Left versus Right Brain and Learning

According to the theory of lateralisation developed by Robert Sperry and Robert Ornstein, the cerebral cortex in the two hemispheres perform the same motor and sensory functions but each of the hemisphere is specialized for different tasks. As the brain develops, the left hemisphere is superior in doing tasks that involve speech, language, reading, and writing. The right hemisphere shows superiority in tasks that involves creativity, intuition, facial recognition, non-verbal imagery, musical recognition, sense of direction, play and sports, learning experience and risk-taking. Lateralisation is developed for the task that is done, that is the right hemisphere is used for a particular function. This decision is influenced by genetics, childhood learning experiences and

The human brain is a wondrous invention that has many scientists and researchers very busy to this very day. There are numerous qualities about the brain humans know about, yet there are still a great number of mysteries to the brain and how it functions left to be discovered and shared. Some facts scientists do know about the brain is that it is divided into to primary sections, called hemispheres. Each person has a left and right hemisphere of the brain. Each hemisphere is in charge of specific abilities, tasks, and functions. This paper will review what each hemisphere is responsible for and describe ways that each hemisphere is predisposed to learn.

What is the brain’s role in the learning process? Does the learning process include the three major areas of the brain: hindbrain, midbrain, and forebrain? The brain is one of the most captivating organs in the body. It plays a huge role in how we learn and is made up of many components. Neurons are brain cells and people are born with over a billion of them. Neurons discharge signals to transmit information throughout the brain; these signals are called synapses. Neurons produce dendrites and they get larger as we learn. However, a dendrite gets bigger only if there is existing knowledge on something already learned. The brain consists of three areas and four lobes. The three parts are known as the hindbrain, midbrain, and forebrain. The four lobes of the brain are the frontal, parietal, occipital, and the temporal.

The right side of the brain is responsible for putting information together eg. information recived from eyes-if you see a flower information goes from eyes to the right side of your brain , firing neurons, putting information together so you are able to say "I can see a flower".The left side of the brain analyses information which is collected by the right side of the brain. It

The right and left temporal lobes at the two sides of the brain are involved in processing what we hear and understanding what we hear and see. Damage may lead to difficulty recognising objects or understanding

Pink’s argument that we are moving out of a left-brain dominance and in to a new era where right brain qualities will be prized is well illustrated in part one the book. According to Pink “the two hemispheres of our brain don’t operate as on-off switches…both halves play a role in nearly everything we do” (2011). Pink suggests that both hemisphere of the brain are equally important. In fact, “a healthy,

The results of this study show us the brain is not in fact symmetrical and the two hemispheres in the brain work in different ways. The left hemisphere is known to play the dominant role, which is in control of all complex behavioural and cognitive processes as for the right hemisphere it only plays a minor role. This report will further analyse how different the two hemisphers is the dominant side of the brain.

For many decades people have been considered to be either right or left side dominant in regards to brain function which came with defined roles such as “creative” or “analytical”. This thinking tends to be over-simplified as most people use their entire brains daily (Jensen, 2010). On the other hand people do use different parts of their brain for different tasks according to how they perceive those tasks.

Left-right brain dominance is about the fact that the distinct hemispheres influence thinking. The left hemisphere is associated with logical, analytical thinking and a linear approach to problem solving. The right hemisphere is associated with creative, intuitive and value-based thought process. It is important to note that everyone uses its both hemispheres, but to varying degrees. Four quadrants of the brain, related to different thinking style, have been identified:

“The brain is an incredibly complex organ with differentiated parts. One of the major theories about brain processing, hemisphericity, maintains that each of the brain's two hemispheres possesses unique features and specialize in different functions” (Farmer, 2004, p. 27). Graduate students from Harvard have a difference of opinions from typical research about brain function and learning:

In general, the brain is thought to be lateralized with the two hemispheres having control of the opposite side of the body and their own functionalities. In this case, the left hemisphere dominates in language and verbal capabilities controlling the right side of the body including the right visual field. Using this fact and the difference in visual fields, subjects were asked to focus on a flashing screen with a pulsating plus sign. Vertically oriented words would flash on either the left or right side of the plus sign in order to isolate individual hemispheres. The time to correctly identify the words was recorded and compared between the left and right visual fields as well as between males and females. In this case, there was a significant difference between visual fields with the right side being significantly faster at processing words. In addition, males showed greater differences between visual fields when compared to females. These findings suggest that the right hemisphere is more selective in word processing and that males are more lateralized than females.

The link between handedness and hemispheric dominance is based on the simple logic that one’s preferred hand must mean that the hemisphere controlling this hand is also preferred. This means that right-side of the brain is dominant in left-handers while the left-side of the brain is dominant in right-handers, since the brain works contra-laterally (meaning that the left-side of the brain is responsible for the right-side of the body and reversed). In most people the verbal processing (assumed to be more linear and sequential) is located on the left-side of the brain, and the non-verbal processing (thought to be more holistic and random) on the right-side of the brain. As we saw before the definition of handedness is not that simple, there are varying degrees of handedness, and the same is true for the lateralization of the brain. Furthermore, not everyone has this traditional organization of the brain, a small percentage of people have a reversed organization of the structures in their respective hemispheres (from this small percentage the majority is left-handed).

Science tells us the left brain favors logic and detail, while right brain leans toward feeling and emotion. Weygers comfortably operated at the meeting of these processes, perfectly balancing practicality with risk-taking and reason with intuition. He was able to contemplate in giant scope as an artist would, while also taking into account the very specific concerns of an engineer.

“We as humans are designed to be well-rounded; we have two halves of the brain. We are not ignoring that right side of the brain, but we are certainly underserving that side of the brain. Says Lance eagled an art teacher at Churchill whose budget was recently cut. According to psychology, you have two parts of your brain. Some people have stronger sides than other for instance, if you are more left brained you have more analytical thinking, you think logically , are good at language in addition to math and science . If you have a stronger right, you are very imaginative; you are good at understanding something immediately, plus having creativity, in addition to Art and

People who are left brain tend to approach each problem with an analytical point of view. Right