1. Methods & Mates

How Choosing The Right Research Method Is Like Choosing Your Mate

Biological Psychology is the study of how not everything is about choice. Choice is good but not all there is to it.

We choose our mates from an available pool of possibilities. It’s not just choice. Environment has something to do with it. We are not choosing from the entire universe or even the whole world.

Is it possible that biology has something to do with it too?

That’s the question this course tries to answer. Biological Psych looks at how we are impacted by genetics, hormones, synapses and brain development.

Research in biological psych  is trying to figure out what’s on the inside of a pretty new package, without ripping it open. People won’t volunteer to have their brains yanked out, so you have to use other methods. It’s a challenge but fun.

This course is about you. In particular, how your body receives, processes and acts on information. We’ll look at sensation and perception (inputs), and movements and skills (outputs). We’ll also take a look at some of learning, memory, and cognition factors that happen between inputs and outputs.

The focus is on how things happen biologically. We will look at “why” only in terms of why things are processes in one part of the brain and not in another. We may raise questions that make you question  your philosophy but we won’t answer them.

Figuring out how our brains work is like trying to guess what is inside a present. We can’t rip it open (unless we have some other reason to do so). We can’t know for sure what it is really doing. We are making educated guesses.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this lesson, you should be able to:

• Assess your current level of knowledge about biological psychology
• Become comfortable with the online environment
• Review your prior experiences with biology
• Get to know your classmates

Readings

• Welcome
• Read these posts:
  • Comparative-Evolutionary Psych
  • Dissection
  • Correlation
  • Ablation
  • Developmental Studies
  • Histology
  • Neurochemistry
  • Stereotaxic Surgery
  • Brain Recording
  • Genetics (short version). Extended version is covered in the next lesson)

Videos

Slides

Links

• Deborah Smith’s “Five Principles of Research Ethics” (Links to an external site.) in The Monitor.
• A good resource to know about is Neuroscience For Kids (Links to an external site.).
• Mind-body video:https://youtu.be/XLS6qoT0Ioo (Links to an external site.)

 Terms

• 3-D frame
• A can cause B
• ablation
• Aristotle
• average brain weights
• behavior people of neuroscience
• biopsy
• brain is like a muscle theory
• comparative-evolutionary method
• consciousness
• continuity of behavior
• correlation
• correlational method
• cross-sectional study
• dependent variable
• developmental method
• dissection method
• EEG
• Flourens
• Galen
• Gall
• generalization
• histological method
• independent variable
• inference
• intelligent heart
• longitudinal study
• mind-body problem
• musket balls
• neuro-chemical method
• ontogenetic explanations
• orthogonal coordinates
• phrenology
• physiological psych
• psychobiology
• recording brain activity method
• reduction
• species-specific behavior
• stereotaxic surgery method
• stimulation
• top 10 research methods
• two BIG questions

Notes

• What’s in a name?
  • Behavioral Neuroscience
  • Physiological psych
  • Biological psych
  • Psychobiology

• Behavior people of neuroscience
• The brain people of psychology
• Study of behavior & experience
• How produced physically
• Where did it come from
• How develops
• Combine biology & psychology
• Neuroscience but with
  • Less chemistry
  • Less anatomy

