Biopsychology AO3

Question 1

What is a possible strength of lateralisation ?

Answer 1

• idea of increased neural processing capacity
• if one hemisphere is engaged in one function, the other can engage in another funct

Question 2

Is there supporting evidence for hemispheric lateralisation increasing neural processing capacity ?

Answer 2

• very little empirical evidence
• but Rogers (2004) found that hemispheric lateralisation in domestic chicken creates greater ability to do 2 tasks at same time: food hunting +vigiliance against predators

Question 3

Are Roger’s findings generalisable to humans ? What do his findings show ?

Answer 3

• no, humans are more complex organisms with different brains to chicken brains
• his findings do evidence that brain lateralisation increase processing capacity in cognitive tasks that need simultaneous but different use of both hemipheres

Question 4

are there individual differences in hemispheric lateralisation ?

Answer 4

architects + mathematically gifted people have superior right hemisphere skills but are also more likely to be left handed + suffer from higher rates of allergies and immune system issues

Question 5

What did Tonnessen et al find in 1993 ? What does this suggest

Answer 5

• small but significant relationship between handedness + immune system problems
• suggests that the same processes leading to lateralisation affect the development of immune system

Question 6

Who found evidence to support relationship between handedness + immune system issues ?

Answer 6

Morfit and Weekes ( 2001)
found that left handed people had a higher rate of immune system disorders in their immediate families, compared to right handers

Question 7

How has lateralisation been found to change with age ?

Answer 7

• lateralisation patterns in younger individuals switch to bilateral patterns in healthy older adults
• supporting evidence found by Szaflarski in 2006

Question 8

What was the evidence found by Szaflarski ?

Answer 8

found that language became more lateralised to left hemisphere with kids + adolescents
but after 25, lateralisation decreased with each life decade

Question 9

Is language restricted to the left hemisphere ?

Answer 9

No, as a patient JW developed capacity to speak out of the right hemisphere
this means that he can now talk about info presented to both sides of the brain
this contradicts claim that RH can’t handle even basic language

Question 10

Who pointed out that there were limitations of split brain research ?

Answer 10

Andrews ( 2001)
- he believed that patients without these confounding factors were rarely in sufficient numbers to be useful for research

Question 11

What did Andrews criticise split-brain studies for ?

Answer 11

• having as few as 3 participants, or just 1
• conclusions being made from patients who had a physical disorder that made the split brain procedure critical
• inidividuals’ corpus callosum wasn’t completely cut