Spoken versus Written Language
Written and spoken language can exist separately in the brain, a new study from Johns Hopkins shows.
"Actually, seeing people say one thing and -- at the same time -- write another is startling and surprising," Johns Hopkins cognitive science professor Brenda Rapp told the website Futurity. "We don’t expect that we would produce different words in speech and writing. It’s as though there were two quasi-independent language systems in the brain."
Futurity, a nonprofit website that shares university research, explains, "While writing evolved from speaking, the two brain systems are now so independent that someone who can’t speak a grammatically correct sentence aloud may be able write it flawlessly."
The study, titled "Modality and Morphology: What We Write May Not Be What We Say," was published in the journal Psychological Science. HERE
Spoken languages are stored/encoded on the left side of the brain, whereas writing is controlled by the right side of the brain. For a more in-depth discussion of V.J. and the lateralization of speaking/writing, read a highly recommended 1996 article published in the New York Times, “Workings of Split Brain Challenge Notions of How Language Evolved”, written by Sandra Blakeslee.
Left Brain Vs Right Brain
The human brain is made up of two halves. These halves are commonly called the right brain and left brain, but should more correctly be termed ‘hemispheres’. For some reason, our right and left hemispheres control the ‘opposite’ side of our bodies, so the right hemisphere controls our left side and processes what we see in our left eye while the left hemisphere controls the right side and processes what our right eye sees.
The concept of right brain and left brain thinking developed from the research in the late 1960s of an American psychobiologist Roger W Sperry. He discovered that the human brain has two very different ways of thinking. One (the right brain) is visual and processes information in an intuitive and simultaneous way, looking first at the whole picture then the details. The other (the left brain) is verbal and processes information in an analytical and sequential way, looking first at the pieces then putting them together to get the whole. Sperry was awarded a Nobel Prize in 1981.
In general, the left and right hemispheres of our brain process information in different ways. While we have a natural tendency towards one way of thinking, the two sides of our brain work together in our everyday lives. The right brain of the brain focuses on the visual, and processes information in an intuitive and simultaneous way, looking first at the whole picture then the details. The focus of the left brain is verbal, processing information in an analytical and sequential way, looking first at the pieces then putting them together to get the whole.
Left brain thinking is verbal and analytical. Right brain is non-verbal and intuitive, using pictures rather than words. The best illustration of this is to listen to people give directions. The left brain person will say something like “From here, go west three blocks and turn north on Vine Street. Go three or four miles and then turn east onto Broad Street.” The right brain person will sound something like this: “Turn right (pointing right), by the church over there (pointing again). Then you will pass a McDonalds and a Walmart. At the next light, turn right toward the Esso station.”
Though right-brain or non-verbal thinking is often regarded as more ‘creative’, there is no right or wrong here; it is merely two different ways of thinking. One is not better than the other, just as being right-handed is not ‘superior’ to being left-handed. What is important is to be aware that there are different ways of thinking, and by knowing what your natural preference is, you can pay attention to your less dominant side to improve the same.
Source HERE
Learning Styles
Did you know there are four primary learning styles: visual, auditory, read-write, and kinesthetic. People learn using a variety of these methods, but one method is usually predominant.
Scientists and psychologists have developed a number of different models to understand the different ways that people learn best. One popular theory, the VARK model, identifies four primary types of learners: visual, auditory, reading/writing, and kinesthetic. Each learning type responds best to a different method of teaching. Auditory learners will remember information best after reciting it back to the presenter, while kinesthetic learners will jump at the chance to participate in a hands-on activity.
My memory isn't as good as it used to be prior to epilepsy and I forget how to spell simple words when writing. It doesn't matter that I've spelt the word correctly before, or that I do know it, something just stops the connection to grasp it again. ~ Other days, I can't get my words out correctly when trying to verbally explain something and mentally I reach for that word I was going to say, but evades me. It's frustrating as I flounder around to find the word and concept I wish to express but for some reason I can't think of how to translate my thoughts into spoken language at that particular time. This can happen in writing, too.
Disorganised information retreval/language, e.g. getting words mixed up, having a word on the 'tip of your tounge', seeing something and knowing that you KNOW what it is, but not being able to actually think of the name of the item/object at that time. Apparently, this very much depends on if you are left hemisphere dominate for language.
Because of these issues I tend to use many visuals as aids in my writing, such as pinterest boards for characters and places. It helps me snapshot the bigger picture and certain scenes. I've always been a very visual person but the after effects of epilepsy and now, hypothyroidism, I rely on this aid even more greatly. It has been interesting and educating reading the different reasons for 'I write better than I speak'. Coonclusion ~ Each person is unique and sees things/works in a different way. Many areas relate to the subjects mentioned above, but mingled with personnal experiences, we are more complex than textbooks/specialists/professionals can equate.
💜 Embrace your uniqueness. 💜
Awareness - Read more of Hypothyroidism HERE
Note:
Dostoyevsky, the 19th-century Russian novelist, who himself had epilepsy, gave vivid accounts of apparent temporal lobe seizures in his novel The Idiot (HERE)
The title is an ironic reference to the central character of the novel, Prince (Knyaz) Lyov Nikolaevich Myshkin, a young man whose goodness and open-hearted simplicity lead many of the more worldly characters he encounters to mistakenly assume that he lacks intelligence and insight. In the character of Prince Myshkin, Dostoevsky set himself the task of depicting "the positively good and beautiful man". The novel examines the consequences of placing such a unique individual at the centre of the conflicts, desires, passions and egoism of worldly society, both for the man himself and for those with whom he becomes involved. The result, according to philosopher A.C. Grayling, is "one of the most excoriating, compelling and remarkable books ever written; and without question one of the greatest."
Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky, sometimes transliterated Dostoevsky, was a novelist, short story writer, essayist, journalist and philosopher. More HERE
Love and light,
Trace
xoxo
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