to study the psychological effects of hemisperic disconnection in split brain patients and to use the results to understand normal people
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what is the design?
quasi experiment
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describe the sample
11 patients with split brains as the result of untreatable epilepsy. 2 had had split brains for a long time, 9 were newly split brained
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describe the apparatus
a screen with a fixation point in the centre of it, underneath the screen was a hole so participants could be made to feel things without being able to see what they were feeling
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what did participants do for the visual test?
a picture was projected for 0.5 seconds onto either the left or right side of the screen, participants then had to say what they'd seen, draw it or identify it
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what did participants do for the two visual field test?
they looked at the fixation point and two different images were flashed up for 0.5 seconds
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what did participants do for the tactile tests?
an object was placed in one hand, participants were asked to to find the object that matched what he had felt, asked to say what he had felt or asked to point at the object
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what did participants do for both handed tactile tests?
participants were given different objects in both hands at the same time
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what were the tests of the right hemisphere?
left visual field was shown an image, participants were asked to find a similar object by touch. mathematical problems were presented to the left visual field. left hand to order objects by size or shape. left visual field shown a nude figure
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what were the results of the visual tests?
participants could name the picture if it was presented to the right visual field. if presented to left, participants were able to draw it with their eyes closed
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what were the results for the two visual field test?
participant was able to say what he'd seen with his right visual field but was unaware that he'd seen anything else until asked to draw the object shown to the left visual field with his eyes closed
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what were the results of the tactile test?
participants could identify an object by name if it was given to the right hand. if it was given to the left hand, participants could identify it by touch
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what were the results of the tests of the right hemisphere?
participants could pick out semantically similar objects to the pictures they had been shown. right hemisphere could work out simple mathematical tests. when participants saw the nude they would look embarrased or laugh = emotions
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what were the conclusions of the study?
the corpus callosum transfers information between the hemispheres. left hemisphere contains language function. some individual differences. the right hemisphere can perform more tasks than was first thought - limited language and mathematical skill
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