perception is a
constructive process which relies on top-down processing. For
Gregory (1970) perception is a hypothesis.
For Gregory, perception involves making inferences about what we
see and trying to make a best guess. Prior knowledge and past
experience, he argued, are crucial in perception.
When we look at something, we develop a perceptual hypothesis,
which is based on prior knowledge. The hypotheses we develop are
nearly always correct. However, on rare occasions, perceptual
hypotheses can be disconfirmed by the data we perceive.
Summary
A lot of information reaches the eye, but much is lost by
the time it reaches the brain (Gregory estimates about 90%
is lost).

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 Therefore, the brain has to guess what a person sees based

on past experiences. We actively construct our perception
of reality.
Richard Gregory proposed that perception involves a lot of
hypothesis testing to make sense of the information
presented to the sense organs.
Our perceptions of the world are hypotheses based on past
experiences and stored information.
Sensory receptors receive information from the
environment, which is then combined with previously
stored information about the world which we have built up
as a result of experience.
The formation of incorrect hypotheses will lead to errors
of perception (e.g. visual illusions like the Necker cube).

In the brain, top-down and bottom-up are not, actually, separate

processes. Theorists artificially separate them in order to talk about
them. In terms of cognition, a bottom-up process occurs when
something unexpected is moving in the corner of your eye and
catches your attention. This causes you to look over and react. The
signal causing this chain of events originated in the environment, at
the "bottom" of the sensory processing stream.
A top-down process is like trying to find Waldo in "Where's
Waldo? You start with an internal "high-level" goal, which
determines where you look next. You are looking "for" something,
so higher-level brain areas "prime" the low level visual areas to
detect that pattern. In terms of how it works in the brain, the easiest
way to think about it might be to make an analogy to
communication within a larger corporation.

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Theoretical explanation of perceptual organization (Gestalt

principles)
Gestalt principles, or gestalt laws, are rules of the organization of
perceptual scenes. When we look at the world, we usually perceive
complex scenes composed of many groups of objects on some
background, with the objects themselves consisting of parts, which
may be composed of smaller parts, etc. How do we accomplish
such a remarkable perceptual achievement, given that the visual
input is, in a sense, just a spatial distribution of variously colored
individual points? The beginnings and the direction of an answer
were provided by a group of researchers early in the twentieth
century, known as Gestalt psychologists. Gestalt is a German word
meaning 'shape' or 'form'. Gestalt principles aim to formulate the
regularities according to which the perceptual input is organized
into unitary forms, also referred to as (sub)wholes, groups,
groupings, or Gestalten (the plural form of Gestalt). These
principles mainly apply to vision, but there are also analogous
aspects in auditory and somatosensory perception. In visual
perception, such forms are the regions of the visual field whose
portions are perceived as grouped or joined together, and are thus
segregated from the rest of the visual field.
1.

Figure-ground - this is the fundamental way we organize

visual perceptions. When we look at an object, we see that
object (figure) and the background (ground) on which it sits.
For example, when I see a picture of a friend, I see my friends
face (figure) and the beautiful Sears brand backdrop behind my
friend (ground).

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2.

Simplicity/pragnanz (good form) - we group elements

that make a good form. However, the idea of "good form" is a
little vague and subjective. Most psychologists think good
form is what ever is easiest or most simple. For example, what
do you see here: : > ) do you see a smiling face? There are
simply 3 elements from my keyboard next to each other, but it
is "easy" to organize the elements into a shape that we are
familiar with.

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3.

Proximity - nearness=belongingness. Objects that are

close to each other in physical space are often perceived as
belonging together.

4.

Similarity - do I really need to explain this one? As you

probably guessed, this one states that objects that are similar
are perceived as going together. For example, if I ask you to
group the following objects: (* * # * # # #) into groups, you
would probably place the asterisks and the pound signs into
distinct groups.

5.

Continuity - we follow whatever direction we are led.

Dots in a smooth curve appear to go together more than jagged
angles. This principle really gets at just how lazy humans are
when it comes to perception.

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6.

7.

Common fate - elements that move together tend to be

grouped together. For example, when you see geese flying
south for the winter, they often appear to be in a "V"
shape.

Closure - we tend to complete a form when it has gaps.

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Perceptual ambiguity and distortion

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Gestalt Laws of Perceptual Grouping helps us understand the way

we perceive things by patterns. It is the "nature" of perception.
Learning-based inference is the "nurture" of perception. It is when
we use past experiences to help us perceive certain things.
Cognitive illusions are assumed to arise by interaction with
assumptions about the world, leading to "unconscious inferences",
an idea first suggested in the 19th century by the German physicist
and physician Hermann Helmholtz.
Cognitive illusions are commonly divided into ambiguous illusions,
distorting illusions, paradox illusions, or fiction illusions.
Ambiguous illusions are pictures or objects that elicit a perceptual
"switch" between the alternative interpretations. The Necker cube is
a well-known example; another instance is the Rubin vase.

