What is the equipotentiality principle?

in learning theory, the principle that any pair of stimuli can be associated with equal ease, regardless of their nature or origin. Also called law of equipotentiality; principle of equipotentiality.

What is the function of equipotentiality?

Definition. Equipotentiality – a notion developed by Karl Spencer Lashley (1890–1958) positing that all areas of the brain are equally able to perform a task.

What is equipotentiality hypothesis?

Equipotentiality is the theory that the brain has the capacity (in the case of injury) to transfer functional memory from the damaged portion of the brain to other undamaged portions of the brain. This hypothesis, put forward by Karl Spence Lashley, is part of his law of mass action.

What is Karl Lashley known for?

Karl Spencer Lashley (June 7, 1890 – August 7, 1958) was a psychologist and behaviorist remembered for his contributions to the study of learning and memory. A Review of General Psychology survey, published in 2002, ranked Lashley as the 61st most cited psychologist of the 20th century.

What is localization of function in psychology?

Localisation of function is the idea that certain functions (e.g. language, memory, etc.) have certain locations or areas within the brain. This idea has been supported by recent neuroimaging studies, but was also examined much earlier, typically using case studies.

What is localization psychology?

The theory of localization refers to the idea that different parts of the brain are responsible for specific behaviors, or that certain functions are localized to certain areas in the brain.

What is flourens theory of equipotentiality?

By removing anatomically defined areas of the brain of an animal and watching its behaviour, he thought he might localize certain functions. Flourens did not favour the idea of cerebral localization and concluded that the brain functioned as a whole and thus arose the concept of ‘cerebral equipotentiality’.

How did Lashley develop the equipotentiality hypothesis?

How did Lashley develop the equipotentiality hypothesis? He trained rats in the correct route through a maze, then deliberately damaged their brains and observed that this did not inhibit their progress through the maze.

What part of the brain holds memories?

Hippocampus
Hippocampus. The hippocampus, located in the brain’s temporal lobe, is where episodic memories are formed and indexed for later access.

Where in the brain are memories stored?

the hippocampus
Memories are stored in a region of the brain called the hippocampus, shown in red in this computer illustration.

What did Karl Lashley discover?

Lashley pioneered experimental work conducted on rats with surgically induced brain lesions, by damaging or removing specific areas of a rat’s cortex, either before or after the animals were trained in mazes and visual discrimination.

What was the overall result of Lashley’s research?

What was the overall result of Lashley’s research that sought out the engram of human memory? He found no evidence that an engram actual exists. Elena finds it very difficult to remember a long string of numbers, so she tries to memorize three numbers at a time.

What does localization function mean?

Why is the discovery of localization important?

Why is localization of function important? Therefore it is highly important as it helps correlated the localization of functions which is very important in a lot of research. Helps to establish cause-effect relationships.

What does localization mean in brain?

Is localization of the brain true?

Localization of brain function simply means that different areas of the brain (i.e. locations) are associated with different behaviours and mental processes (functions). For example, Our hippocampus plays a role in memory.

What did Gustav Fritsch and Eduard Hitzig discover?

In 1870 Gustav Fritsch and Edvard Hitzig showed that electrical stimulation of the cerebral cortex of a dog produced movements.

What important contribution did Gall and flourens provide?

Before Flourens began his animal experiments, Gall had developed relatively new ideas of brain function [3], which proved important: ‘that the cerebral cortex represented the highest level of the brain and that the development of this area characterised mammals and man.

What did Lashley develop by purposely damaging the brains of rats that had learned a task and then testing those rats?

What was a major implication of Karl Lashley’s engram experiments?

His famously unsuccessful search for the “engram” – the localized trace of the memory for a maze in a trained rat’s brain – led him to propose the principle of “mass action,” in which learning is distributed across all parts of the brain rather than stored in a single regions, with the degree of impairment proportional …

Which part of brain is responsible for intelligence?

The cerebello-parietal component and the frontal component were significantly associated with intelligence. The parietal and frontal regions were each distinctively associated with intelligence by maintaining structural networks with the cerebellum and the temporal region, respectively.

How many years of memory can the brain hold?

300 years
A rough calculation by Paul Reber, Professor of Psychology at Northwestern University suggests that the brain can store 2.5 PETABYTES of data – that’s 2,500,000 Gigabytes, or 300 years worth of TV.

Why do we forget?

Rather than being a bug, forgetting may be a functional feature of the brain, allowing it to interact dynamically with the environment. In a changing world like the one we and many other organisms live in, forgetting some memories can be beneficial as this can lead to more flexible behaviour and better decision-making.

Is it possible to erase your memory?

While it is not possible to erase memories from your mind, there are strategies that you can use to make a memory less prominent. You can also do things to change the way a memory makes you feel and to replace unpleasant memories with new pleasant ones.

What did Lashley find when he removed parts of the brain?

Lashley found that when he removed parts of the brain: the amount of tissue removed was more important than the location.