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  University of Idaho
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  Psychology Dept.
  University of Idaho
  Design - P&D  CTI

 
In this section we begin discussing scientific influences and related philosophers that will have impacts on learning. The last time we were in the Middle Ages and a variety of different players had been there. In this section we begin discussion of things that would happen within the scientific revolution and how that works. As we see on slide two, the scientific revolution really begins around 1543. Other things had happened before then, but this is really where we start talking about major changes. Generally, it begins with Copernicus. As we see on slide three, Copernicus was an astronomer and what he did was propose that the sun, not the earth, was the center of the solar system. Freud calls this the first great blow to the human ego. With this kind of model, humans could no longer pride themselves as living in the center of the universe, which is what the Christian philosophers had been telling them. The problem was that Copernicus’ physics was still Aristotelian and his data didn’t support his system, so they simply they tried him for heresy and he was convicted.

A little later, Galileo comes along. He was a little better spokesman than Copernicus and as we see in slide four, he supported his models with new physics, which made better sense. He also supported it with telescopic evidence. When you looked at the moon, what’d you see is that it looked exactly like the earth. Ok the moon was no more heavenly than on earth. But again like Copernicus, he couldn’t shake the notion that the planet orbits were circular. So as a result, his physics didn’t work out very well either. It wasn’t until Kepler, which we see on page five, that showed that the orbits of the planets were elliptical and not circular. When this occurred, it solved Galileo’s problem for science.

Within psychology but from a more philosophical bent, we see some major players begin to occur. The first one of these people that we’ll talk about is Bacon. As we see on page six, Bacon really begins the idea of systematic empirical research. What he believed was that learning could be advanced only through the inductive study of nature by means of several things.

Where have we heard this before? We hear that from Aristotle, we hear that from Hypocrites back in the Greek Empire, so this is nothing new.

And what he believed, (as we see on page seven) is that philosophy should investigate nature in a wholly naturalistic and mechanistic way, using theology and teology equally. Bacon believed that by carefully collecting facts, unguided by any kind of biasing hypothesis, you could draw some major conclusions and even, simple conclusions and generalizations.

For us, though, we really begin to talk about psychology and science with the next individual, and this person is shown beginning on page eight, and that is Descarte. Psychology as we really know it begins with Descarte and he creates a framework from which philosophers and other scientists have worked ever since, even when they were attacking his ideas. He was the first what we call the first great duelists. Descarte makes a sharp distinction between the body and the mind, but he’s also an interactionist and he sees that the mind can influence the body and that the body can also influence the mind. The mind, though, is not the same kind of mind that we think about as we think about today.

As we see on page nine, the mind was the same as the soul for Descarte and it was the part that thinks. The principle site of that soul and of that mind (or of the activity) was not in the heart as all the other philosophers before Descarte had described, but instead in the head. The body, as we see in slide 10 for Descarte was much different. It was clearly basically an objective extended substance. It was mechanical in action, and basically obeyed all the known laws of the inanimate. And since animals had no minds, that is, they had no souls, they’d generally were nothing more than machines, and so is your body. Generally, your body was just basically a machine set for Descarte.

And within that context, we have a variety of different reflexes. There are two types: involuntary and voluntary. As we see in slide 12, involuntary reflexes were basically the sensors. The muscles were convected in some kind of specific set of nerves. What happened s that the animal spirits flowed through the nerves and made it possible for instinctive reactions to take place. So for example, let’s say that you stepped on a stick, or you put your hand on a nail or whatever. Nerves in the foot would then send the signal to the brain. The brain would then release some kind of animal spirit into the nerve, which then went back down to the muscle. The animal spirit then caused that muscle to swell and the foot would be pulled up off the stick. Note: This would have to occur very fast.

The other kind of reflexes, as we see on slide 13, were voluntary reflexes. These were more problematic for Descarte because the mind and the body are separate, and the body is controlled by physical mechanisms while the mind is basically controlled by the soul. So how does the mind influence the body? This is where the major breakthrough occurs for Descarte. The answer as we see on slide 14 is that the soul is located in a specific brain structure, ala, the Pineal gland. The Pineal gland is also the container that contained the animal spirits for Descarte. So, it was the fluid again that produced the contractions in the muscles. So what you do is push the Pineal gland in the right direction, the soul pushes the animal fluids and spirits in the right direction, the fluids would flow to the right muscle, and the movement would then occur.

For Descarte as we see on slide 15, the Pineal gland is the connecting system for both the mind and the body and it is the major point that interacts with both. Descarte went beyond that. He began to talk about psychology to the extent that we talk about it today. He developed the concept of consciousness and defined psychology as a science that studies the consciousness. This made the search for self-understanding an even more important one than it was before.

Now, in addition to Descarte and after Descarte comes another set of groups. These are what we call the British associations and begin on slide 17. The first major person of this group was Locke. We remember Locke from our earlier lectures. Locke is considered to be the father of Empiricism. He’s a physician, a rather practical politician, and he was less in the grip of the traditional metaphysical system than Descarte. Basically his view was very simple. Like Aristotle, your mind is basically a blank sheet of paper upon which all experience is written. That is, the Tabula Rasa. And that all ideas come from experience. So you start with a blank slate. Your mind is basically a blank slate, and from there you begin to develop concepts as you continue to get older.

