Language Processing and Production Essay

This experiment investigated hemispheric specialisation and dominance with go throughs to phrase functions. It used a computer program to measure the amount of strike presses achieved by participants in a given time across quaternion different trials (1 with the odd(a) hand, no lecture, 2 with the odd hand whilst be asked questions, and the same two trials again with the right hand hand). The participants were 2nd year psychological science students from which a cohort of 20 was selected for data analysis. A significant unlikeness was found for the effect of cerebral cerebral hemisphere and expression processing task put forward or absent.However, the means for each trial did not support left wing hemispheric dominance for spoken communication functions more give away presses were put down when talk and using the right hand than when talk and using the left. Handedness and many involvement of the right hemisphere in language processing and performance were like wise shown as appearing to influence the results obtained. The main conclusion to be drawn is that hemispheric specialisation and language dominance is a pendent that needs get along investigation in order to clarify the generalisability of conclusions do ab forbidden left hemisphere language specialisations.Our sensation consists of two halves the left hemisphere and the right hemisphere. The left hemisphere receives information from and controls muscles in the right status of the body, whilst the right hemisphere receives information from and controls muscles in the left side of the body. Research using brain imagery and studies of brain tolld and disperse brain patients, to name just a few practice sessions, has shown that some of our functions ar controlled more by one hemisphere than the other, i.e. are more specialised for that particular function.This experiment aims to investigate these differing specialisations of the hemispheres more deeply and with particular reg ard to language. Research into language differences between the two hemispheres is widespread and supports the view that the left hemisphere is the more dominant. Marc Dax was the first to notice hemispheric differences in his brain ill-treatd patients, after having seen many patients suffering from loss of address.Dax found what appeared to be an association between the loss of speech and the side of the brain where the damage occurred. In more than 40 patients with aphasia, Dax noticed damage to the left hemisphere he was unable to find a plate that involved damage to the right hemisphere alone (Springer and Deutsch, 1998, p. 1-2). By 1870 further differentiate also began to surface, when other investigators began to realise that many types of language disorders could result from damage to the left hemisphere (Springer & Deutsch, 1998, p. 1).For example, Brocas and Wernickes aphasia Brocas aphasia causes speech problems associated with comprehension, resulting from damage to B rocas area (situated in the left frontal cortex), whilst Wernickes aphasia causes word salad (hard to understand, undercover speech), resulting from damage to Wernickes area (situated in the left temporal lobe). afterward search has also supported Daxs original findings, one example of such research concluded that the left hemisphere is responsible for language in almost all right-handed individuals (Butler, S. R. 1997, p. 187).This research also links the additional factor of handedness to investigations of hemispheric lateralisation, an idea which has been supported by others in the field. For example In right handers , it is almost always the case that the hemisphere that controls the dominant hand is also the hemisphere that controls speech (Springer and Deutsch, 1998, p. 2), hence it is thinkable that for left handers, as their dominant hand is being controlled by the right hemisphere, the right hemisphere may be responsible for speech control and other language function s instead of the left hemisphere.Additional research looking at right hemisphere lesions has demonstrate that the right hemisphere is responsible for some linguistical functions finding that patients with such lesions may be impair relative to normal controls on certain tests of language (Corballis, C. M. 1983, p. 33). One speculate by Lesser (1974) reported such an impairment on a semantic test involving comprehension of spoken words however not on a phonological or syntactic test (Corballis, C. M. 1983, p. 33), suggesting a small role for the right hemisphere in language processing.Kinsbourne and McMurray carried out valuable research using healthy participants, using a mathematical process similar to the current study (cited in Kalat, 2004, pg. 427). They asked participants to tap with a pencil on a piece of paper as many multiplication as they could in one minute, first with their right hand past with their left, indeed asked them to do the same again whilst talking, they found that for most right-handers, talking decreases the tapping rate with the right hand more than with the left hand. This further supports left hemispheric dominance for language, as well as documentation the current studys methodology and informing its surmise.As has been demonstrated most research supports left hemispheric dominance of language functions, but also links hemispheric specialisation with other factors and accepts that the right hemisphere holds some language comprehension control. This experiment looks for further supportive evidence and also briefly looks at handedness as a possible affecting factor. The study uses a finger tapping and language processing task, with the arbitrariness that the speed at which keys are pressed lead be relatively similar with both hands.If however, if it is the case that language is more associated with the left hemisphere, therefore on average when processing language, the speed of the right hand will be slower than the left hand, presumably because the left hemisphere then has to do two tasks at once (right hand finger tapping and language processing). This is only the case however if all participants in the experiment start out left hemisphere dominance for language, and is thus the reason we have recorded the handedness of our participants.As a result of previous studies and research the hypothesis for this experiment is there will be differences in the number of taps made from each of the two hands when language is or isnt being processed. Method Design The experiment used a richly repeated measures within-subjects design all participants took part in all conditions. thither was one independent variable, consisting of four different levels left hand, talking, no talking and right hand talking, no talking. The dependent variable was the number of key presses made within the time limit of 30 seconds per trial.