Paradox illusions are generated by objects that are paradoxical or

impossible,
such
as
the Penrose
triangle or impossible
staircase seen, for example, in M.C. Escher's Ascending and
Descending and Waterfall. The triangle is an illusion dependent on
a cognitive misunderstanding that adjacent edges must join.
Fictions are when a figure is perceived even though it is not in the
stimulus.

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Distorting or geometrical-optical illusions are characterized by

distortions of size, length, position or curvature. A striking example
is the Caf wall illusion. Other examples are the famous MllerLyer illusion and Ponzo illusion.

This is an example of two identical Necker cubes, the one on the

left showing an intermediate object (blue bar) going in "down from
the top" while the one on the right shows the object going in "up
from the bottom" which shows how the image can change its
perspective simply by changing which face (front or back) appears
behind the intervening object.

Social cognition and behavior: process of social cognition

Social cognition is the study of how people process social
information, especially its encoding, storage, retrieval, and
application to social situations.

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Social cognition has its roots in social psychology which attempts

"to understand and explain how the thoughts, feelings, and
behavior of individuals are influenced by the actual, imagined, or
implied presence of others" (Allport, 1985, p. 3). It studies the
individual within a social or cultural context and focuses on how
people perceive and interpret information they generate themselves
(intrapersonal) and from others (interpersonal) (Sternberg, 1994).
A variety of researchers who started out investigating phenomena
from other schools of thought have moved to this perspective. For
example, Albert Bandura (1986) initially studied learning from a
behavioral perspective (e.g., Bandura, 1965), while Jerome Bruner
(1990) initially studied learning from a cognitive perspective (e.g.,
Bruner, 1957).
Festinger's (1957) cognitive-dissonance theory, Bem's (1972) selfperception
theory (see Greenwald,
1975),
and
Weiner's
(1985) attribution theory are additional examples of how the
perspective of social cognition has been applied to the study of the
learning process. A major implication of this perspective is that
effective teaching must be grounded in an appropriate social
environment (e.g., Hannafin, 1997).
One of the most important concepts developed by Bandura (1986)
is that of reciprocal determinism. From this perspective, a person's
behavior is both influenced by and is influencing a person's
personal factors and the environment. Bandura accepts the
possibility of an individual's behavior being conditioned through
the use of consequences (Skinner, 1938). At the same time he
recognizes that a person's behavior can impact the environment
(Sternberg, 1988). The same is true of the relationship between
personal factors such as cognitive skills or attitudes and behavior or
the environment. Each can impact and be impacted by the other.

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WHY STUDY SOCIAL COGNITION?

Construal impact how people process and remember social
information differently.

Our judgments are rarely (if ever!) flawless.

Social cognition gives us useful information about the
strategies & rules that people follow to make judgments.
Mistakes often reveal a lot about how we think by
showing what our limitations are.
What mistakes do we make? Why do we make them?
Four core process:
Attention :Selecting information; What captures and holds
our attention depends on our goals and information
(restricted and unrestricted attention)

Interpretation: Giving information meaning; Our

interpretation of objects is influenced by our goals and
information.
Judgment: Using information to form impressions and
make decisions
Memory: storing information for later use

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Attitude
An attitude is "a relatively enduring organization of beliefs,
feelings, and behavioral tendencies towards socially significant
objects, groups, events or symbols" (Hogg, & Vaughan 2005, p.
150)
"..A psychological tendency that is expressed by evaluating a
particular entity with some degree of favor or disfavor" (Eagly, &
Chaiken, 1993, p. 1)
Attitudes structure can be described in terms of three components.
o Affective component: this involves a persons feelings /
emotions about the attitude object. For example: I am
scared of spiders.
o Behavioral (or conative) component: the way the attitude
we have influences how we act or behave. For example: I
will avoid spiders and scream if I see one.
o Cognitive component: this involves a persons belief /
knowledge about an attitude object. For example: I
believe spiders are dangerous.

Formation of Attitude
Friends
Media
Past experiences
Coaches teachers religion/culture
Family
Feedback can reinforce attitude
Attitude can create false perceptions known as prejudice

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Types of organizational Attitude

1.
2.

3.

Job Satisfaction A collection of positive and or negative

feelings that an individual holds toward his or her job.
Job Involvement Identifying with the job, actively
participating in it, and considering performance important
to self-worth.
Organizational Commitment Identifying with a
particular organization and its goals, and wishing to
maintain membership in the organization.

