PSY Exam 1 Study Notes PDF

Describe what makes something a science. Six steps of the scientific method 1. Observe some phenomenon 2. Construct a hypothesis regarding its cause 3. Use the hypothesis to make predictions 4. Test the predictions with further observations and (repeatable) experiments 5. Modify your...

Describe what makes something a science. Six steps of the scientific method 1. Observe some phenomenon 2. Construct a hypothesis regarding its cause 3. Use the hypothesis to make predictions 4. Test the predictions with further observations and (repeatable) experiments 5. Modify your hypothesis to account for new facts 6. Repeat steps 3-5 until no discrepancies remain Discuss whether psychology is all just common sense. Discuss whether psychology is a science - Psychology actually tests how humans behave - they don’t just make hypothesis or guesses, they test them out - Is a science because it uses scientific method to test out ideas just like other sciences Explain the ways in which we can – and can’t – use psychology to predict people’s behaviour. - Psychologys don’t figure out what people think, but how they think - Can’t predict a specific person's behavior but rather the behavior of a group of people - Predicting thoughts or behaviours (on average, not one person specifically) Explain the difference between applied psychologists and basic (or research) psychologists. - Applied psychologists: ➔ Transfers skills to real life situations ➔ Deals with patients - Research psychologists ➔ Conduct experiments Describe a few different kinds of applied psychologists. - Clinical psychologists → treat depression, anxiety, etc - Counseling psychologists treat marital and family dysfunction - School psychologists - teacher training, behavior management, working with children - industrial/organizational psychologists - training new recruits, improving morale, communications - Forensic psychologists - apply research to criminal justice and rehabilitation systems - Human factors psychologists - apply research to the design of new products (shape, function, colour, feel) Explain what is meant by the phrase “the mind-body problem”. Explain Descartes’ view and the modern psychological view of the relationship between the mind and the body/brain. - Is mental life a result of the activities of our physical brains? - Descartes  ➔ believed mind and body belonged to separate realms which interacted through the pineal gland ➔ Mind can influence the physical body through the brain ➔ Mind can inform the brain but the brain can’t inform the mind ➔ Cartesian dualism → separate but they interact - Modern psychology ➔ Damage to the brain causes changes to mental ➔ They work together and affect each other Explain what the case of Phineas Gage tells us about this relationship between the mind and the brain. - Metal bar went through his head - Extensive damage to frontal love - No longer himself → personality changed - Before had a well-balanced mind, now he was impulsive, swearing - The frontal lobes job is impulse control → when he damaged his frontal lobe that control was gone and he lost his control - His case convinced people that the mind and brain were not separate as Descartes believed - The mind is “in” the brain - When the brain is damaged so is the mind - Modern psychologists believe there is no separation between mind and brain - The mind is a direct product of brain activity (learning - mind to brain, the brain physically changed) (drugs - brain to mind, it causes changes mentally) Explain differing viewpoints on the roles of nature and nurture. Explain what empiricism is. Explain what nativism is. - Aristotle ➔ Wrote about memory, sleep and the nature of sensation ➔ Everyone is born as blank slates ➔ Experiences shape minds - Empiricism → nurture and experience → you are shaped through experience - Nativism → you are born with innate knowledge, not everything comes from experience, personality and intelligence - Modern psychologists believe everyone has a combination of nativism and empiricism Outline the development of the first scientific schools of psychology: Structuralism, Functionalism and Behaviourism. Describe the goals and methods of these schools of psychology, as well as Freud’s goals and methods Structuralism - Wilhelm Wundt ➔ First to open a lab and document experiments ➔ First psychological scientist ➔ Emphasised psychology is a science  - Edward b tichener ➔ what are mental experiences made out of? ➔ Sensations, imaged and feelings - Successes: ➔ understood elements of taste → salty, bitter, sweet, sour and umami - Problems: ➔ introspection is subjective (what i experience is different from what you experience in terms of taste) ➔ There are things our minds do that introspection can’t tell us much about ➔ Some things that our mind do can’t be described Functionalism - William James - Not ‘what is conscious experience?” but ‘what is the purpose of the experience’ - Influenced by Darwin’s thoughts on evolution - What ways do our conscious experiences help us to behave in ways that increase our chances of surviving - what do we pass onto other generations? - What is the function of the experience of pain? - Pain helps us avoid things that would cause tissue damage → when you hurt an ankle your body relies on the other leg to keep weight off of your ankle - “Congenital analgesia” → can’t feel pain → tend to die early because they cause