Re: Left-handers and learning

Phil Graham (pw.graham who-is-at student.qut.edu.au)
Mon, 15 Feb 1999 00:06:26 +1100

At 22:33 13-02-99 -0500, Jay wrote:

>PS. Did those classic experiments with the up-down inverting glasses, in
>which people also suddenly 'switched' after a time, include a case with
>right-left reversal rather than vertical inversion? it may be that
>right-left is wired a little deeper ... or comes to be so.

It's doubtful whether left-/right-handedness is merely a difference in
spatialisation that has to do with the "wiring" of sight perception,
although it would be interesting to know the answer to Jay's question.

They've stopped doing the operation now, but some years ago to treat really
severe epilepsy, surgeons would sever the corpus collossum. The result was
to neatly sever a closed neural system into two largely independent closed
systems. Cognitive science took the opportunity to experiment with some of
the people who were the victims of this operation by stimulating each side
of the body with contradicting data, by asking each "side" various
questions, and so on.

The findings are quite amazing. Maturana and Varela (1987) detail some of
the more counterintuitive results.

Phil
Phil Graham
pw.graham who-is-at student.qut.edu.au
http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Palms/8314/index.html