Social influence
Social influence occurs when one's emotions, opinions, or
behaviors are affected by others. Social influence takes many forms
and
can
be
seen
in conformity,
socialization, peer
pressure, obedience, and leadership, persuasion, sales and
marketing.
Social influence is defined as change in an individuals thoughts,
feelings, attitudes, or behaviors that results from interaction with
another individual or a group. Social influence is distinct from
conformity, power, and authority.
Conformity occurs when an individual expresses a particular
opinion or behavior in order to fit in to a given situation or to meet
the expectations of a given other, though he does not necessarily
hold that opinion or believe that the behavior is appropriate. Power
is the ability to force or coerce reticular way by controlling her

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outcomes. Authority is power that is believed to be legitimate

(rather than coercive) by those who are subjected to it. Social
influence, however, is the process by which individuals make real
changes to their feelings and behaviors as a result of interaction
with others who are perceived to be similar, desirable, or expert.
People adjust their beliefs with respect to others to whom they feel
similar in accordance with psychological principles such as
balance. Individuals are also influenced by the majority: when a
large portion of an individuals referent social group holds a
particular attitude, it is likely that the individual will adopt it as
well. Additionally, individuals may change an opinion under the
influence of another who is perceived to be an expert in the matter
at hand. French and Raven (1959) provided an early formalization
of the concept of social influence in their discussion of the bases of
social power. For French and Raven, agents of change included not
just individuals and groups, but also norms and roles. They viewed
social influence as the outcome of the exertion of social power
from one of five bases: reward power, coercive power, legitimate
power, expert power, or referent power. A change in reported
opinion or attitude (conformity) was considered an instance of
social influence whether or not it represented a true private change.
French and Ravens original research was concerned with
situations in which a supervisor influences a worker in a work
situation. Subsequent scholarship has examined a wide variety of
other social interactions, including families, classrooms, doctors
and their patients, salespeople and customers, political figures, and
dating couples. Work settings also continue to be a prominent topic
for studies of social influence. Since 1959, scholars have
distinguished true social influence from forced public acceptance
and from changes based on reward or coercive power. Social
researchers are still concerned with public compliance, reward

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power, and coercive power, but those concerns are differentiated

from social influence studies.
Current research on social influence generally uses experimental
methodology and tends to fall into five main areas:
Minority influence in group settings
Research on persuasion,
Dynamic social impact theory,

A structural approach to social influence, and

Social influence in expectation states theory. Each is
discussed below.

Social influence includes

Conformity: Conformity is the tendency to align your
attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors with those around you. It's
a powerful force that can take the form of overt social
pressure or subtler unconscious influence.
Compliance: Compliance is when an individual changes
his or her behavior in response to an explicit or implicit
request made by another person. Compliance is often
referred to as an active form of social influence in that it is
usually intentionally initiated by a person.
Intense Indoctrination: Indoctrination is the process
of inculcating ideas, attitudes, cognitive strategies or a
professional methodology (see doctrine).

Indoctrination is a critical component in the transfer of

cultures, customs, and traditions from one generation to
the next.

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Obedience: Obedience is compliance with commands

given by an authority figure. In the 1960s, the
social psychologist Stanley Milgram did a famous research
study called the obedience study. It showed that people
have a strong tendency to comply with authority figures.

Prejudice and Discrimination

Prejudice and Discrimination: by Saul McLeod published
2008.Prejudice is an unjustified or incorrect attitude (usually
negative) towards an individual based solely on the individual's
membership of a social group. For example, a person may
hold prejudiced views towards a certain race or gender etc. (e.g.
sexist).
Prejudice and Discrimination: Prejudice is a cultural attitude that
rests on negative stereotypes about individuals or groups because of
their cultural, religious, racial, or ethnic background.
Discrimination is the active denial of desired goals from a category
of persons. A category can be based on sex, ethnicity, nationality,
religion, language, or class. More recently, disadvantaged groups
now also include those based on gender, age, and physical
disabilities.
Prejudice and discrimination are deeply imbedded at both the
individual and societal levels. Attempts to eradicate prejudice and
discrimination must thus deal with prevailing beliefs or ideologies,
and social structure.
Some of the most well-known types of prejudice include:

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Racism
Sexism
Classicism
Homophobia
Nationalism
Religious prejudice
Agism

Other techniques that are used to reduce prejudice include:

Passing laws and regulations that require fair and

equal treatment for all groups of people.
Gaining public support and awareness for antiprejudice social norms.
Making people aware of the inconsistencies in
their own beliefs.
Increased contact with members of other social
groups.

Discrimination is the behavior or actions, usually negative,

towards an individual or group of people, especially on the basis of
sex/race/social class, etc. Some areas of discrimination are:

Racial discrimination
Age discrimination
Gender Discrimination

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Revised Questions
1.
2.
3.

4.
5.
6.
7.
8.

Define sensory Threshold.

Mention the differences compliance and conformity.
What is social cognition and behavior, elaborate the process of
social cognition. Explain in brief: attitude, social influence,
prejudice and discrimination. (10)
Define conformity?
What is perpetual distortion?
Define attitude. Explain how attitudes are formed along its
types. (10)
What is social influence? How prejudices are organized? What
are the techniques that can reduce them? Explain. (10)
How does sense of vision transmit to the brain? What are
illusions? Give two examples. (10)

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9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.

