Some patients diagnosed with epilepsy who had not responded to treatment were offered the surgery to help reduce their fits. This surgery involved severing the corpus callosum in order to dsiconnect the left and right hemispheres.
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Aim
To monitor how those with 'split brains' processed information compared with a normal brain.
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Procedure Trial One
Participants focused on the centre of a screen on which visual information was presented to the left and right visual fields at the same time.
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Procedure Trail Two
Participants would be asked to identify an item/picture from a variety of objects/pictures.They would do this either using the hand on the same side to which the image was shown, or the one on the opposite side.
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Procedure Trial Three
Unseen objects were put in one of the participants hands and they were asked to identify them from touch alone. Different objects were then placed in each hand and the participants were asked to feel for them in a large pile of other objects.
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Results: Trial One
When words were shown to the right visual field, the patient was able to repeat the word back to the researcher. When it was shown to the left, the participant struggled to say what they had seen.
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Results: Trial Two
When a word/image was shown to the left visual field, participants had little trouble selecting an object that matched what they had seen. However, when shown to the right visual field participants struggled.
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Results: Trial Three
When objects were felt by the right hand, they could name it, but couldn't if it was felt by the left.
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Conclusions
Each hemisphere is capable of working well independently. However, without the corpus callosum, memories from both hemispheres could not be shared. This led to difficulties with different tasks.
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Strengths
Sperry gathered a lot of detailed information, improving the reliability of his study. He also designed procedures that could be kept the same for each participant, meaning that the data was gathered in a reliable way.
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Weaknesses
A sample of eleven participants is too small to generalize. Very few people had their corpus callosum severed so the results might not be useful in explaining how a normal brain works. May lack ecological validity as it was in an artificial setting.
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Other cards in this set
Card 2
Front
To monitor how those with 'split brains' processed information compared with a normal brain.
Back
Aim
Card 3
Front
Participants focused on the centre of a screen on which visual information was presented to the left and right visual fields at the same time.
Back
Card 4
Front
Participants would be asked to identify an item/picture from a variety of objects/pictures.They would do this either using the hand on the same side to which the image was shown, or the one on the opposite side.
Back
Card 5
Front
Unseen objects were put in one of the participants hands and they were asked to identify them from touch alone. Different objects were then placed in each hand and the participants were asked to feel for them in a large pile of other objects.
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