damage to their body without knowing - What is the function of our conscious experience - Why do we feel love? Why do we laugh? Behaviourism - John watson, BF Skinner - Believed psychology scientific was to study observable behaviour, not the mind - Rejected introspection - Believed introspection is too subjective - To make psychology scientific we need to be objective - Observing people's behaviour - Watson Albert and the rat - Took a baby ALbert that showed curiosity to a rat - Every time albert was shown the rat, watson made a loud sound, baby got startled and started crying - Watson repeated the sequence - Albert learned to fear, and try to avoid the rat (was conditioned) - You can’t ask a baby why they’re afraid of a rat → just observed the baby’s behaviour - Behaviourists were strong empiricist → everything you learn is through experience - Classical conditioning → try to understand why people like or dislike things after they’ve encountered the things Freud - The reason why people do things is in their unconscious - Unconscious urges as determinants of behaviour - Dream analysis → understand the contents of the unconscious ➔ Wish fulfilment - analysing dreams can tell you what a person unconsciously desires ➔ Brain shuts off during dreams and can’t control the unconscious ➔ When you dream about something unconsciously it’s because you want that thing - Slips of the tongue - Freudian Slip → happens because of unconscious desires - Lack scientific evidence because everything happens in the unconscious which you can’t test Explain what it means to adopt an eclectic approach to psychology. - Modern psychologists integrate ideas from many perspectives - Made up of observing behaviour, introspection evolution and a bit of the unconscious - Includes cognitive, biological, evolutionary and cultural perspectives Describe what is meant by the term “the cognitive revolution”, including its methods (“cognitive testing”) and theories (the analogy of the mind “as a computer”). - Study mental processes: thinking,learning, remembering, reasoning (cognition), moving on from focus on just behaviour - A recognition what goes on in people's mind is crucial - Influenced by development of research techniques that allowed inferences about mental processes The mind is a computer - Inputs → shapes and patterns - Hardware → brain, CNS - Software → strategies and heuristics (solutions) - Output → succeed or fail at task - When you're a kid the hardware and software is underdeveloped Cognitive testing Describe how recent developments in biology and neuroscience help us understand the mind. - EEGs (electroencephalogram) - fMRI (you do something while someone scans it) - Heart rate - Blood pressure - Respiration  - Pupil dilation - Skin conductance - Stress hormones Is able to see the mind in ‘action’ Explain how psychologists believe that evolution has played a role in shaping our minds. - Because of ancestors, our minds are shaped by evolution - Can solve problems more easily because it has come up in the past - Explain the role of culture in modern psychologists’ thinking. - Cultures think differently - Counting in english vs mandarin - Iq tests are biased towards americans because other cultures learn differently Explain what “multi-causality” means. - Every human thought, feeling, or behaviour has multiple causes ➔ When you visualise a throw before you do it, it makes you more likely to shoot yourself ➔ It isn’t the ONLY cause ➔ All those other biological, cognitive, and social factors may also play a role ➔ Instead, they say mental imagery is ONE OF THE FACTORS that can improve success - Individual differences and context ➔ What psychologists find in their studies is an average effect (it doesn’t mean it helps for every individual person) ➔ It doesn’t apply to everyone or every circumstances ➔ Everything studied has multiple factors Explain what parsimony is, and be able to identify more parsimonious and less parsimonious ideas. - Connects to previous research and evidence (isn’t just a random idea that isn’t based off of anything) Explain what falsifiability is, and why it is important in science. - Needs to be tested - Needs to be consistent or inconsistent with hypothesis - Need to know if it’s right or wrong - Doesn’t mean that the hypothesis needs to be wrong, just that there needs to be a way to test it Explain how new ideas in science are generally connected to old ideas, and must be supported by converging evidence - All methods have weakness - Replications using the same method (going in the same direction, results come together)  - Studies using different methods and support the same hypothesis Explain what an “operational definition” is and be able to generate your own. - You need a way to measure something - Concept defined in a way that tells you exactly how to measure it For example: - If we wanted to measure aggression - It would be the amount of time someone hits, kicks, pushes, etc OR - Wanted to measure how old children are - NOT: how old the child is - Parent’s answering the question - Calculating the difference between today’s date and the date on the child’s birth certificate Explain what it means for a measure of something to be reliable. - Does the measurement give the same score each time used? For example: - If you ask a child how old a child is and five minutes later they give a different answer, the measure is unreliable ➔ Test-retest