PSYC 421 Question and answers 100%
correct 2025/2026
Rene Descartes - correct answer ✔never accept something as true unless it is immune from doubt;
start with simplest thing then proceed to complex; "I think therefore I am"; mind different from body
(dualist)
Baruch Spinoza - correct answer ✔god, nature, and mind are inseperable (pantheism); double
aspectism; no free will
Liebniz - correct answer ✔ideas are innate; monads—living conscious atoms; mind and body monads
don't interact (dualist); some perceptions aren't conscious (petite, sub-limen)
Thomas Reid - correct answer ✔don't violate common sense (first principles): experience is real, senses
are accurate, perception is direct
Herbart - correct answer ✔psychology not a science because it's analytical; cannot break down the
holistic mind; ideas have own energy, compete for conscious expression (reach the limen)
Immanuel Kant - correct answer ✔combined rationalism and empiricism; ideas come from experience
and a priori categories of thought; categorical imperative = universal law to be unconditionally obeyed
Thomas Hobbes - correct answer ✔subject of philosophy is motion of physical bodies; nominalist—
names and classification systems; believed God was material (materialist)
Descartes - correct answer ✔hydraulic model of movement; muscles inflate with animal spirits from
the ventricles; mind-body interxn in pineal gland in humans; fast nervous transmission (sensory and
motor functions)
, Swammerdam - correct answer ✔tested Descartes's animal spirits hypothesis; observed frog muscle
contracting while cut off
Stensen - correct answer ✔questioned Descartes's pineal gland hypothesis; is in non-humans, cannot
move freely, and is not richly supplied with nerves
Hales - correct answer ✔established importance of spinal cord in reflexes; headless frog had reflexes
with intact spine
Whytt - correct answer ✔replicated Hales—studied reflexes with spinal cord; distinction between
voluntary and involuntary actions
Unzer - correct answer ✔systematic framework for reflex action: afferent and efferent
La Mettrie - correct answer ✔wrote Man, A Machine; materialism and determinism; differences
between humans and animals were differences of degree
Sir Charles Bell - correct answer ✔established motor functions of spinal cord; Bell-Magendie Law—
localization of function of afferent & efferent roots in spinal cord
Magendie - correct answer ✔demonstrated sensory root of spinal cord; Bell-Magendie Law—
localization of function of afferent & efferent roots in spinal cord
Johannes Muller - correct answer ✔doctrine of specific nerve energies (nerve signals based on type of
neuron); qualities of nerve determine qualities of perception; nerve only transmits one type of sensation
Gall and Spurzheim - correct answer ✔launched productive false start with phrenology; caused others
to research localization of function
correct 2025/2026
Rene Descartes - correct answer ✔never accept something as true unless it is immune from doubt;
start with simplest thing then proceed to complex; "I think therefore I am"; mind different from body
(dualist)
Baruch Spinoza - correct answer ✔god, nature, and mind are inseperable (pantheism); double
aspectism; no free will
Liebniz - correct answer ✔ideas are innate; monads—living conscious atoms; mind and body monads
don't interact (dualist); some perceptions aren't conscious (petite, sub-limen)
Thomas Reid - correct answer ✔don't violate common sense (first principles): experience is real, senses
are accurate, perception is direct
Herbart - correct answer ✔psychology not a science because it's analytical; cannot break down the
holistic mind; ideas have own energy, compete for conscious expression (reach the limen)
Immanuel Kant - correct answer ✔combined rationalism and empiricism; ideas come from experience
and a priori categories of thought; categorical imperative = universal law to be unconditionally obeyed
Thomas Hobbes - correct answer ✔subject of philosophy is motion of physical bodies; nominalist—
names and classification systems; believed God was material (materialist)
Descartes - correct answer ✔hydraulic model of movement; muscles inflate with animal spirits from
the ventricles; mind-body interxn in pineal gland in humans; fast nervous transmission (sensory and
motor functions)
, Swammerdam - correct answer ✔tested Descartes's animal spirits hypothesis; observed frog muscle
contracting while cut off
Stensen - correct answer ✔questioned Descartes's pineal gland hypothesis; is in non-humans, cannot
move freely, and is not richly supplied with nerves
Hales - correct answer ✔established importance of spinal cord in reflexes; headless frog had reflexes
with intact spine
Whytt - correct answer ✔replicated Hales—studied reflexes with spinal cord; distinction between
voluntary and involuntary actions
Unzer - correct answer ✔systematic framework for reflex action: afferent and efferent
La Mettrie - correct answer ✔wrote Man, A Machine; materialism and determinism; differences
between humans and animals were differences of degree
Sir Charles Bell - correct answer ✔established motor functions of spinal cord; Bell-Magendie Law—
localization of function of afferent & efferent roots in spinal cord
Magendie - correct answer ✔demonstrated sensory root of spinal cord; Bell-Magendie Law—
localization of function of afferent & efferent roots in spinal cord
Johannes Muller - correct answer ✔doctrine of specific nerve energies (nerve signals based on type of
neuron); qualities of nerve determine qualities of perception; nerve only transmits one type of sensation
Gall and Spurzheim - correct answer ✔launched productive false start with phrenology; caused others
to research localization of function
