Introduction to Psychology (1105) Trent Toulouse

? What is Psychology? The scientific study of the human mind and behavior The study of you!

Passive Recorders?

Predictable Responders?

Prior Expectations

Previous experiences

Context

Context

Effects of context and expectation are not limited to lower level visual processing

Group A You are going to look briefly at a picture and then answer some questions about it. The picture is a rough sketch of a poster for a costume ball. Do not dwell on the picture. Look at it only long enough to “take it all in” once. After this, you will answer YES or NO to a series of questions.

Group B You are going to look briefly at a picture and then answer some questions about it. The picture is a rough sketch of a poster for a trained seal act. Do not dwell on the picture. Look at it only long enough to “take it all in” once. After this, you will answer YES or NO to a series of questions.

In the picture was there… 1.A car? 2.A man? 3.A woman? 4.A child? 5.An animal? 6.A whip? 7.A sword? 8.A man’s hat? 9.A ball? 10.A fish?

Which is further west? Reno? San Diego?

Interference  Blue  Brown  White  Orange  Green  Blue  Black  Red  Green  Black

Framing effects What is the definition of the word bark?

Framing effects What is the definition of the word bark?

Framing effects = 10 / 5 = 5 x 3 = 11 – 4 = = 3 x 3 = Write down a large number

Jackpot Fatigue In jackpots approach $400 million would create massive buying frenzies By 2015 total sales were down 40% Lottery officials changed rules to go from 1/172 million to 1/272 million. This has allowed for the recent $1.5 billion jackpot record. Based on our discussion of framing and prior evidence is this a good thing or a bad thing for the long term success of the lottery?

Dualism

Ship of Theseus

Parfit and Personal Identity Derek ParfitIngrid Bergman??

Dualism and Plato’s Allegory of the Cave “How could they see anything but the shadows if they were never allowed to move their heads?” -Plato, The Allegory of the Cave

Descartes, Founding Modern Dualism

Automata Canard Digérateur (Digesting Duck)

Cogito Ergo Sum Descartes Argument for Dualism: How can I know I am not crazy? How can I know I am not dreaming? How can I know I have a body? How can I know I exist? All I know is that I am thinking.

Dualism is a “common sense” idea

The Soul is a Dualist Idea

The Astonishing Hypothesis “You,” your joys and your sorrows, your memories and your ambitions, your sense of personal identity and free will, are in fact no more than the behavior of a vast assembly of nerve cells and their associated molecules. Francis Crick (1995)

Road Blocks to Psychology as a Science How can you measure the mind? How can you predict behavior with free will? Are observations generalizable? The early history of psychology is about trying to answer these questions, leading towards Crick’s “astonishing hypothesis”