What is Gestalts principle of organization? Explain with

suitable example. (10)
Distinguish Sensation and perception.
Define Habituation and Adaptation.
Explain Subliminal and Extrasensory perception.
Briefly explain the concept of perception. (10)

Perception Illusion

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Unit: 4
Learning
Learning is referred to as a relatively permanent change in behavior
(or behavior potential) that results from experience or practice.
Classical conditioning by Ivan Pavlov states that learning involves
forming association between two stimuli. The learner associates
previously neutral stimulus (CS) with a stimulus (UCS) that elicits a

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natural response (UCR). After conditioning the CS acquires the

capacity to elicit a response similar to the UCR.
Thorndike in his law of effect theorized that responses that satisfy
are more likely to be repeated while those that are not satisfying are
less likely to be repeated.
Operant conditioning explains how voluntary responses are
strengthened or weakened depending on positive or negative
consequences. In operant conditioning the organism performs a
behavior deliberately in order to produce a desirable outcome.
Consequences of behavior are termed as reinforcements. The types
of Reinforcement and the schedules of reinforcement will decide
how quickly a behavior is learnt and how long it would stay.
Albert Bandura who put forth the observational learning theory
says we learn by watching others. Those whose behavior is
observed are called Models. If the models behavior is rewarded
then the observer may imitate that behavior. On the other hand, if
the models behavior is not rewarded one may not imitate that
behavior.
The cognitive learning theorists argue that learning cannot be
reduced to mere forming of association as contented by Pavlovian
and Skinnerian psychologists. They hold that cognitive process like
perception, thinking and memory play key role in learning.
Insight Learning and Sign learning can be seen as instance of
cognitive theory in addition to Banduras theory.

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Wolfgang Kohler observed that animal forms a mental

representation of the problem until it hits on a solution, and then
enacts the solution in the real world. The solution will appear
sudden because the representation persists over time. The solution
is transferable because the representation is abstract enough to
cover more than the original situation.
Tolmans Sign Learning is also known as latent learning. It
suggests that learning occurs even in the absence of reinforcement.
However, for the behavior to occur overtly reinforcement is
requirement.
Nature of learning: Behavioral vs. cognitive
Cognitive psychology
Cognitive psychology assumes that humans have the capacity to
process and organize information in their mind. It is concerned less
with visible behavior and more with the thought processes behind it.
Cognitive psychology tries to understand concepts such as memory
and decision making.

Behaviorism
Behaviorism only concerns itself with the behavior that can be
observed. It assumes that we learn by associating certain events with
certain consequences, and will behave in the way with the most
desirable consequences.
It also assumes that when events happen together, they become
associated and either event will have the same response. It does not
note any difference between animal behavior and human behavior.

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Both branches of psychology attempt to explain human

behavior. However, they are both theories have been replaced by
other approaches (such as cognitive behaviorism - which takes the
best of both theories - and social psychology- which looks at how
our interactions with others shape our behavior).

Instincts and reflexes are innate behaviorsthey occur naturally

and do not involve learning. In contrast, learning is a change in
behavior or knowledge that results from experience.
Instinct unlearned knowledge, involving complex patterns of
behavior; instincts are thought to be more prevalent in lower
animals than in humans
Complex forms of learning
One involves learning a connection between two stimulias when
a school child associates the 12 oclock bell with lunch.
And another occurs when we associate our actions with rewarding
and punishing consequences, such as praise or a reprimand from the
boss or an A or a D from a professor.
Classical condition learning and its Application
Classical conditioning is a type of learning that had a major
influence on the school of thought in psychology known as
behaviorism. Discovered by Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov,
classical conditioning is a learning process that occurs through
associations between an environmental stimulus and a naturally
occurring stimulus.

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Behaviorism is based on the assumption that learning occurs

through interactions with the environment.
Two other assumptions of this theory are that the environment
shapes behavior and that taking internal mental states such as
thoughts, feelings, and emotions into consideration is useless in
explaining behavior.
It's important to note that classical conditioning involves placing a
neutral signal before a naturally occurring reflex. In Pavlov's classic
experiment with dogs, the neutral signal was the sound of a tone
and the naturally occurring reflex was salivating in response to
food. By associating the neutral stimulus with the environmental
stimulus (the presentation of food), the sound of the tone alone
could produce the salivation response.
In order to understand how more about how classical conditioning
works, it is important to be familiar with the basic principles of the
process.

