spilt brain research Flashcards
What is the process used in split-brain research?
CPatients are asked to respond to a stimulus that has been presented to them, by pointing at the stimulus that matches the one they were just shown.
DPatients are asked to describe a stimulus that has been presented to them.
AThe researcher presents a stimulus to either the patient’s left, or their right hemisphere.
In split-brain research, how should the stimulus be presented to the patient?
DTo just one hemisphere at a time.
If counting relies on the right hemisphere, what is the consequence if information is only processed in the left hemisphere and is not sent to the right hemisphere?
BThe patient won’t be able to count up what they have seen.
Sperry found that the patient could point to a matching stimulus regardless of which hemisphere the initial stimulus was presented to. What could he conclude from this?
AThe ability to identify the image was not hemispherically lateralised.
Sperry presented the image to the participants left hemisphere, meaning that he placed the image on the patient’s )))))) hand side, because vision is organised contralaterally.
Right
Sperry found that the patients couldn’t say what stimulus the had seen when it was presented to the right hemisphere. What could he conclude from this about language skills?
BLanguage is hemispherically lateralised to the left hemisphere.
Which of the following statements are true about Sperry’s split-brain study?
ASperry presented images to either the patient’s right or left hemisphere.
BSperry’s first study found that if patients were asked to point to one of four pictures to identify which matched the image, they could perform the task whether or not the image was presented to their right or left hemisphere.
CSperry’s second study found that if patients were asked to verbally describe the image, they could only perform this task if the image was presented to their left hemisphere.
DSperry concluded that language is hemispherically lateralised to the left hemisphere.
Question 1. Which of the following statements correctly describe methods used in split-brain research?
APatients are shown a stimulus, then asked to point at the stimulus that matches the one they were just shown.
CPatients are shown a stimulus, then asked to verbally describe it.
DThe researcher presents a stimulus to either the patient’s left, or their right hemisphere.
Sperry showed split-brain patients a stimulus, to either their right or left hemisphere. He then later asked patients to point to that same stimulus, when showed a choice of four different ones.
Patients could always point to the correct stimulus.
Question 3. In Sperry’s original study, he showed split-brain patients a stimulus, to either their right or left hemisphere. He then later asked patients to point to that same stimulus, when showed a choice of four different ones. Patients could point to the correct image. Explain why this happened.
The ability to visually process and identify the image isn’t hemispherically lateralised. Therefore regardless of which hemisphere the information was presented, the participant had still processed the information and was able to point to the correct stimulus from the choice of four
In further research, Sperry asked the patients to verbally describe what they could see on the stimulus image, rather than point to it. Question 4. What results were found when participants had to respond verbally to a stimulus presented on the right hand side?
AThe participants were able to say what the stimulus was, because the information was being processed in their left hemisphere.
In further research, Sperry asked the patients to verbally describe what they could see on the stimulus image, rather than point to it. Question 5. What results were found when participants had to respond verbally to stimulus presented on the left hand side?
As vision is controlled contralaterally, visual information presented to the right hand side is processed in the left hemisphere, and therefore even split brain patients are able to say what they have seen. However if the information goes to the left hand side, it is processed in the right hemisphere, which does not contain language ability. Therefore people with a split brain are unable to say what the stimulus was because their language hemisphere (left) is unaware of what has been seen.
Question 6. When participants were asked to respond verbally to a stimulus, their response depended on which side the information was presented to. Explain why these results occurred in Sperry’s subsequent study.
The ability to say what was processed by the left hemisphere occured because language is hemispherically lateralised to the left hemisphere. If a stimulus is presented to the right hemisphere, a split brain patient is unable to identify or describe it, because language is not processed in the right hemisphere.
If split-brain research is based on very small, unusual samples, what could be said about it?
CThe findings may lack generalisability.
If split-brain patients’ brains are different to other people’s brains, what other consequence does this have for the study?
The study contains a confounding variable.
