Module 13 AP Psych

What is dual processing ? **GOING TO BE ON THE AP EXAM**

The dual process theory is a cognitive psychology theory that explains the different levels of information processing in individuals. the principle that information is often simultaneously processed on separate conscious and unconscious tracks.

What is cognitive neuroscience?

The interdisciplinary study of the brain activity linked with cognition (including perception, thinking, memory, and language).

What is consciousness?

our awareness of ourselves and our environment

REVIEW QUESTIONS What is the "dual processing" being revealed by today's cognitive neuroscience?

• *Cognitive neuroscientists* and others studying the brain mechanisms underlying consciousness and cognition have discovered that the mind processes information on two separate tracks, one operating at an explicit, conscious level and the other at an implicit, unconscious level. This *dual processing* affects our perception, memory, attitudes, and other cognition.

Does each of our hemispheres also perform distinct functions?

• Several different types of studies indicate they do. • When a person performs a perceptual task, for example, brain waves, bloodfl ow, and glucose consumption reveal increased activity in the right hemisphere. • When the person speaks or calculates, activity increases in the left hemisphere

What is the direction of sight based on what we see.

• information from the left half of your field of vision goes to your right hemisphere, and information from the right half of your visual field goes to your left hemisphere, which usually controls speech. • (Note, however, that each eye receives sensory information from both the right and left visual fields.) • Data received by either hemisphere are quickly transmitted to the other across the corpus callosum. In a person with a severed corpus callosum, this information-sharing does not take place.

1. A split-brain patient has a picture of a dog flashed to his right hemisphere and a cat to his left hemisphere. He will be able to identify the a. cat using his right hand. b. dog using his right hand. c. dog using either hand. d. cat using either hand. e. cat using his left hand

A

3. Which of the following is most likely to be a function of the left hemisphere? a. Speech b. Evaluating perceptual tasks c. Making inferences d. Identifying emotion in other people's faces e. Identifying one's sense of self

A

2. You are aware that a dog is viciously barking at you, but you are not aware of the type of dog. Later, you are able to describe the type and color of the dog. This ability to process information without conscious awareness best exemplifi es which of the following? a. Split brain b. Blindsight c. Consciousness d. Cognitive neuroscience e. Dual processing

E

What is split brain? *WILL SHOW UP ON AP EXAM*

a condition resulting from surgery that isolates the brain's two hemispheres by cutting the fibers (mainly those of the corpus callosum) connecting them.

Practice FRQs 1. Brain lateralization means that each hemisphere has its own functions. Give an example of both a left hemisphere and a right hemisphere function. Then explain how the two hemispheres communicate with one another.

1 point: Left hemisphere functions include language, math, and logic. 1 point: Right hemisphere functions include spatial relationships, facial recognition, and patterns. 1 point: The corpus callosum carries information back and forth between the two hemispheres.

Practice FRQs 2. Because Jerry suffered severe seizures, his neurosurgeon decided to "split his brain." What does this mean? How might a psychologist use people who have had split-brain surgery to determine the location of speech control?

1 point: Splitting his brain involves severing the corpus callosum, so information cannot travel between the 2 brain hemispheres. 1 point: Language is a left-hemisphere function. 1 point: When an image is projected to the left visual field, it is processed in the right hemisphere of the brain. Jerry would not be able to say what he saw, because the severed corpus callosum prevents the information from traveling from the right hemisphere to the speech center (Broca's area) in the left hemisphere.

4. The dual-processing model refers to which of the following ideas? a. The right and left hemispheres of the brain both process incoming messages. b. Incoming information is processed by both consciousand unconscious tracks. c. Each lobe of the brain processes incoming information. d. The brain first processes emotional information and then processes analytical information. e. The thalamus and hypothalamus work together to analyze incoming sensory information.

B

Where does the visual field come from?

Remind students that visual information directed to each side of the brain comes from visual fields, not from each eye. The left eye doesn't send information to the right hemisphere and vice versa—the right halves of each eye send information to the right hemisphere and vice versa. Left visual fi eld → Right half of each eye → Right hemisphere Right visual fi eld → Left half of each eye → Left hemisphere

What is the corpus callosum?

the large band of neural fibers connecting the two brain hemispheres and carrying messages between them.

REVIEW QUESTIONS What do split brains reveal about the functions of our two brain hemispheres?

• *Split-brain* research (experiments on people with a severed *corpus callosum*) has confirmed that in most people, the left hemisphere is the more verbal, and that the right hemisphere excels in visual perception and the recognition of emotion. • Studies of healthy people with intact brains confirm that each hemisphere makes unique contributions to the integrated functioning of the brain.

What does the right hemisphere help us do.

• *excels in making inferences* (Beeman & Chiarello, 1998; Bowden & Beeman, 1998; Mason & Just, 2004). Primed with the fl ashed word foot, the left hemisphere will be especially quick to recognize the closely associated word heel. But if primed with foot, cry, and glass, the right hemisphere will more quickly recognize another word distantly related to all three (cut). And if given an insight-like problem—"What word goes with boot, summer, and ground?"—the right hemisphere more quickly than the left recognizes the solution: camp. As one patient explained after a right -hemisphere stroke, "I understand words, but I'm missing the subtleties." • *helps us modulate our speech to make meaning clear*—as when we ask "What's that in the road ahead?" instead of "What's that in the road, a head?" (Heller, 1990). •* helps orchestrate our sense of self*. People who suffer partial paralysis will sometimes obstinately deny their impairment—strangely claiming they can move a paralyzed limb—if the damage is to the right hemisphere (Berti et al., 2005).

How does consciousness help us?

•Evolutionary psychologists speculate that consciousness must offer a reproductive advantage (Barash, 2006). •Consciousness helps us act in our long-term interests (by considering consequences) rather than merely seeking short-term pleasure and avoiding pain. •Consciousness also promotes our survival by anticipating how we seem to others and helping us read their minds: "He looks really angry! I'd better run!"

Do the right and left hemisphere serve the same functions?

•Our brain's look-alike left and right hemispheres serve differing functions. •This lateralization is apparent after brain damage. Research collected over more than a century has shown that accidents, strokes, and tumors in the left hemisphere can impair reading, writing, speaking, arithmetic reasoning, and understanding. Similar lesions in the right hemisphere have effects that are less visibly dramatic

What is the myth about the the "two brain"

•There is no activity to which only one hemisphere makes a contribution. For example, when a person reads a story, the right hemisphere may play a special role in decoding the visual information, while the left hemisphere plays a special role in understanding syntax. •Logic is not confined to the left hemisphere. In fact, people with right-hemisphere damage have more severe problems in this area than do people with left-hemisphere damage. •There is no evidence that either creativity or intuition is an exclusive property of the right hemisphere. For example, researchers have found that both hemispheres are equally skilled in discriminating musical chords. •It is impossible to educate one hemisphere at a time. The right hemisphere is educated as fully as the left in a literature class; the left hemisphere is educated as much as the right in an art class. •There is no evidence that people are purely "left-brained"or "right-brained."

What is the hollow face illusion?

•We tend to see an illusory protruding face even on an inverted mask (right). •Yet research participants will accurately reach for a speck on the face inside the inverted mask, suggesting that our unconscious mind seems to know the truth of the illusion.