• Research Goals
  • Generalization – find laws
    • Lots of little observations
  • Reduction – find simple explanation
    • Start with general issue (intelligence)
    • Find component
    • Structures
    • Processes
• Approaches
  • Physiological explanations
    • machinery of the body
  • Ontogenetic explanations
    • influence of genes
  • Evolutionary explanations
    • Ancestors to present
  • Functional explanations
    • Benefit-advantage of behaviors
• Mind-Body Problem
  • Matter & energy out of nothing?
  • Consciousness
  • Out of matter & energy
  • Mental experience and physical
  • Two BIG questions
    • Which part of body?
    • Which methods?
• Top 10 approaches to solving it
  • 1. Comparative-Evolutionary
    • Aristotle
      • Heart is the center of sensation, intelligence and the cause of behavior
      • Center of vitality
      • Origin of nerves
      • Brain & lungs keep it cool
      • 3 chambers
      • Conclusion based on
        • which part of chicken embryo develops first
    • Continuity of Behavior
      • Same processes in dif. species
    • Nature is conservative; e.g.. nerve impulse, heart
    • Nature can be adventurous
    • Species-Specific Behavior
      • No one does it quite this way, e.g.. language, eye, frontal lobe
    • Comparing
      • All of the animals
      • All vertebrates
      • All mammals
      • All primates
      • All humans
      • Some folk
      • Individual
  • 2. Dissection
    • Galen
      • Heart is the right organ
        • Aristotle use wrong method
      • Dissect human hearts (taboo)
      • Intelligent heart
        • Expands & contracts
        • Gets larger when wants to attract
        • Clings to what it captures
      • Heart is important
        • Hard flesh, not easily damaged
        • Best fibers in body
        • Continuous hard work
        • Source of internal heat-energy
      • Soul
        • Liver more important
        • Where humors come from
        • In good humor = balanced
    • Description
      • Inference
        • Heart expands and contracts
      • Inference
        • Intelligence
      • KT: Always trust data; question conclusions
  • 3. Correlational
    • Franz Gall (1758-1828)
      • Compared brains & skulls
      • Several species
      • Independent variable = skull size
      • Dependent variable = # shot
      • Musket balls
    • ********
    • Brain size & intell corr.
      • Larger-brain = more complex-varied tasks
      • Average brain weights
        • Human 3-165 1.8% 1/55
        • Dolphin 3-350 .85 1/17
        • Cat 1/100
        • Dog 1/125
        • hippo 1/2800
      • Most mammals are 90% of adult brain size at birth
        • Chimp 54%
        • Bottlenose dolphin 43%
        • Elephants 35%
        • humans 28%
    • *******
    • Gall (con’t)
    • Compared brains & skulls
      • Argued for brain localization
      • Each region of the brain is reserved for its own skill, ability, mental faculty or personality trait
    • Phrenology
      • Founder of “cranioscopy”
      • Skull shape reveals internal skills
      • “Brain is like a muscle” theory
      • Skull gets bigger the more you use it
      • Gets bigger pushes skull outward
      • Examine topography of skull
      • Discover underlying brain areas
• ***********************************************
• What is a correlation
• Compare 2 things, same people
• Pair of operations
• Height & age
• Schiz & age
• Bumps and abilities
• Shows relationships, not causation
• A can cause B
• B can cause A
• C can cause A & B
• ***********************************************
  • 4. Ablation
    • Pierre Flourens (1794-1867)
      • French physiologist
      • brain surgery & anesthesia
      • Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte
      • Academy of Sciences of Paris
      • study Franz Gall’s claims
      • asked Flourens to investigate
      • rabbits and pigeons
    • Ablation
      • Destroyed small parts with brain lesions
      • Observed effects: Hop or not hop
      • 1st proof main divisions of brain had different functions
  • 5. Developmental
    • Longitudinal
      • Same people over time
      • Life span over years
    • Cross-sectional
      • Dif people (diff. ages)
      • Same time
    • Identifying emotions
      • Changes over time
      • Teens & Adults differ
        • Teens use amygdala
        • Adults use frontal lobe
  • 6. Stereotaxic Surgery
    • 3-D frame
    • Orthogonal coordinates
    • Ablation
    • Biopsy
    • Injections
    • Stimulation
    • Implantation
    • Radiation
  • 7. Histological Methods
  • 8. Recording Brain Activity
    • EEG of brain
  • 9. Neuro-Chemical
    • Identify neurotransmitters
    • How receptors work
  • 10. Genetics

Quiz

• 1. Who is the founder of phrenology?
  • a.       Aristotle
  • b.       Flourens
  • c.        Galen
  • d.       Gall
• 2. When you’re comparing skull sizes across species, which is a good dependent variable:
  • a.       musket balls
  • b.       skull size
  • c.        laughter
  • d.       height
• 3. In a correlation:
  • a.       A can cause B
  • b.       B can cause A
  • c.        C can cause A and B
  • d.       All of the above
• 4. Which studies the same people over time?
  • a.       cross-sectional studies
  • b.       contralateral studies
  • c.        longitudinal studies
  • d.       ablation
• 5. In Klinefelter’s Syndrome (XXY), symptoms include:
  • a.       mental retardation
  • b.       short stature
  • c.        ribosomal mutation
  • d.       none of the above

For the answers: Click Here

Discussion Question

• What do people believe today that’s like phrenology?

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