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Core Studies: Biological Area

Sperry (1968) split-brain study: background, apparatus and procedure

  • 3 things to know
  • Component 02

Overview

Recall questions on the corpus callosum surgery of Sperry's 1968 split-brain patients, the aim, method and sample, the visual apparatus and brief presentations, visual field pathways, and responses to words and objects presented to each hemisphere.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

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Study

Why had Sperry's participants had their corpus callosum cut?

Key term

How could a patient show they had in fact processed a stimulus presented only to the right hemisphere?

Key term

State the aim of the study.

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    What surgical procedure had all of Sperry's participants undergone?

    Model answer

    They had all had a commissurotomy, in which the corpus callosum was cut so that the two cerebral hemispheres were separated.

  2. 2

    State the aim of the study.

    Model answer

    To investigate the psychological consequences of separating the hemispheres, and so establish what each hemisphere can do on its own.

  3. 3

    Which research method best describes the study?

    Model answer

    It was a quasi-experiment carried out under laboratory conditions, because the independent variable of having had the operation was naturally occurring rather than manipulated.

  4. 4

    How many patients formed the sample?

    Model answer

    Eleven patients who had already undergone hemisphere deconnection surgery.

  5. 5

    Describe the apparatus used for the visual tests.

    Model answer

    Participants sat in front of a screen with one eye covered, fixating a central point, while images were projected onto the screen; objects could be handled out of sight through a gap beneath it.

  6. 6

    For roughly how long was each image flashed onto the screen, and why did this matter?

    Model answer

    Each image appeared for about one tenth of a second, which is too brief for the participant to move their eyes and let the other hemisphere see it.

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