The Classical Conditioning Process

Classical conditioning basically involves forming an association
between two stimuli resulting in a learned response. There are three
basic phases of this process:

Phase 1: Before Conditioning

Phase 2: During Conditioning

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Phase 3: After Conditioning

Application of learning

The beauty of classical conditioning is that it offers a

simple explanation for many behaviors, from cravings to
aversions.
But it offers more than an explanation: It also gives us the
tools for eliminating unwanted human behaviors

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although Pavlov never attempted any therapeutic

applications.
It fell to the American behaviorist, John Watson, to first
apply classical conditioning techniques to people.
Stimulus generalization The extension of a learned
response to stimuli that are similar to the conditioned
stimulus.
Stimulus discrimination A change in responses to one
stimulus but not to stimuli that are similar.
Experimental neurosis A pattern of erratic behavior
resulting from a demanding discrimination learning task,
typically one that involves aversive stimuli.
John Watson and Rosalie Rayner conditioned Little Albert
to fear furry objects like this Santa Claus mask
(Discovering Psychology, 1990).
Taste-aversion learning A biological tendency in which an
organism learns, after a single experience, to avoid a food
with a certain taste, if eating it is followed by illness.

Compare and contrast classical and operant conditioning. How

are they alike? How do they differ?

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Operant Conditioning Learning

Skinner believed that we do have such a thing as a mind, but that it
is simply more productive to study observable behavior rather than

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internal mental events. He believed that the best way to understand

behavior is to look at the causes of an action and its consequences.
He called this approach operant conditioning.
Skinner's theory of operant conditioning was based on the work
of Thorndike (1905). Edward Thorndike studied learning in animals
using a puzzle box to propose the theory known as the 'Law of
Effect'. Skinner is regarded as the father of Operant Conditioning
Behavior which is reinforced tends to be repeated (i.e.
strengthened); behavior which is not reinforced tends to die out-or
be extinguished (i.e. weakened). Skinner (1948) studied operant
conditioning by conducting experiments using animals which he
placed in a 'Skinner Box' which was similar to Thorndikes puzzle
box.
B.F. Skinner (1938) coined the term operant conditioning; it means
roughly changing of behavior by the use of reinforcement which is
given after the desired response.

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Skinner identified three types of responses or operant that can

follow behavior.
Neutral operant: responses from the environment that neither
increase nor decrease the probability of a behavior being repeated.
Reinforces: Responses from the environment that increase the
probability of a behavior being repeated. Reinforces can be either
positive or negative.

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 Punishers: Responses from the environment that decrease the

likelihood of a behavior being repeated. Punishment weakens
behavior.
For example, if when you were younger you tried smoking at
school, and the chief consequence was that you got in with the
crowd you always wanted to hang out with, you would have been
positively reinforced (i.e. rewarded) and would be likely to repeat
the behavior. If, however, the main consequence was that you were
caught, caned, suspended from school and your parents became
involved you would most certainly have been punished, and you
would consequently be much less likely to smoke now.
Behavior Shaping
A further important contribution made by Skinner (1951) is the
notion of behaviour shaping through successive approximation.
Skinner argues that the principles of operant conditioning can be
used to produce extremely complex behaviour if rewards and
punishments are delivered in such a way as to encourage move an
organism closer and closer to the desired behaviour each time.
In order to do this, the conditions (or contingencies) required to
receive the reward should shift each time the organism moves a
step closer to the desired behaviour.
According to Skinner, most animal and human behaviour
(including language) can be explained as a product of this type of
successive approximation.
Behavior Modification

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Behavior modification is a set of therapies / techniques based on

operant conditioning (Skinner, 1938, 1953). The main principle
comprises changing environmental events that are related to a
person's behavior. For example, the reinforcement of desired
behaviors and ignoring or punishing undesired ones.
This is not as simple as it sounds always reinforcing desired
behavior, for example, is basically bribery.
There are different types of positive reinforcements. Primary
reinforcement is when a reward strengths a behavior by itself.
Secondary reinforcement is when something strengthens a behavior
because it leads to a primary reinforce.
Examples of behavior modification therapy include token economy
and behavior shaping

Cognitive learning
Observational learning extends the effective range of both
classical and operant conditioning. In contrast to classical and
operant conditioning, in which learning occurs only through direct

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experience, observational learning is the process of watching others

and then imitating what they do. A lot of learning among humans
and other animals comes from observational learning. To get an
idea of the extra effective range that observational learning brings,
consider Ben and his son Julian from the introduction. How might
observation help Julian learn to surf, as opposed to learning by trial
and error alone? By watching his father, he can imitate the moves
that bring success and avoid the moves that lead to failure.
KOHLER insight Learning: Wolfgang Kohler Mental processes
had to be an essential component of learning, even though
behaviorists disagreed.
Insight Learning: Problem solving occurs by suddenly perceiving
familiar objects in new forms or relationships. Example: chimp
stacks crates to reach food .This are a form of cognitive learning.
TOLMANS COGNITIVE MAP Edward Tolman Argued that it
was a cognitive map that accounted for a rat quickly selecting an
alternative route in a maze when the preferred path was blocked.
Cognitive Map: A mental image that an organism uses to navigate
through a familiar environment. Example: giving directions,
walking through your house in the dark
-Challenged the work of Pavlov, Watson, and Skinner --Claimed
learning was mental, not behavioral. Instead of learning a series of
left and right turns, he argued that they acquired a more abstract
mental representation of the mazes spatial layout
-Reinforcement is not needed (as behaviorists believed) in rats
solving the maze .Organisms learn the spatial layout of their