reliability → the same person should provide the same answer - If you ask both parents how old the child is and they give two different answers, measure is unreliable ➔ Inter-rater reliability → two different people give two different answers Explain what it means for a measure of something to be valid. - Does it measure what we think it does? For example: - If we ask a child how old they are and they say 47, the measure is invalid ➔ It might be reliable but it isn’t valid Describe the pros and cons of observing behaviour. Explain what “external validity” is. - Reactivity → an individuals behaviour changes because they know they’re being observed ➔ Observation becomes unreliable - External validity → how representative of ‘real life’ your observations are. Do your observations really reflect the behaviours you are hoping to observe? Describe the pros and cons of collecting survey data. - Surveys are useful for gathering a lot of data in a short period of time - Helps anonymize so people will give truthful answers - Easier to collect data - Surveys rely on self-report ➔ Weak validity ➔ Can’t really predict the future (if given a fake scenario) ➔ Don’t accurately recall past behaviour ➔ Want to give a good impression - Sometimes words are subjective (very/somwhat) - Better to use specific numbers Describe what makes a test “standardized”. Explain the pros and cons of standardized testing. - Large number of questions given under the same conditions - Start easy and get harder - Ends when you get a certain amount wrong Pros - Easy to compare different people — we know the standard level of performance and everyone takes the test under standard conditions - Often a lot of work has gone into showing that the tests are reliable and valid Cons - Expensive and time-consuming to construct - Do not exist for every concept we are interested in (no test for aggression) - Their validity is often debated - do IG tests assess everything that we might want to call “intelligence” - Creativity can’t be measured Describe the different types of standardized tests (IQ, achievement, aptitude, neuropsychological) - Achievement tests ➔ Asses the current level of knowledge or competence in a particular subject (eg a reading, writing or math test) - Aptitude tests ➔ Measure a person’s potential for success in a given profession or subject of study (GRE) ➔ How well you will do at something in the future - Neuropsychological tests ➔ Assess whether a person might have a cognitive deficits after brain injury (eg problems with attention) - Visual neglect ➔ Damage to the right parietal lobe can cause the neglect of the left side of face Define what a correlation is and recognize when a study is correlational. Explain what an r value (e.g., r= 1, r = 0, r = -1) tells us. - A correlation “r” is a statistic that tells you whether or not two variables ago together ➔ Positive vs negative correlations - A correlational study is when you just measure two things and calculate a correlation - 1 = positive correlation - -1 = negative correlation - 0 = no correlation Discuss how correlations can be used to help us predict things. - If two variables are correlated, that allows you to predict one variable on the basis of the other, but not to make conclusions about whether one variable causes the other Explain why correlations cannot be used to explain things. (Why correlation is NOT causation!) - Variables can be correlated but they do not cause each other - There are other factors and variables that have to do with it - Third variable Explain the direction-of-causality problem and the third variable problem - Many correlations are consistent a pattern of cause and effect where neither variable could cause the other - Neither variable causes the other, or a third variable can cause both Explain what makes something an experiment and how experiments allow us to make conclusions about causes. - Key features of an experiment ➔ One of the variables in the study is directly manipulated by the experimenter; instead of just measuring two things, we change one variable and measure the other one to see if it also changes ➔ Another way of saying this is that, in a correlation we only measure differences between people, in an experiment, we create some differences in one variable Explain what makes something an independent or dependent variable. Identify independent and dependent variables. - Independent variable → the aspect you manipulate (need to be able to vary) (this is what you change) - Dependent variable → the aspect of the situation we observe and measure ➔ Manipulating the level of independent should cause changes in the dependent - Countatitive difference - difference in amount - Types of aggressive acts - qualitative difference Be able to calculate some simple descriptive statistics (mean, mode, and median). Explain what means, modes, and medians are. Explain in general terms what a standard deviation shows us. - Mean: everything added together and divided by the number - Mode: what number shows up most - Median: middle number 0 ,2, 5, 12, 5, 1, 2, 0, 1, 2 Mean: (0 +2+5+12+5+1+2+0+1+2)/10 = 3 → no one committed exactly three violent acts Mode = most frequent response = 2 (2 shows up three times) Median = 0, 0, 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 5, 5, 12 = (2+2)/2 = 2 (middle number in ascending order) - Mean isn’t the best because you can have outliers which greatly affect your data - Mode and median are better versions of the average because they avoid the outliers Explain in general terms what inferential statistics tell us, and what they are based on. - How likely is it that we would observe the data we have observed if there really were no difference between the conditions - Calculations are based on 1. The size of the observed difference between groups (between means?) 