It was like Aristotle’s view, but it was different in the view as development progressed. Locke is also as we see on page 19, the first Associationist. That is really a major key because associationism basically was used to describe the combination and compounding of ideas. This will be extremely expounded upon by later theorists and continues today.

The next major theorist or the next major British associationist was Hobbs. As we can see on page 20, he was also an Empiricist. But he contended that trains of thought were guided by desires and purposes, while other thoughts and trains were unguided. Thus, he begins the idea of motivating factors, that is, motivation to do particular things, which will come into the whole field of psychology in and of its own.

There are other British Associationists as well. The next one is shown on slide 21 and is Berkeley. Berkeley believed in the existence of material substance as well. His belief in the mind was only reality and he even denied that the mind pictures objects at all. We never develop a sense of visual depth or third dimension directly. We always needed to use some kind of cues out there. So again, a little bit different take on what was going on at the time, but again is part of this particular group.

We then come to Hume on slide 22. Locke basically eliminated experience but still accepts the idea that objects were similar to ideas. Berkeley takes the next step by denying the existence of objects at all and then Hume takes the next step. As we see in slide 23 Hume basically begins to question the existence of God and the soul altogether. This leaves nothing. Ok, so if God and the soul are not there, there’s nothing left except for the sensations and ideas. Hume makes a clear cut distinction between sensations and the ideas which he called images. Ultimately he treats them in relation to cause effect relationships. Sensations, in essence, create these ideas or these particular images.

The next British associationist was Hartley. As we see in slide 24, he’s credited with the development of two concepts – associationism which we’ve talked about earlier (ala Aristotle) and others, and psychophysical parallelism.

Associationism didn’t include the ideas, or not just for ideas but also for sensations. Actions as well and these associations were used to explain the nature of memory, imagination, and many other mental complexities that we experience. Psychophysical parallelism, as we see in slide 26 was a little different. That is, the sensations and the ideas they run along the side of, aren’t influenced or affected by them. These are more of a body nature and are from changes in the nerves and in the brain. So in essence, he’s a duelist but he’s also a parallelist, that is, things are running in parallel but they’re not interacting with each other. Ultimately this concept becomes more acceptable to later psychologists especially in the cognitive areas.

Then you come to James Mill and John Stewart Mill. As we see in slide 27, James Mill makes extreme use of the associations between ideas and explaining them to life. What he contended was something very simple; ideas run together and simple ideas by association run together and form complex ideas. Where have we heard that before? We hear that back in the Greek and Roman era. In addition, one idea is capable of entering into combinations with other ideas and thus complex ideas consist of many simpler ideas.

His son, John Stewart Mill, continues on with this concept. As we see in slide 28, he agrees with his father, but it goes even much more beyond that. He contends that simpler ideas generate more complex ideas which are more than the mere sum of the simple components. That is, you get a combination that’s even greater than the addition of the two elements together. These ideas from John Stewart Mill will become very important for the Gestalt psychologists which we’ll talk about in the next section.

In addition to the basic psychologists and the British associationists that we have, we also have some other scientific influences that will impact psychology and learning as well. These come out of the sensory physiology area starting on slide 29. Basically as we see in slide 30, sensory physiology makes huge impacts into what will become physiology and sensory psychology. This is really where most of the psychology begins to occur in a more empirical fashion. The work is in essence related to theories of Descarte but went far beyond the imaginings of structure and functions in the body. They also were very, very analytical and objective. There occur clear changes that arise from excitations of the ears, the eyes, and other structures. They are disclosing nerve speeds, etc. There are lots of contributors here. But some of the couple of main ones really put it all together and make psychology and science completely break with Christendom and the other religious philosophies of the time. It is these players that will have a great impact in science. The first one of these individuals is Newton. Basically Newton just kind of caps everything as he puts a capstone on the idea that the universe is a machine.

We also have Helmholtz who makes huge contributions to the fields of both vision and audition. For example, Helmholtz develops the opthalmascope to look at the retina of the eye. This device is still used by the doctor today. Basically the doctor shines a light in your eye to look at the retina. Helmholtz also develops the tricomatic theory of color. In audition develops place theory, defines and identifies the functions of the ossicles of your ear, and on and on and on.

And finally we have Fechner who basically publishes the major work which is called The Elements of Psychophysics. He founded the field of psychophysics where we basically study the relationship between physiological stimuli and psychological attributes. For example, he found that heaviness, loudness and other things increase logarithmically as you increase the volume or weight or whatever. He shows that psychological concepts where such as loudness could be measured accurately. Ultimately his work becomes the field of experimental psychology.

So these players in this particular realm of time will have major impacts in early parts of early learning theory. Although they don’t seem to be related to it right now, these players and the concepts they will have described will ultimately come back over and over again, not only in learning theory, but also in other fields of psychology as well.

So in the next section, we will begin to talk about some schools of psychology and other early aspects of psychology.