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environments by exploration, even if they are not reinforced for

exploring (Evolutionary perspective: Animals foraging for food)

Memory:
Memory phenomenon

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Memory connotes the capacity of an individual to record, retain and

reproduce the same information.
Hermann Ebbinghaus (1850 - 1909) Frederic Bartlett (1886-1969)
we the first ones to use scientific techniques to study memory.
The three-stage information processing differentiates three distinct
stages of memory namely sensory memory, short-term memory, and
long-term memory. The stimuli that we first receive are
momentarily retained in sensory memory. Images that we see are
stored as Iconic memory and the auditory stimuli are stored as
Echoic memory.
Information from sensory memory that has been attended to are sent
to the STM where it stays for 20 seconds or less. If no effort is
taken to rehearse the information at STM it would fade away.
Information from the short-term memory, when repeatedly
rehearsed, reaches the long-term memory (LTM). Procedural
memory and Declarative memory are the two types of memory in
the LTM.
Basic processes (encoding, storage and retrieval)
Memory process includes encoding, storage and retrieval.

Encoding refers to getting information into the brain,

Storage refers to retaining the information and
Retrieval refers to getting back the information.

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Successful retrieval depends on organization of the information and

the context of encoding and retrieval. Forgetting or retention loss
connotes the apparent loss of information already encoded and
stored in an individual's long term memory. Few causes of
Forgetting that have been identified are the decay of memory trace,
problems with interfering materials, a break down in retrieval
process, emotional and motivational conditions, and organic factors.
Models of memory
Parallel Distributed Processing Model

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The PDP model has 3 basic principles: a.) the representation of

information is distributed (not local) b.) memory and knowledge for
specific things are not stored explicitly, but stored in the
connections between units. c.) learning can occur with gradual
changes in connection strength by experience.
"These models assume that information processing takes place
through interactions of large numbers of simple processing
elements called units, each sending excitatory and inhibitory signals
to other units." (McLelland, J., Rumelhart, D., & Hinton, G.,
1986,p.10)
Rumelhart, Hinton, and McClelland (1986) state that there are 8
major components of the PDP model framework:

a set of processing units

a state of activation
an output function for each unit
a pattern of connectivity among units
a propagation rule for propagating patterns of activities
through the network of connectivity's
an activation rule for combining the inputs impinging on a
unit with the current state of that unit to produce a new
level of activation for the unit
a learning rule whereby patterns of connectivity are
modified by experience
an environment within which the system must operate

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Information Processing Model

The first stage she went through was attending. In this stage, she
was listening and paying close attention to her grandmother's words
that she could do whatever she wanted if she believed in herself.
When we attend or focus on an event or a conversation, we are
preparing ourselves to receive it.
The second stage Jessica went through was encoding. This is what
happened when she was taking in her grandmother's words. If she
was neither paying attention to them nor placing any importance on
them, she would not have encoded them.
The third stage was storing. In this stage, her grandmother's words
were entering her memory bank, ready to be called upon at some
other time.
The final stage was retrieving. This happened when Jessica went

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through a tough time in college and looked back on her

grandmother's words, bringing them up to her conscious awareness.
She retrieved this information in order to use it.

Retrieval (cues, recall,

automatic encoding)

recognition,

reconstruction,

and

In the 1980s, Endel Tulving proposed an alternative to the twostage theory, which he called the theory of encoding specificity.
This theory states that memory utilizes information both from the
specific memory trace as well as from the environment in which it
is retrieved.
Because of its focus on the retrieval environment or state, encoding

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specificity takes into account context cues, and it also has some
advantages over the two-stage theory as it accounts for the fact that,
in practice, recognition is not actually always superior to recall.
Typically, recall is better when the environments are similar in both
the learning (encoding) and recall phases, suggesting that context
cues are important.
Cues can facilitate recovery of memories that have been "lost." In
research, a process called cued recall is used to study these effects.
Cued recall occurs when a person is given a list to remember and is
then given cues during the testing phase to aid in the retrieval of
memories. The stronger the link between the cue and the testing
word, the better the participant will recall the words.
There are three main types of recall:
Free recall is the process in which a person is given a list of items
to remember and then is asked to recall them in any order (hence
the name free). This type of recall often displays evidence of
either the primacy effect (when the person recalls items presented at
the beginning of the list earlier and more often) or the recency
effect (when the person recalls items presented at the end of the list
earlier and more often), and also of thecontiguity effect (the marked
tendency for items from neighbouring positions in the list to be
recalled successively).
Cued recall is the process in which a person is given a list of items
to remember and is then tested with the use of cues or guides. When
cues are provided to a person, they tend to remember items on the
list that they did not originally recall without a cue, and which were

