2. Describe a task that might be more difficult for a split-brain patient than a normal individual.

Students could identify tasks such as driving, boxing, or playing electronic games.

The student’s description of the task should include which aspects of the task would be particularly challenging for a split-brain patient and why.

For example, in a driving task when a split-brain patient is focused on the road they would be unable to read road signs in their left visual field. To read signs in their left visual field they would need to shift their eyes and/or head. This could result in a dangerous situation in which they take their eyes off of what is happening in front of them.

3. The interpretation of the experimental results relies on a comparison between the data from right-handed participants as well as left-handed participants. Why is this the case?

The comparison is necessary for two reasons. First, right-handed individuals have a more asymmetric brain than do left-handed individuals. Second, judgments about faces are done more in the right hemisphere than in the left hemisphere. Since right-handers have a more asymmetric brain it should follow that they will more heavily rely on information about faces that is presented to the right hemisphere than will left-handers.

Discussion Question

1. Why might it be advantageous for us to have a brain in which some processes are specific to one hemisphere?

One possibility is that since the brain has a lot of responsibilities, it seems reasonable that using a division of labor strategy, at least in some cases, would be beneficial. This type of organization might allow the brain to process more information and/or process information more fully.

**It is not clear why the brain is set up in an asymmetrical way, so a broad array of student responses could be appropriate here. This question can be used as a creative thinking exercise.

• Test Bank Answers

Multiple Choice Questions

1. If you show a split-brain patient a word in their right visual field they …

a. would be able to say the word aloud

b. would be able to pick up a physical item that matches the word that they were shown with

their right hand

c. would be able to write the word with their right hand

d. None of the above

Answer: a

2. Which of the following is typically associated with the brain’s right hemisphere?

a. rationality

b. language

c. music

d. None of the above

Answer: c

3. A split brain patients would have trouble catching/blocking an object that enters their left field of view with …

a. their right hand

b. their left hand

c. either of their hand hands.

d. It wouldn’t be a problem

Answer: b

4. The brain asymmetry demonstration predicts that left handed participants will choose the chimeric face with the younger half face on the left as the younger face …

a. more often than right handed participants

b. less often than right handed participants

c. about the same amount of the time as right handed participants

d. almost never.

Answer: b

5. Which of the following statements is true?

a. Moving the right hand is controlled by the right hemisphere

b. Split brain patients cannot move both hands at once

c. The left hemisphere is associated with processing spatial information

d. Right handed individuals show more brain asymmetry than left-handed individuals

Answer: d

True/False Question

1. ___ The brain asymmetry demonstration does not account for the possibility that people may just have a general left-view bias, a bias for processing information from the left to the right.

Answer: False

Short Answer Question

1. What makes the brain of a split-brain patient unique?

In a split-brain patient, information is not shared between the brain’s right and left hemisphere.

Essay Question

1. Which face does the brain asymmetry demonstration predict right-handed participants will choose? Why?

This essay is worth 6 points:

Point 1: Right-handed participants will choose the younger face as the one with the younger

half face on the left side.

Point 2: Right-handed people typically show brain asymmetry, one hemisphere is often more

involved in processing a given type of information than the other.

Point 3: The right hemisphere is more involved in processing faces than the left hemisphere.

Point 4: When a face is presented, the left half of the face will go to the right hemisphere of

the brain while the right half of the face will go to the left hemisphere.

Point 5: Since the right hemisphere is more involved in the processing of faces, the

information it receives will be weighted more heavily in making judgments about the

face then the information received by the left hemisphere.

Point 6: Therefore, the face that has the younger half face on the left will be chosen as the

younger face most of the time.