Sign Language Observation Report

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The human brain is divided into two hemispheres; the left, which is dominant for language related functions, and the right, which is dominant for non-language usage. Dominance simply refers to one side of the brain playing the major role in a specific cognitive function. The currently accepted theory states that the dominance displayed by either hemisphere of the brain is not affected by modality, which deals with the type of input, such as auditory or visual stimuli. The results from Observation 1 support this theory. Morse code is type of system that is used for communication. It utilizes dots and dashes to represent different letters of the alphabet in a message. In a study, it was shown that people who were unfamiliar with Morse code processed…show more content…
Since sign language is associated with language, it is assumed that the brain uses the left hemisphere to process it. The results in Observation 2 support this notion. One aspect of sign language is using space for syntax. This simply means that a signer uses space (such as above his head to the right) to represent a subject such a person that can easily be referred back to by pointing to the assigned area. Studies have shown that signers with damage to the left hemisphere (language region) struggle to use space for syntax. This would be expected, since using space for syntax is a smaller part of sign language, which as a whole, is a form of language. These signers do not struggle to map the location of objects in a room using sign. Additionally, the studies have shown that signers with damage to their right hemisphere (non-language region) do not struggle with using space for syntax, although they do struggle to map the location of objects using sign. This result is reasonable, since mapping the location of objects does not concern itself with language, even though the locations are being sent through linguistic communication (signing). It is evident that spatial functions are not associated with a particular hemisphere, moreover, the type of spatial activity (language or non-language) determines which hemisphere is being…show more content…
In Observation 1, Morse code will be processed as language (left hemisphere) regardless of which modality it is transmitted through (telegraph, which is auditory, or blinks of a lamp, which is visual). Observation 2 promotes the idea sign language, which is visual (hand signals) is processed as language (left) just like auditory language (words spoken through the mouth and heard through the ears). The observations also imply that the brain organizes both spatial and auditory information in concavity with language. In Observation 2, the spatial task presented was compromised when the language region of the brain (left) was injured only if the task was associated with language (using space for syntax). The non-language spatial task (mapping location) was only compromised when the non-language region (right) was damaged. In Observation 1, the auditory information (dots and dashes) was processed using the language region (left) only if the person perceiving the output identified the dots and dashes as part of a language (Morse code). If the participant did not associate the output with any sort of language function, then the right hemisphere of the brain was

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