2. Standard deviation within the groups 3. Size of the groups Explain the problems created by confounding variables, expectations, and biases in experiments and how to avoid such problems. - Ensure there are no confounding variables → differs between groups but isn’t the independent variable Expectations - Participant expectations ➔ The experimental group is going to expect a change because they know which group they are in ➔ They shouldn’t know what group they’re in ➔ Aren’t told the purpose of the study until the end - Experimentar expectations ➔ Could be biased because they’re expecting participants to behave in a certain way ➔ Experimenter shouldn’t know who is in which condition Explain what random assignment is and how it removes some, but not all, confounding variables. - Each participant must have an equal change of being assigned to each groups (pick at random) - Having a large enough group means both groups will be mostly equal on all topics - Pre-tests can be used to equate groups Describe the key issues regarding generalising the results of an experiment. Explain what a representative sample is. Explain what a biased sample is - Giving a survey to a specific group of people who are biased → doesn’t give an equal sample Describe the difference between the Central Nervous System (CNS) and the Peripheral Nervous System (PNS). - CNS → brain and spinal cord - PNS → network of nerves that connect the CNS to the rest of your body Describe the three major kinds of neuron; sensory neurons, interneurons, motor neurons. - Sensory neurons ➔ Excite interneurons ➔ Tells the body what to do and collect information - Interneurons ➔ Excite motor neurons ➔ Most of the brain is made up up of ➔ Compares different things you’re experiencing ➔ Process information - Motor neurons ➔ Perform based on output info ➔ Move your muscles Describe the basic structure of neurons – their four basic parts (dendrites, soma, axon, terminal buttons) and the function of each part - Dendrites ➔ Collect information from neurons ➔ Create inhibition or excitation - Soma ➔ Decision maker → will i send the signal or not? ➔ Body ➔ Generates action potential - Axon ➔ Message is carried by axon ➔ Carries electrical message ➔ Action travels down the axon - Terminal buttons ➔ Located at the end ➔ Electrical message are converted to chemicals which are released to do excitation or inhibition ➔ It triggers the release of chemicals Explain what an action potential is. - Generated by the soma - Electrical part of the message - When the action potential reaches the terminal buttons it triggers the release of chemicals into the synapse Describe what role the myelin sheath plays in speeding up action potentials. Explain why some neurons are faster than others. - When a neuron doesn’t have this the signal needs to go through the axon - If it does hhave the sheath, the go signals jump through the gaps and gets to the terminal button faster - Myelin sheath are created by glial cells - This is why you need fat in your diet because of the myelin sheath which speeds up the way your brain sends messages Explain how and why neurons can change their firing rates. - How often they send signals - Pause between each message - If the same neuron is receiving way more go signals signals - it sends the message more often - So more go signals = more messages faster with less pauses in between - Brain says how intense something is by how often they send the signals Explain what a neurotransmitter is. Describe two examples of neurotransmitters. - When excitation happens, neurotransmitter opens the channel and only lets sodium go through - Excitation and inhibition is something neurotransmitters do ACETYLCHOLINE - a major neurotransmitter in both CNS and PNS (may play a role in memory and alzheimer’s disease) - When you want to excite your muscles to move it’s acetylcholine - Also helps you remembers things - Neurons that create this neurotransmitter dies off which creates alzhemier’s disease which makes you forget things Dopamine - acts mainly on inhibitory receptors, helping to create smooth muscle movements (plays a roel in parksinon’s disease) - If you want to reach your arm out, you need acetylcholine to excite muscles to let them move and dopamine to control exactly where your arm goes - Not enough dopamine means muscles and movements become very shaky - Dopamine inhibits you in a specific stage of sleep - muscles are paralyzed by dopamine so dreams don’t make you follow those movements Describe what excitation and inhibition are. Describe how neurotransmitters create excitation or inhibition - Excitation → one neuron wants to make another neuron pass on a message (go) (positive) ➔ When the action potential reaches the terminal buttons, it triggers the release of chemicals into the synapse  ➔ Synapse is a tiny gap of the terminal button of one neuron and a dendrite with another neuron ➔ Pushes packets of chemicals and goes into the synapse and interact with the dendrite of another neuron ➔ NA+ - sodium → carries positive electrical charge ➔ Cl- - chloride → negative charge ➔ K+ - potassium ➔ These are in the synapse ➔ In the dendrite there is protein molecule (-) and potassium (+) ➔ Excitation → increase the positive energy in the other neuron ➔ Receptor site - side that is shaped for a corresponding shape of a chemical ➔ When the chemical is released, it finds one of the receptor sites and latches onto it (putting a key into a lock and turning it) ➔ When excitation happens, neurotransmitter opens the channel and only lets sodium go through ➔ Sodium goes through intro the dendrite ➔ 1. There’s no sodium in there ➔ 2. Drawn in because of the negative energy in the dendrite ➔ This makes the dendrite more positively charegd because of na’s positive charge ➔ The dendrite creates more excitation now Sum up - Excitation is when one neuron wants another neuron to create an action potential - to send on a signal - Excitation is creating when neurotransmitters open channels that let sodium into the dendrites - Excitation increases the positive electrical energy inside the cell - because the na+ is positively-electrically charged - Excitation = depolarization - Inhibition → less likely to pass on another signal (stop) (negative) - The neurotransmitters open different channels NOT SODIUM - They open chloride through - Chloride will go into the cell - Cl carries negative charge - cell is now more negative - less likely to send a signal bc cl goes in - Also opens channels for k to leave the cell - makes the cell even more negatively charge - Inhibition lets cl in and k to leave - Excitation and inhibition is smt neurotransmitters do Sum - Inhibition is when one neuron wants another neuron NOT to create an action potential - to NOT send on a signal  - Inhibition is created when neurotransmitters open channels that let cl- into the dendrites AND let k+ out - Inhibition DECREASES the positive electrical energy inside the cell (because cl- goes in and K+ comes out) Describe how agonists work and give one example of an agonist. - act on the body in the same way as the brain’s natural neurotransmitters - They do they same thing Nicotine: an agonist - Works the same way as other brains neurotransmitters -acetylcholine - Acts to excite neurons - Nicotine gets into the synapse - Nicotine as chemical is almost the same shape as acetylcholine - Nicotine will float around and attaches to acetylcholine receptors and will open the channel and let in na+ - People experience jitters because of the excitement - Does the job of acetylcholine Describe how antagonists work and give one example of an antagonist. - oppose or block the action of the brain’s natural neurotransmitters Caffeine: an antagonist - Stops one of the brains natural neurotransmitters - Adenosine → natural neurotransmitter acts as an inhibitory way - When yo go to sleep adenosine is released and opens the channel to let cl- in and opens up channels for na+to go out - So brain stops send out signals which slows the brain - Caffeine stops adensone from working - When you drink a coffee you put caffeine into the synapse - Caffeine is a similar shape to adenosine but not close enough - It attached to the same receptors but it doesn’t open because they're not close enough the same - Putting the wrong key in the door - Blocks the way - When adenosine is released it can’t open the channels it normally opens because caffeine is in the way of the receptor and adenosine can’t attach to the receptors Curare: an antagonist - Curare blocks teh action of actylecholine - Acetylcholine acts in an excitatory wwya to activate muscles - Can’t activate the muscles - With the recpotrs of acetylcholine blocked, muscles, including the diaphragm cannot be stimulated Explain how interconnected neurons form networks using the example of a reflex. Describe how and why the brain plays no role in an initial reflex response. - Networks are reflexes - Sensory neurons excite interneurons which in turn excite motor neurons that move your muscles - When something is hot you jerk your hand away from the hot surface - Reflex doesn’t involve your brain - automatic reflect - Involves three different neurons - however , signals do go up to the brain and the brain can send signals to inhibit reflexes - The message goes to your muscle the same time it goes to your brain - When you want to burn yourself you're sending inhibitory signals to your brain to not - Blinking is another reflex - when you put in contacts you use inhibitory commands - Does this have to do with flight or fight too? Explain what the term “neural plasticity” means - As we learn new skills and new information, the physical structure of our brains (the networks of connections) changs ➔ Plastic is interesting bc it is a substance that can be alost anything with almost any function - Plasticity refers to the fact that our brains are flexible in terms of their shape and things they can do - Our brains adjust themselves according to the experiences we have - As we learn new skills and new info the physical structure of our brains changes - The strengths and patterns of interconnectivity are adjusted - Brain gets less plastic with age - Your brain changes when you learn new skills. It can change and adapt, to relearn skills, after traumatic brain injury Explain how studying the effects of brain damage can inform our understanding of the functions of parts of the