3A and 3B Short Responses

Association Areas “Association areas are those areas in the brain that are involved with reactions other than those that deal with sensory input and motor output. This means that they are responsible for other actions that include learning, mood, and personality. A major example involving association areas includes Phineas Gage, who suffered through a railroad accident. An iron rod was driven through his frontal lobe, but surprisingly, he survived and was capable of many of the same activities he was able to do before. However, Gage was not the same as before in terms of his personality. He was no longer friendly, but untruthful and irritable. We notice, though, that his perception of senses and control over movement were not impaired. Gage had damaged his association areas. (Continued)

A.A. Because they are not involved in sensory or motor functions, those capabilities were unharmed. However, the damage to his association areas resulted in the change to his character traits because these brain areas are largely responsible for those aspects. This emphasizes the importance of association areas in psychology. Our behavior is heavily impacted by what our association areas do. Whether it be learning, memory, comprehension, or personality, the association areas allow for more than just the acknowledgement of senses and control over movement.”

A.A. “Association areas are areas in the cerebral cortex that are not involved with sensory and motor functions, and instead take part in higher mental processes such as thinking, learning, memory, and speaking. Association areas are found in all cortical areas. IN the frontal lobe, these areas are responsible for memory and personality. In the parietal lobe, they can help with mathematical reasoning. In the temporal lobe, they enable us to recognize people and faces. Damage to these areas can be brutal, since they make up about ¾ of the brain. For example, if an association area in the temporal lobe was damaged, a child would not be able to recognize people like ‘Grandma’ and ‘mother’. (Continued)

A.A. Another example of how important association areas are is the case of Phineas Gage. He was a construction worker who got a rod blown into his brain due to an explosion/mishap. This rod damaged many of his association areas in his frontal lobe leading to changes in his personality. Although he lived, many of his friends explained he was ‘no longer Gage’. As a result, association areas are very important to us since they allow us to preform higher level mental processes like learning, speaking, remembering, and thinking.”

Notes Note what studying them tells us in psychology Note what they are involved with What does damage tell us about association areas? If you use Gage as an application, be able to talk about why his injury was significant in learning about these areas

Aphasia “Aphasia is a language disorder that affects one’s ability to communicate. The two well-known types of aphasia are Broca’s aphasia and Wernicke’s aphasia. Broca’s aphasia is when one can understand what they are reading or learning, but have trouble vocalizing it. Wernicke’s aphasia comes after damage to Wernicke’s area of the brain that deals with speech comprehension. People with Wernicke’s aphasia have trouble understanding what is heard—an example being the word ‘tangent’ which one with Wernicke’s aphasia might just say ‘tan tan tan’ instead. (Continued)

Aphasia Both types of aphasia show language and the brain have a complex relationship—it’s not processed in just one area. If one studies language development, knowledge of aphasia and the language processing parts of the brain are extremely important.”

Notes What is aphasia’s significance within psychology/what can it tell us about the brain? If you use Broca/Wernicke’s area, be able to define them and use them in context—why are they significant?

Biological Psychology “Biological psychology is a branch of psychology that studies the effects of biology on psychological behaviors. It is more than just a branch of psych though, because ‘everything psychological is simultaneously biological’. This can be emphasized when one looks at the functions of limbs—say a person hears the fire alarm. The appropriate behavior is to stand up, walk out of the room, and find a safe area. This doesn’t just happen on its own though. The behavior associated with hearing a fire alarm has everything to do with biology. (Continued)

B.P. The sound of the alarm is processed in the temporal lobe, and the stimulus causes a neural message to fire through our nervous system, down different nerves, or those that connect the motor-controlling system of the brain to the correct muscles in our legs, telling our limbs that we need to move. Without the biological aspect and study of behavior and psychology, there is no way to determine what really stimulates our actions.”

B.P. “Biological psychology is the branch of psychology that investigates the links between biology and psychology. This type of psychology is used to achieve a different viewpoint than other fields of psychology. It tends to be (not always) more scientific and provable than other branches of psychology. For example, a biological psychologist might be asked why the child acts like his father and they would point to DNA and areas of the brain. Another psychologist could claim it’s because of the environment and examples set by the mother. Both of these claims could be right, or they could be wrong. It is important to combine different view points in psychology, and biological psychology supplies just that.”

Notes Include approaches to treatment/how treatment may vary compared to other perspectives Include the influence of this perspective on psychology today (drug treatments in combination with other therapies, etc.)