English language

PHYSIOLOGY AND PSYCHOLOGY: A PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATION OF THEIR RELATIONSHIP*

N. H. Pronko

At the very outset, the student is urged to attempt an operational exercise which we believe will throw into bold relief the fundamental characteristics of psychological facts.

Let us take two different kinds of things to work with—a muscle-nerve preparation and a child. The first, a frog's leg muscle and attached nerve, is a typical laboratory assignment for the student of physiology. This portion of the frog (the rest of the frog may be discarded) can be rigged up and experimented with in such ways as to yield precise, useful knowledge about the functioning of muscles.

A weight can be hung on the leg and an electric current sent into the muscle over the nerve. In this way, the relationships  between stimulus and response may be worked out. What are are some of these findings? First, we note that in physiology we can legitimately and profitably study parts of organisms systems or even organs, such as a beating heart. | LEER MÁS >

About Phil Reed

Phil Reed obtained a D.Phil. from the University of York, and then held Research Fellowships at the Universities of Oxford and Birmingham, before being a Lecturer at the University of Sussex, and Reader in Learning and Behaviour at University College London.

He took the Chair at Swansea in 2003.

Phil's research interests include:

• learning and memory
• schedules of reinforcement
• autism and the effectiveness of early interventions for children with autistic spectrum problems
• schizophrenia and visual hallucinations.