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thought to be lost to memory. This can also take the form

of stimulus-response recall, as when words, pictures and numbers
are presented together in a pair, and the resulting associations
between the two items cues the recall of the second item in the pair.
Serial recall refers to our ability to recall items or events in the
order in which they occurred, whether chronological events in our
autobiographical memories, or the order of the different parts of a
sentence (or phonemes in a word) in order to make sense of them.
Because of the way memories are encoded and stored, memory
recall is effectively an on-the-fly reconstruction of elements
scattered throughout various areas of our brains. Memories are not
stored in our brains like books on library shelves, or even as a
collection of self-contained recordings or pictures or video clips,
but may be better thought of as a kind of collage or a jigsaw puzzle,
involving different elements stored in disparate parts of
the brain linked together by associations and neural networks.
Recognition is the association of an event or physical object with
one previously experienced or encountered, and involves a process
of comparison of information with memory, e.g. recognizing a
known face, true/false or multiple choice questions, etc.
Automatic encoding is a process of memory where information is
taken in and encoded without deliberate effort.
This can be seen in how a person can learn and remember how
things are arranged in a house, or where to find particular items in a
grocery store.
These are things that don't take any particular study or effort, but

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are just quickly learned through experience.

Forgetting:
Memory researchers certainly havent forgotten Hermann
Ebbinghaus, the first person to do scientific studies of forgetting,
using himself as a subject. He spent a lot of time memorizing
endless lists of nonsense syllables and then testing himself to see
whether he remembered them. He found that he forgot most of what
he learned during the first few hours after learning it.
Forgetting refers to apparent loss or modification of information
already encoded and stored in an individual's long term memory. It
is a spontaneous or gradual process in which old memories are
unable to be recalled from memory storage.
Recall is remembering without any external cues. For example,
essay questions test recall of knowledge because nothing on a blank
sheet of paper will jog the memory.
Recognition is identifying learned information using external cues.
For example, true or false questions and multiple-choice questions
test recognition because the previously learned information is there
on the page, along with other options. In general, recognition is
easier than recall.

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Causes of Forgetting
Everyone forgets things. There are six main reasons for forgetting:
ineffective encoding, decay, interference, retrieval failure,
motivated forgetting, and physical injury or trauma.
Ineffective Encoding
The way information is encoded affects the ability to remember it.
Processing information at a deeper level makes it harder to forget.
If a student thinks about the meaning of the concepts in her
textbook rather than just reading them, shell remember them better
when the final exam comes around. If the information is not
encoded properlysuch as if the student simply skims over the
textbook while paying more attention to the TVit is more likely
to be forgotten.
Decay
According to decay theory, memory fades with time. Decay
explains the loss of memories from sensory and short-term
memory. However, loss of long-term memories does not seem to
depend on how much time has gone by since the information was
learned. People might easily remember their first day in junior high
school but completely forget what they learned in class last
Tuesday.
Interference
Interference theory has a better account of why people lose longterm memories. According to this theory, people forget information
because of interference from other learned information. There are

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two types of interference: retroactive and proactive.

Retroactive interference happens when newly learned

information makes people forget old information.

Proactive interference happens when old information

makes people forget newly learned information.

Retrieval Failure
Forgetting may also result from failure to retrieve information in
memory, such as if the wrong sort of retrieval cue is used. For
example, xara may not be able to remember the name of her fifthgrade teacher. However, the teachers name might suddenly pop
into xaras head if she visits her old grade school and sees her fifthgrade classroom. The classroom would then be acting as a context
cue for retrieving the memory of his teachers name.
Physical Injury or Trauma
Anterograde amnesia is the inability to remember events that
occur after an injury or traumatic event. Retrograde amnesia is the
inability to remember events that occurred before an injury or
traumatic event.

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Ebbinghauss Forgetting Curve

In order to test for new information, Ebbinghaus tested his memory

for periods of time ranging from 20 minutes to 31 days
His results, plotted in what is known as the Ebbinghaus forgetting
curve, revealed a relationship between forgetting and time.
Initially, information is often lost very quickly after it is learned.
Factors such as how the information was learned and how
frequently it was rehearsed play a role in how quickly these
memories are lost.

