Sperry Methodological Issues

Question 1

What experiment was used? (Research method)

Answer 1

Quasi experiment so sperry could conclude the reasons they couldn’t do the tasks is because they had the surgery

Question 2

Dats gathered

Answer 2

Sperrys findings were qualitative because he described what the split brain patients can’t and can do in general - this data shows a pattern of difficulties
It would’ve been useful for sperry to record quantitative data to record the results in numbers from how many split brain patients had difficulties with each task - this would give a scientific analysis of the findings

Question 3

Ethical guidelines

Answer 3

They were all met as:
Ppts consented
No deception was used
They weren’t under harm or stress - he didn’t have to cut up their brains as he knew from the research he did on monkeys and cats and he generalised them to humans (nomothetic approach)

Question 4

Internal validity

Answer 4

Lacks it because confounding variables haven’t been controlled for so findings might not be true - ppl who had the surgery and didn’t have epilepsy might act different. They had also been taking drugs which could have affected how they acted.

Question 5

Population validity

Answer 5

Lacks it because the sample was very small as the condition was rare - the study of the abnormal brain can’t be generalised to the normal brain. This could’ve made their brains different. These differences could’ve been caused by the epilepsy and the medication that was used to try and treat it.

Question 6

Ecological validity

Answer 6

Lacks it because it is unlikely to happen in real life situations and it doesn’t have an impact in real life because a person would a severed corpus callosum who had both eyes open wouldn’t be affected. This is possible as both sides of the brain would receive the info.
However, this wasn’t a problem because the split brain patients led normal lives, what he was trying to do was discover what they can’t do under controlled scientific settings

Question 7

Was it reliable?

Answer 7

Sperry found general trends of brain function and similarities between the patients suggesting the findings are reliable. However, there were some outright exceptions.

Question 8

Sample size

Answer 8

The sample was quite small so we have to question whether studies of the abnormal brain can be generalised to the normal brain

Question 9

Was the study controlled? (Research method)

Answer 9

Controlled conditions - this is a good thing because without controls the functions of the hemispheres wouldn’t of been revealed