Research: The Left and Right Hemispheres (2)
Previous page
Experiments such as these led Sperry to suggest that "each disconnected
hemisphere appears to have a mind of it’s own".
It appears that, at least in a split-brain subject, each hemisphere has no knowledge of
information processed solely by the opposite hemisphere.
In the wake of Sperry’s findings, a multitude of experiments were conducted on both split-brain and normal humans.
Hampden-Turner (1981) summarized much of the research as suggesting that
the left hemisphere is better at verbal, analytic, sequential, reductive-into-parts, and time oriented tasks, while the right
hemisphere is better non-verbal, holistic, synthetic, visuo-spatial, intuitive, and timeless tasks.
Consequently, many people have often
tried to become more "right brain" or "left brain".
Virtually all of the right/left hemisphere distinctions have resulted from experiments where stimuli are delivered to only one hemisphere.
Joseph Hellige (1987) points out that, as humans interact with their environment, both hemispheres receive the same information
and, often, both hemispheres are capable of processing the information. The important question facing experimental psychologists now is, to what
extent do the hemispheres interact in order to process the information received.
Hellige (1987) has conducted a study exploring this very question. By using an instrument called a tachistoscope, stimuli
were either delivered to each hemisphere individually or to both hemispheres simultaneously. The research question was whether the
bilateral condition (where the stimuli were delivered to both hemispheres) would produce results like the left hemisphere in
isolation, the right hemisphere in isolation, or a combination of the two.
The results showed that, when the information was delivered to both
hemispheres simultaneously, the resulting performance appeared to be a combination of input from both hemispheres, with the extent to which
each hemisphere contributing to overall performance varying greatly between subjects. That is, each subject appeared to have his or her own
style of processing rather than simply relying solely on the left or right hemispheric style of processing.
The above study is one of the first to investigate how the hemispheres work together. It is representative of the current
interest of whole-brain processing, and strongly support Buzan’s emphasis on integrating both hemispheres.
As indicated, there is no general rule concerning processing style. Rather, people will vary in
how much they use each hemisphere. However, the results are clear in that, as stressed by a great many brain researchers, the hemispheres do
not act independently and there appears to be a great deal of sharing between the hemisphere during problem solving.
This also supports Buzan’s constant reminder that we are all unique with unique strategies
for problem solving.
You may apply this information in your business in a variety of ways. One suggestion may be to have people with very
different problem solving styles working together on tasks. Input from each person may be radically different from the other person, and a new
kind of synthesis may develop.
Next page
Top
