Controlled experiments

The majority of psychological research is conducted in the laboratory under controlled conditons. This method of research relies completely on the scientific method to determine the basis of behavior. Common measurements of behavior include reaction time and various psychometric measurements. Experiments are conducted to test a particular hypothesis.

As an example of a psychological experiment, one may want to test people's perception of different tones. Specifically, one could ask the following question: is it easier for people to discriminate one pair of tones from another depending upon their frequency? To answer this, one would want to disprove the hypothesis that all tones are equally discriminable, regardless of their frequency. (See hypothesis testing for an explanation of why one would disprove a hypothesis rather than attempt to prove one.) A task to test this hypothesis would have a participant seated in a room listening to a series of tones. If the participant would make one indication (by pressing a button, for example) if they thought the tones were two different sounds, and another indication if they thought they were the same sound. The proportion of correct responses would be the measurement used to describe whether or not all the tones were equally discriminable. The result of this particular experiment would probably indicate better discrimination of certain tones based on the human threshold of hearing.

Unit 12 Secrets of the Brain: the Mystery of Memory

Цель – формирование представлений студентово человеческой памяти, использование знания иностранного языка в профессиональной деятельности и профессиональной коммуникации.

Key words

subsequent	последующий, являющийся результатом
accumulation	накопление
cerebral cortex	кора головного мозга
reproduce	воспроизводить, представлять мысленно
memorization	запоминание, заучивание наизусть
retention	сохранение в памяти
current	текущий
motor	моторный, двигательный
imaginal	образный
verbal-logical	вербально-логический
voluntary	произвольный
operational	оперативный
advoitness	ловкость, искусность
knack	умение, сноровка
evoke	вызывать
reinforce	подкреплять, усиливать

Text

One of the basic characteristics of the mind consists in that the reflection of external influences is constantly used by an individual in his subsequent be­haviour. The growing complexity of behaviour is referable to the accumulation of individual experience. Such accumulation would be impossible if the images of the outer world arising in the cerebral cortex were allowed to disappear with­out leaving a trace. Forming different links with one another, these images are preserved and reproduced in accordance with the needs of the individuals life and activity.

Memory can be defined as memorization, retention and subsequent repro­duction by an individual of his experience. It includes four principal processes: memorizing, retaining, reproducing and forgetting. The memorization by a per­son of a definite material is connected with the accumulation if individual expe­rience during his vital activity. The use of subsequent activity of what has been memorized calls for reproduction. If certain material drops out of a person's activity it is forgotten. The retention of material is memory depends on its partic­ipation in the person's activity, since the behaviour of an individual at each given moment is determined by the whole of his life experience. Thus memory is the most important, definitive characteristic of man's mental life.

Memory was once considered to be among the best explored areas of psy­chology. Modern investigation of memory focuses on the problem of its mech­anisms, and difference in their understanding underlies the differences between current theories of memory.

The most general base for the classification of memory is the dependence of its characteristics on the activity which involves the processes of memorization and reproduction. Usually we classify memory on three main criteria: by the character of mental activeness prevailing in the individual's activity we distin­guish motor, emotional, imaginal and verbal-logical types; by the character of goals, set in the individual's activity-voluntary and involuntary types; by the period of retention of information important for the individual's activity, short-term, long term and operational types.

Let's consider some of them. Motor memory consists of the memorization, retention and reproduction of various movements and their systems. There are people with pronounced prevalence of this type of memory over all others. One psychologist confessed that he was completely unable to reproduce in memory a musical piece and could only reproduce a recently heard opera as a dumb show. Normally we can distinguish an individual with good motor memory by his adroitness, knack and clever fingers.

Emotional memory is a capacity to remember emotions. Emotions always signal the degree of satisfaction of our needs and interests and are indicative of our relations with the environment. Emotional memory may prove stronger than other types of memory. Everyone knows from experience that many events, books, films are only remembered by the impression they have produced and feelings they have evoked. Yet impressions of this kind are not unrelated to concrete objects: they may be the first link in a long chain of associations.

The content of verbal-logical memory is thoughts. Verbal-logical memory dominated by the second signaling system is characteristic only of human be­ings. In contrast with motor, emotional and imaginal types of memory, which, though differing in complexity in man and animals, are possessed by both, verbal-logical memory is a typical human faculty. Based on and reinforced by other types of memory, verbal-logical memory determines their development and plays the leading part in the assimilation of knowledge by pupils in the process of teaching.

EXERCISES