Lec Note Psy

Between stimulus and response there is a
space. In that space is our power to choose

our response. In our response lies our growth
and our freedom.
-- Victor Frankl
Fundamental Insights
1) Reality is a story, told to us by our brains.
Our brains are artists, not mirrors

Our experiences do not reflect reality itself, but
rather a construction, or representation of
reality
1) This construction process involves a lot of
guesswork filling in the gaps
2) This subjective representation occurs within
the brain.
3) Our brains are housed within (and are
highly affected by) our bodies.
So, reality is a mind-body process of creative
story-telling.
We only have access to a limited subset

of Reality
We have limited:
sensitivity of our sensory mechanisms
attentional capacity
Fundamental Insight #1
Reality is a story, told to us by our brains.
Implications?
We don t live in the real world, but in a constructed
world.
This construction process involves interpreting
patterns of sensory information based on preexisting patterns stored in the brain & body.
There are systematic ways in which we make errors in
this construction process; we can therefore improve
our own experience greatly.
More subtly, this situates our understanding of

mind at an interface the connections-between
Much of our processing of information occurs
implicitly, sub-representationally. Thus,
understanding this Insight takes you right to the
point of understanding how we construct reality at
an essential level, how our own machinery works
and one surprising and immediate discovery its
not rational! What we are, is embodied awareness.
Attention!
We take shortcuts:
- We rely upon heuristics or rules of thumb, when
engaging in reasoning and decision making
- e.g., stereotypes:
- And we rely on subtler, implicit ( unconscious )
signals.
Biases
Of course, relying so heavily upon our beliefs
makes us biased, often so subtly that we
are unaware of these biases, and we can
therefore be led astray by our own beliefdriven expectations.
Because perception --> behaviour, our biases
can actually create their own reality!
self-fulfilling prophecies
e.g., race & job applicants; gender/race &
essay quality; gender & classical music
What we can learn from our biases

Humility we have many biases; we do not see reality
as it is
Empowerment our perceptions of Reality are

constructed, and we have quite a bit of control over
that process
The Primacy of Attention

Because of our limited info processing capabilities,
ATTENTION is critically important. ATTENTION
is what largely determines the reality we
experience.
ATTENTION determines how we are affected by the
circumstances of our lives (e.g., emotions &
attention), how well we perform on tasks, and
many other things.
e.g., cell phones & driving; brain surgery; studying &
distractions
The Primacy of Attention

And most importantly, ATTENTION is something
that we can learn to control to an extraordinary
degree.
What is the secret to happiness?
Attention affects Quality of experience.

e.g., wine/food tasting; listening to
music
EVERYTHING is the same
Consciousness: A multi-level process

Neurochemical: Neurotransmitters
Neuroanatomical: Major brain structures and
their organization
Physiological: Major contributions of
physiological systems; e.g., autonomic
nervous system, hormones, etc.
----------------------------------------------------------Social
Environmental
Neurons: Consciousness as an
Emergent Property
Information
Transmission
Information
Integration
Information
Collection
Neurotransmitters Bind to
Receptors Across the Synapse
Key Neurotransmitters
Glutamate: excitatory: cognitive, seizures, motivation
GABA: inhibitory, seizures, anxiety; e.g., Anti-anxiety meds
(benzodiazepines (Valium, Xanax) help GABA bind more
effectively to post-synaptic receptors
Acetylcholine (ACh): PNS vs. CNS: muscle/motor vs.

higher cognition (learning, memory), plasticity, Alzheimer s,
etc.
Norepinephrine: arousal/alertness
Serotonin: mood, emotion, motivation, impulse control, etc.
Dopamine: reward (+ motor functions., planning & many
higher-level interactions with cognitive functions.)
and..... then there s a huge variety of other peptides, implicated
in basically everything... :)
The Dopamine System

Drugs of abuse
commandeer the brain s natural reward
circuitry. Stimulation of this pathway
reinforces behavior, ensuring that what you
just did you will do again.
Nestler & Malenka (2004):
- therefore, learning is strongly affected by reward, and

the rewarding effects of, for e.g., cocaine are mediated
through the same mechanisms which have evolved for
highly functional, adaptive reasons, like learning and
motivation....kind of ironic, isn t it?
Neuroanatomy overview
Your brain in your hand.
evolutionary direction of function & morphology (back
to front, inside to outside)
hindbrain, sub-cortical regions, cerebellum, 4 lobes,
pre-frontal cortex
know specific systems that we talk about or that are
covered in the text in detail (e.g., dopamine/reward
system; visual perception system, etc.)
The Split Brain

