The right hemisphere recognizes and groups things by comparing them with an exemplar whereas the left recognizes things by categories
Both brain hemispheres are involved in recognition according to the grouping of experience. But how they do this in practice differs in vital respects which have a direct impact on the nature of the world that each brings into being. The right hemisphere has broad, global, and flexible attention, while the left has narrow attention. The right hemisphere’s version is more global and holistic, based on the recognition of similarity with an ideal exemplar, and on where this is positioned in the context of other examples. Our left hemisphere unconsciously focuses on only a select few of the sensory signals it receives that it considers important, and the left hemisphere sees things abstracted, isolated, and stripped of context. So the left hemisphere identifies single features that would place the object in a certain category in the abstract. As a result, where the left hemisphere utilizes abstract categories, the right hemisphere operates more effectively using specific exemplars. Functional imaging of the brain shows that the left hemisphere takes an invariant view in its representation of objects, where the right hemisphere uses stored ‘real world’ views in order to group experience.
References
- Mcgilchrist, Iain. (2010). The Master and His Emissary Chapter 2 What Do the Hemispheres Do (106). London, UK: Yale University Press.
Metadata
Type:🔴 Tags: Biology / Neuroscience / Neuropsychology Status:☀️