Left brain/right brain

JuliusCaesar

I'm doing (yet!) another course and see that they are teaching about L brain/R brain learning styles.......... People who favour the L brain like things organised, in chunks, and may lack imagination whereas R brain people see the bigger picture, see patterns,and tend to be intuitive. (Tidy vs messy, scientist vs artist) This isn't my area, but I thought this simplistic stuff had been exploded years ago? Anyone know?

John

Yeah, that sort of stuff is gone along with "You only use 10% of your brain". There is differences between the left and right hemispheres of the brain. You can speak of people being left dominant or right dominant but this is an anatomical/physiological definition to do with what side of the brain your language centres happen to be on. I'm aware of no indirect psychological way of assessing this dominance, I've only seen imaging studies that show it (i.e. you see one side of the brain light up in fMRI when the person is doing a language based task). There's no difference in IQ, language skills, etc.

This dominance by the way has nothing to do with handedness, the vast majority of people are right dominant (right and left handed people). A far smaller part of the population are left dominant and a tiny, tiny amount of people are co-dominant, they have language centres on both sides of the brain! Again, there's no psychological difference that I'm aware of by being co-dominant.

It's not just language centres that are on one side of the brain, there are other functional areas on one side or the other in the brain. Also, due to the way that your nervous system is wired up, your somatosensory system (i.e. the cortical areas in your brain that register touch, pain, heat, etc.) are nearly all inverted. So if you step on a tack with your right foot, the message fires up to your spinal cord, crosses over to the left side of your body and is registered in the left hemisphere's somatosensory cortex. Some sensory input doesn't cross over but I forget which type(s) exactly.

So, erm, yeah, that left and right brained idea isn't right.

Myksyk

Check out Sergio Della Sala's "Mind Myths: Exploring Popular Assumptions About the Mind and Brain". There's a good chapter in it entitled 'Are we in our right minds?" by Michael Corballis. Addresses this dual-brain myth. The whole book is a treat actually.

Gibs

Here´s an interesting, if somewhat out of date, look at the subject. Some of Byron P Rourke´s stuff on NLD is also very good with regard to right brain lesions and their tendency to mimic ASD type impairments. See here for some details

JuliusCaesar

Brilliant! Thanks! Wait till they get my essay........heh heh.........finding the course really annoying and vague anyway, lots of Dodo hypotheses re therapy approaches equivalence. I mean if the psychoanalysts are so convinced of the utility of their approach, produce the blinking evidence cos I see no reason to pussyfoot around them to accord them respect in its absense. Maybe I'm ticked off at doing yet another course due to qualification inflation, but still.....
Off topic, but seasonal:
Recently came across an analytic website discussing whether therapists attract gifts /certain gifts / Christmas presents. I want to know why I haven't been attracting Ferraris rather than Ferraro Rocher! Here's wishing all of you Ferraris! Happy Christmas!

JuliusCaesar

Middle Tennessee University remains firmly convinced............there's a quiz on their page, and it turns out I'm a right-brainer. Creative, emotional, intuitive (sobs and turns away from computer in distress - "but I thought I was a scientist!")
http://www.mtsu.edu/~studskl/hd/learn.html

Red Hand

JuliusCaesar wrote:

I'm doing (yet!) another course and see that they are teaching about L brain/R brain learning styles.......... People who favour the L brain like things organised, in chunks, and may lack imagination whereas R brain people see the bigger picture, see patterns,and tend to be intuitive. (Tidy vs messy, scientist vs artist) This isn't my area, but I thought this simplistic stuff had been exploded years ago? Anyone know?

Very true, it is alot more complicated than that. You should read something about the life of Phineas Gage, for arguments can be made for both left/right brain organisational patterns and the more modern multi-centre pattern with that particulat case.:)

Gibs

Zombie thread i know, but I thought this was really worth viewing

thesham001

Nice video

JuliusCaesar

Gibs wrote: »

Zombie thread i know, but I thought this was really worth viewing

Fantastic! And so we have to forgive the revival of the zombie.

golden virginia

JuliusCaesar wrote: »

I'm doing (yet!) another course and see that they are teaching about L brain/R brain learning styles.......... People who favour the L brain like things organised, in chunks, and may lack imagination whereas R brain people see the bigger picture, see patterns,and tend to be intuitive. (Tidy vs messy, scientist vs artist) This isn't my area, but I thought this simplistic stuff had been exploded years ago? Anyone know?

In educational learning theory; left/right brain learning styles are not often referred to anymore. Two learning theories that are most often used are

(a) Multiple Intelligences - Howard Gardner
(b) VAK - visual, auditory, kinesthetic - several origins

I suppose the whole left/right brain theory really stereotypes human learning style.

Gibs

golden virginia wrote: »

In educational learning theory; left/right brain learning styles are not often referred to anymore. Two learning theories that are most often used are

(a) Multiple Intelligences - Howard Gardner
(b) VAK - visual, auditory, kinesthetic - several origins

I suppose the whole left/right brain theory really stereotypes human learning style.

I think your post is a little misguided to be honest. The video that I linked to above is part of a talk given by Dr. Iain McGilchrist who is one of the most erudite and scholarly psychiatrists working today. Far from being out of date or "not referred to any more", the subject matter of the video is based on a very recent book he published in 2010 called "The Master and his Emissary" that he wrote over the past 20 years, and which is perhaps the most comprehensive, coherent anmd up to date account of the neurological and neuropsychological differences between the two hemispheres of the brain to date. Current research on left and right sides of the brain is not really concerned with educational learning theory or learning styles, and it certainly has little if anything to say about Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences or intelligence theories in general.

McGilchrist for example is very clear in his dismissal of lazy caricatures of left/right brain differences (e.g. the left is the practical side, the right is the creative side:rolleyes:). His book is crammed full of complex, nuanced arguments and he has carefully and thoroughly integrated an impressive quantity of neurological evidence to make his case. I am almost finished reading it and would definitely say it is the most stimulating book on the topic of neuropsychology I have read in years. You can download the opening chapter here to get a sample of his terrific prose. Guaranteed to stimulate both sides of your brain simultaneously

golden virginia

Gibs wrote: »

"The Master and his Emissary". Guaranteed to stimulate both sides of your brain simultaneously

You're absolutely right. It looks an exciting read. There is a great deal of psychological theory about learning, but I am not sure that these theories have provided means for practical operation for the science of learning, but rather more - the science of psychology.