PSY 421 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Hermann Von Helmholtz, Psychophysics, Ventral Root Of Spinal Nerve
Document Summary
After reading and discussing chapter 8, students should: Understand that the scientific advances of the 17th and 18th centuries allowed philosophical questions concerning man to be examined in new, more precise ways. Be familiar with the early research on brain functioning. Be familiar with the rise of experimental psychology. Everything from sense perception to motor reactions was studied intensely and gave birth to experimental psychology. Early reaction-time study illustrated importance of individual differences and demonstrated the importance of discrepancy between objective and subjective reality. Evident that there was not a point-to-point correspondence between physical reality and the psychological experience of that reality. Researchers became interested in the physiology of the organism. Demonstrated that sensory nerves enter the dorsal roots of the spinal cord and motor nerves emerge from the ventral roots. Separated nerve physiology into sensory and motor functions. Significant because it demonstrated that specific mental functions are mediated by different anatomical structures.