The two hemispheres of the brain are actually two
mini-brains connected by a bundle of fibers, the
corpus callosum
- from the late 1900s until the 1960s, debate raged
as to whether cutting the corpus callosum would
help people with epilepsy
Split-Brain Experiments
Thinking & Feeling & the PFC
- there is a functional dissociation between parts

of the PFC:
dorsal = cognitive functions
ventral = affective functions
- This reflects a functional relationship between thinking &
feeling. Our feelings influence even our presumed
rational thinking processes:
- Antonio Damasio
- persuasion: Rona vs statistics; vivid imagery
Somatic Marker Hypothesis
Sensory input PFC (ventro-medial part)

autonomic arousal
- This creates a non-conscious bias that facilitates
cognitive processing, in a certain direction (e.g.,
danger, skepticism)
- Therefore, emotional and subtle physiological
reactions may be a key part of rational cognitive
processing!
Bechara et al. (1997)

Decks A & B
n
Decks C & D
OFC is important for

emotional responding
Are emotional
responses necessary for
appropriate decision
making?
Gambling task that
simulates real-life
decision making
C&D
A&B
C&D
A&B
Results?
Control subjects (i.e., no brain damage)
n Chose advantageously even before they realized which
strategy was best
n Developed anticipatory SCR even before they figured out
the strategy
VMPFC Patient Results:
n Chose disadvantageously even when they knew correct
strategy!!
n Never developed anticipatory SCR (even when they did
realize the choices were risky)
Bechara et al. (1997)

n
Study suggested that non-conscious

biases guide behaviour before
conscious knowledge
Without such biases, knowledge is not
sufficient to guide behaviour!! (i.e.,
without emotions, cognitions have little
weight or meaning)
Step 1: Reality
Step 2: Sensory
receptors
Step 3:
Transduction
Step 4: Thalamus
Step 5:
Primary sensory
cortex: initial
processing of
information
occurs
Hierarchical Processing
Processing of visual information occurs in a
series of steps, from initial coarse processing of
relatively basic features, to more complex
processing
Hubel & Wiesel (1963) examined the firing rate
of single cells in the primary visual cortex
many were specialized to respond to particular
features: primitives
Step 1: Reality
Step 2: Sensory
receptors
Step 3:
Transduction
Step 4: Thalamus
Step 5:
Primary sensory
cortex
Step 6: Further
processing in many other brain areas, linked to
higher level cognitive & perceptual tasks: e.g., the
what & where pathways
WHERE?
dorsal pathway
superior ventral lobes
parietal lobes;
processes spatial
location
The .... thing .... is right in front of me!
WHAT?
ventral pathway inferior
temporal lobes; specializes in
object recognition
Its....um.....a giant rabbit?
Step 7: Deciding & Acting

Many other brain areas (involving memory, planning,
motivation, self-control, etc.) then decide what do, and
tell our motor cortex to communicate the appropriate
actions to muscles in the body....
Cats!
Cortical cells had become
specialized for the input
from only one eye, and
responded to only the kind
of stimuli which that eye
had been exposed to.
What we learn from cats

In a gradual, bidirectional process of brain-environment
adaptation, experience teaches our brains how to
perceive reality, giving us knowledge about what the
world looks like.
We then use this knowledge to guide how we construct
perceptions.
What knowledge does the brain use

to guide perception?
1) chronic habits of the mind highly accessible
pieces of information
2) whatever is currently (or very recently) on your

mind the particular knowledge structures that are
activated and can guide information processing

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Between stimulus and response there is a

space. In that space is our power to choose

Our brains are artists, not mirrors

We only have access to a limited subset

More subtly, this situates our understanding of

What we can learn from our biases

Empowerment our perceptions of Reality are

The Primacy of Attention

The Primacy of Attention

Attention affects Quality of experience.

Consciousness: A multi-level process

Acetylcholine (ACh): PNS vs. CNS: muscle/motor vs.

The Dopamine System

Nestler & Malenka (2004):

- therefore, learning is strongly affected by reward, and

The Split Brain

Thinking & Feeling & the PFC

- there is a functional dissociation between parts

Somatic Marker Hypothesis

Sensory input PFC (ventro-medial part)

Bechara et al. (1997)

OFC is important for

Bechara et al. (1997)

Study suggested that non-conscious

The .... thing .... is right in front of me!

Its....um.....a giant rabbit?

Step 7: Deciding & Acting

What we learn from cats

What knowledge does the brain use

2) whatever is currently (or very recently) on your

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