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Core Studies: Biological Area

Sperry (1968) split-brain study: results, conclusions and evaluation

  • 3 things to know
  • Component 02

Overview

Recall questions on Sperry's findings from drawing, emotional reactions, right-hemisphere language and left-hand tasks, his conclusions about consciousness and hemisphere function, and the evaluation of procedure, generalisation, sample, ecological validity, comparisons, reductionism and practical value.

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Answer each one before you reveal it.

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Study

What did Sperry conclude about consciousness in these patients?

Key term

How is the labour divided between the two hemispheres?

Evaluation

Give two strengths of the procedure.

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    Two different figures were flashed either side of the fixation point and the patient drew with the left hand. What was drawn and what was named?

    Model answer

    The left hand drew the figure shown in the left visual field, while the patient spoke the name of the figure shown in the right visual field.

  2. 2

    What did the reaction to a pin-up picture flashed to the left visual field demonstrate?

    Model answer

    The patient giggled or blushed but could not explain why, showing the right hemisphere can produce an emotional response that the left hemisphere cannot account for.

  3. 3

    What evidence showed the right hemisphere had some language ability?

    Model answer

    It could understand simple written or spoken nouns, so the left hand could find a named object by touch, and it could spell short words using plastic letters.

  4. 4

    On which kind of task was the left hand superior?

    Model answer

    On spatial and constructional tasks such as arranging blocks to copy a design or drawing a three-dimensional cube.

  5. 5

    What did Sperry conclude about consciousness in these patients?

    Model answer

    Each hemisphere has its own separate stream of consciousness, with its own perceptions, memories and impulses that the other hemisphere cannot reach.

  6. 6

    What does the study show the corpus callosum does in an intact brain?

    Model answer

    It carries information between the hemispheres so that they work together and produce a single unified conscious experience.

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