Psychobiology

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Chapter 19 Psychobiology
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1. PhD from Johns Hopkins 1914. 2. U. Minnesota
1917, U. Chicago 1926, Harvard 1935. 3. Director
Yerkes Lab, FL 1942. 4. Mass action and
equipotentiality. 5. Brain Mechanisms and
Intelligence, 1929. 6. In search of the engram
(1950). 7. The problem of serial order in
behavior (1951). 8. APA President 1929. 9.
1890-1958
Karl S. Lashley
1. Nova Scotia, son of two MDs. 2. McGill MS
1932, U of Chicago with Lashley, Harvard PhD w.
him in 1936. 3. Montreal Neurological Inst w.
Wilder Penfield 1937. 4. Joined Lashley at
Yerkes Labs in 1942 5. McGill 1948 6. CPA
President 1952, APA President 1959. 7. The
Organization of Behavior, 1949. 8. The American
Revolution (1960). 8. Cell assemblies and phase
sequences. 9. Olds Milner (1954) reinf. centers
1889-1976
D. O. Hebb
1913-1994
1. PhD in zoology 1941 U. of Chicago. 2. Yerkes
Lab with Lashley 1942-1946. 3. 1946 U of
Chicago. 4. 1954 Cal Tech, Hixon Prof. 5. The
split brain preparation. 6. Overdone speculation
on laterality (561). 7. Lifelong interest in
mind-body problem. 8. Nobel Prize in medicine
(1981) with Hubel Wiesel.
Roger W. Sperry

• Behavioral Genetics
• Ethology, species specific behavior.
• E. O Wilson (1975) Sociobiology The New
  Synthesis
• Breland Breland (1961) (Anim Beh Ent) The
  misbehavior of organisms.
• Evolutionary psychology
• Thomas Bouchard Nurture counts for very
  little.

1928---
1. Syntactic Structures (1957). 2. Review of
Skinners Verbal Behavior (1959). 3. Aspects of
the Theory of Syntax (1965)
Noam Chomsky
1975
1950
1925
1900
1875
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• Provide evidence that psychobiology has been a
  persistent theme throughout psychologys history.
• Discuss Lashleys principles of mass action and
  equipotentiality. In what way(s) did these
  principles conflict with the behavioristic view
  of brain functioning? How did they support the
  Gestalt view of brain functioning? 557
• What is the engram? Was Lashleys search for it
  successful? Was that of subsequent researchers?
  557-558
• According to Hebb, what are cell assemblies and
  phase sequences, and how do they develop? Give
  an example of how Hebb employed the concepts of
  cell assembly and phase sequence in explaining
  cognitive experience. 559
• Describe Sperrys split-brain preparation. What
  discoveries about the learning process did Sperry
  make using the preparation? Why was the
  preparation used on humans? What was learned
  about hemispheric specificity by studying humans
  with split brains? 560-561
• Explain how the ethologists were instrumental in
  reducing the influence of radical behaviorism.
  562-563
• Within sociobiology, what is the meaning of the
  term biogrammar ? Nothing-butism? What is the
  leash principle? 563
• Why have evolutionary psychologists been
  criticized for emphasizing adaptationism?
  Include in your answer the definitions of
  exaptations and spandrels. 564
• What was the significance of Chomskys review of
  Skinners book Verbal Behavior for the
  development of contemporary cognitive psychology?
  564-565
• In what ways did the Brelands observation of
  instinctual drift contradict assumptions made by
  the behaviorists? How did Seligmans preparedness
  continuum also contradict those assumptions?
  565-566
• What was Bouchards rationale for using identical
  twins reared apart from birth in his study of the
  relative contributions of nature and nurture to
  intelligence and personality? What conclusions
  were supported by his research? 566-567

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