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Anna Dela Cruz's picture

Brain is NOT a Computer?

One idea that really made an impression on me today was the unpredictability of the brain. I believe that it was Menda who asked if the input/output model suggested that the brain worked like a machine. Professor Grobstein then answered that the brain is not a machine because we cannot always predict the outcome of a stimulus. But what about Psychology? I am not a Psychology major, but the whole point of my Experimental Methods and Statistics class is to design experiments and to critically examine data all in the ultimate goal of better understanding human behavior. I mean, isn't that what Psychology is about-- to understand  and predict human behavior either through experiments or observations. One hypothetical question that was mentioned in my Expt Methods class was whether eating chocolate had any bearing on attention span. My hypothesis was that eating chocolate would increase attention span because chocolate is rich in the alkaloid, theobromine. This alkaloid facilitates seratonin production which then causes a person to feel happier. This feeling of happiness would be evident in the relaxation of the body (physiological response) thus enabling the person to pay attention easier. The point of the matter is, a test to see the affects of a stimulus (in this case, chocolate) could then be used to predict human behavior. If so, then such research would make the brain a little less mysterious.   

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