brain. Describe what we know about Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas of the brain. - To discover the relationship between structure - anatomy and physiology - and function - behaviour and thought - in the brain researchers have used three main techniques - 1. Studying brain damage - Nicholas cage - we know what the frontal lobe is for - 2. Activating brain areas - Using electrical currents - 3. Monitoring the brain in action - Measuring where blood is going - Discovering what people can and can’t do following damage to parts of their brains gives us clues as to the brains function - Brain is not neutral porridge. Specific parts of the brain al look different and hve specific jobs - Neurons come in different lengths, networks, connected in diff ways  - Specific parts of brain have dif jobs Broca’s and wernicke’s areas - Damage to broca’s area (usually just above the left temple) results in slow labour speech which is often agrammatical - Damage to wernicke’s area (usually just above and behind the left ear) produces fluent, grammatical speech but that is often jumbled and jumps from topic to topic Explain the disadvantages of relying on studies of brain damage to tell us about brain function. - Brain damage is rarely contained within one specific region of the brain - You need to wait until people who have damages a specific part of their brain to come along - Brain damage in a specific part of the brain is uncommon - Two most common causes of brain damage are - 1. Strokes - interruptions to the brain’s blood supply - 2. Head injuries - 3. These two issues spread to other areas of the brain - Both typically cause widespread damage so many functions are affected. This makes it hard to determine which area does what Describe how methods that stimulate the electrical activity of the brain can tell us about brain function. - Direct electrical stimulation of the brain has sometimes been achieved in humans during certain types of open-skull surgery - Such stimulation can cause involuntary movements, or even the experience of ‘memories’ - Transcranial magnetic stimulation TMS is a non-invasive means of stimulating the brain Describe the different networks of neurons in the PNS and what their functions are. - ?????? Describe the major structures of the brain and the functions associated with them including the hindbrain, the forebrain, the hippocampus, and the different lobes (frontal, parietal, temporal, and occipital) of the cortex. Hindbrain - Similar structures with similar functions are found in the animal kingdom - Functions as basic ‘life support’ coordinating with you autonomic PNS to regulate heart rate, breathing, etc - Alcohol slows your brain from working - you can inhibit the hindbrain and it can stop your breathing - Cerebellum - coordinate your body - actions Forbrain - subcortical structures  - Hippocampus - seems to be involved in the formation of new memories - Cerebral cortex - left and right hemispheres - almost entirely separate brains - Bridge between the two sides - corpus callosum - Each hemisphere have four lobes - eighth in total Frontal lobe - planning, decision making, using strategies, inhibiting impulse - Motor cortex → controls muscle movements Parietal - Temporal lobe - auditory processing. Highly active during language tasks - Understanding sounds Occipital lobe - the site of most visual processing - If the back of your head gets hit you can go blind Describe the way that neurons are organized in the motor and sensory areas of the frontal and parietal lobes. - Neurons that ‘represent’ adjacent areas of your body are close together in the cortics - Muscle part of the brain are organized in terms of order - Sensory - genitals aren’t in the right spot - fetal positions - toes are close to the genitals - Some body parts are strong Explain how the two hemispheres divide and co-ordinate brain functions. Describe what can happen if the corpus callosum between the two hemispheres is absent or disconnected. - Although we function using all of our brain, certain abilities are largely located in one side or the other - For instance, the left hemisphere processes information from only the right side of space and vice versa - Your right occipital lobe is looking at everything on the left side of your face - The left hemisphere contain the motor and sensory cortices corresponding to the right side of the body and vice versa - The left the hemisphere is specialized in langage processing the right in spatial processing - If your left handed you can have language in both sides of brain - right handed only left side - In an intact brain, there is constant communication between hemispheres through the corpus callosum  - Some people (either from birth, or subsequent to certain types of surgery) have no connection between their hemisphere - Movements of the head usually allow information to get into both hemispheres Splitting the brain - If you ask a person with no corpus callosum to stare straight ahead, we can present different information to the two hemispheres - Key - into the right hemisphere. No language output. However, the left hand can find the object by touch - Ring - into the left hemisphere, brain can respond linguistically and also use the right hand to find the ring - If we only present info to the right hemisphere, the left hand can find the object despite the fact that the person will say they did not see a word