Caroline Perry

Psych 111
Lesson 3
Field Report on Neuroscience

SUBJECTS:
Subject #1: Husband, 6 feet 3 inches tall, Phlebotomist. Left Brained.
Subject #2: Best friend, 5 feet 9 inches tall, student. Right Brained.

PROCEDURES:
I started this by calling my husband and best friend on different days and place. I told
them I needed their help with my homework. I started explaining them that I would
ask them questions and that they should answer it the best they could. However, I
didnt give too many details so it wouldnt affect the result of the experiment. I
decided if they were right brained of left brained according to their personality. I
started recording weather they were looking to the right or left as soon as I asked
them the questions. During the experiment they were worried if they were giving the
right answers. After I finish all the questions debriefed them, explaining details about
the experiment.

RESULTS:
My husband looked to the left more often on spatial questions. The other times he
was looking to me. My friend looked more to the right on verbal questions and more
to the left on spatial questions. But most of the times she looked at me. She was
trying to see by my facial expression if she got the answer right.

Subject #1 Subject #2
Left or right Left brained Right brained
brained
Left Right Left Right
Verbal questions 4 2 2 4
Spatial questions 4 1 3 1
DISCUSSION:
For verbal questions they were very mixed, my husband would look more to the left
and my friend more to the right. However, my experiment supports the theory of this
activity when they both look more to the left on spatial questions. Both showed
dominance on spatial questions.

IMPLICATIONS:
Because the results were not the expected on verbal questions, I believe that there is
not a right or left brained person. To be able to consider this theory 100% the results
should also be 100% of what was expected. I believe that the reason why this
experiment didnt go as expected is that they were looking to the sides that they
would habitually look to.

FEEDBACK:

Amanda Grondin-Smith said: I like the point you bring up with your best friend trying
to read you. If the subject is too worried about getting the answer right or wrong,
they'll focus too much on our reaction ergo changing their natural response pattern.
The only think I think you could possibly improve on your field report would be why
you think the results went the way they did. If right brain left brain theory isn't valid
what other reason could this be? Perhaps by understanding what hemisphere of the
brain controls what could better explain this phenomenon.