OCR AS Psychology: Core Studies - Sperry (3)

Results:Visual Tasks: When participants were presented with an image in one half of their visual field and then presented with the same image in the other half of the visual field they responded as if they had never seen the image before. If the same image was presented in the original visual field the participants were able to recognise the image as one they had seen before.Participants were not able to give a description of an image that was presented to the left hand side of the visual field. The image was either not noticed or just appeared as a flash. Although they could respond non-verbally by pointing with their left hand to a matching picture or selecting an object presented among a collection of other pictures and objects. This of course only works with right-handed participants. If two symbols were presented simultaneously, one on either side of the visual field (e.g. a dollar sign on the left and a question mark on the right) and the participant was required to draw with their left-hand (shielded from their own view) what they had seen, they would draw the left visual field symbol (a dollar sign). If they were required to say what they had just drawn, the participant would say by name, the right visual field symbol (a question mark).

Tactile Tasks: Objects put in the participants hand for identification by touch could be described or named in speech or writing if they were in the right hand but if placed in the left hand, the participant could either only make wild guesses or even appeared to be unaware that anything at all was present. However, if the object was taken from the left hand and placed in a ‘grab bag’, or was scrambled among other test items, the participant was able to search out and retrieve it with their left hand.