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The forgetting curve also showed that forgetting does not continue
to decline until all of the information is lost. At a certain point, the
amount of forgetting levels off. What exactly does this mean? It
indicates that information stored in long-term memory is
surprisingly stable.
Memory and the brain
An early influential idea regarding localized representations of
memory in the brain suggested physical changes occur when we
learn something new. One popular idea was that connections grow
between areas of the brain.
Three Stages of Memory
Three stages of memory are: Sensory, short-term, and long-term
memory

Sensory memory

visual, auditory, and olfactory information

transfers to short-term memory

Short-term memory

stores seven single or chunked items for 30

seconds without repetition

solves problems through reasoning process

(example: organizing facts into a coherent essay)

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Long-term Memory
The ability to transfer information from short- to
long-term memory is relevant to the learning
process.
People use attention, repetition, and association
with past learning to encode information.
Neurologically,
encoding
happens
when
information is repeatedly processed in the
hippocampus.

What part of the brain is responsible for memory?

Different areas and systems of the brain are responsible for
different
kinds
of memory.
The
hippocampus,
parahippocampal region, and areas of the cerebral cortex
(including the prefrontal cortex) work together to support
declarative, or cognitive, memory.
Where is the memory located in the brain?
The reason is that long-term memory is not located in just one
specific area of the brain. The hippocampus is the catalyst for longtermmemory, but the actual memory traces are encoded at various
places in the cortex.

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Amnesia and false memories

Amnesia is the loss of memory. Studies on amnesia help to clarify
the distinctions between and among different kinds of memories
and their mechanisms. Different areas of the hippocampus are
active during memory formation and retrieval.

Damage results in amnesia.

Patient HM is a famous case study in psychology who had
his hippocampus removed to prevent epileptic seizures.
Afterwards Patient HM had great difficulty forming new
long-term memories.
STM or working memory remained intact.
Suggested that the hippocampus is vital for the formation
of new long-term memories.

The main factors involved may be brain damage affecting frontal

control and executive systems (spontaneous confabulation), a weak
memory trace (momentary confabulation), anomalous processing of
input modulated by personal self-beliefs (delusional memories),
social coercion and source memory errors, usually in the context of
low self-esteem (false confession), and anomalous, biased, or
selective retrieval from autobiographical memory (pseudo logia
fantastica, fugue, multiple personality).
Some of these phenomena may result characteristically from a
combination of factors (e.g. the absence of rehearsal and a
particular social context in cases of apparently false or distorted
memories for child sexual abuse).

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In others, an interaction between social and biological factors may

occasionally be important (the confabulations produced by brain
damaged patients in very stressful or extreme situations).
Although all these phenomena can be described and characterized
within a general model of memory and executive function, provided
that social factors and some notion of self (called here a
personal semantic belief system) are introduced, different
components of the model have been highlighted in the generation of
particular instances of false memory.
It follows that these phenomena are probably best viewed as
different types of false memory, with varying underlying
mechanisms, and that the term confabulation is perhaps most
useful if confined to its current conventions (brain disease and
instances of momentary confabulation):
In particular, confabulations and delusions need to be kept
conceptually distinct. However, the relative dearth of
neuropsychological studies comparing false memory phenomena
means that the specific processes involved require further
investigation.
False memory is the psychological phenomenon in which a person
recalls a memory that did not actually occur. False memory is often
considered in legal cases regarding childhood sexual abuse.
This phenomenon was initially investigated by psychological
pioneers Pierre Janet and Sigmund Freud. Freud wrote The
Aetiology of Hysteria, where he discussed repressed memories of
childhood sexual trauma in their relation to hysteria.

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Elizabeth Loftus has, since her debuting research project in

1974, been a lead researcher in memory recovery and false
memories. False memory syndrome recognizes false memory as a
prevalent part of ones life in which it affects the persons mentality
and day-to-day life.
False memory syndrome differs from false memory in that the
syndrome is heavily influential in the orientation of a person's life,
while false memory can occur without this significant effect. The
syndrome takes effect because the person believes the influential
memory to be true. However, its research is controversial and the
syndrome is excluded from identification as a mental disorder and,
therefore, is also excluded from the Diagnostic and Statistical
Manual of Mental Disorders. False memory is an important part of
psychological research because of the ties it has to a large number
of mental disorders, such as PTSD.[8]

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Review Questions
1.
2.
3.

What is retroactive interference?

How is memory related to brain?
Define learning and critically examine the conditioning
learning theory of Ivan Pavlov.(10)
4. What do you understand by memory? Explain memorizing
process and the causes of forgetting. (10)
5. What is operant conditioning learning? How can it be used
in strengthening and disadvantages? Explain.(10)
6. Define attitude. Explain how attitude are formed along its
types.(10)
7. What is insight learning? Explain the role of reinforcement
to promote business activities. (10)
8. Differentiate behavioral Vs Cognitive learning. (10)
9. Define and explain observation learning. (10)
10. What is classical conditioning? Explain with the
experiment of Pavlov. (10)
11. What is reinforcement? What are the implications of
schedule of reinforcement in business management?
Illustrate. (10)

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