Personal Development for Smart People Forums - View Single Post

Mike Estep · 05-17-2007, 12:23 AM

Brutha,

Actually, the rest of the quote you mention refers to ambidexterity specifically (I bolded text for emphasis)...

Quote

Kopiez et al. (2006) analyse the relationship between one form of musical ability (sight reading) and a continuous measure of laterality with a sample of 52 pianists. They find a significantly higher level of performance by non-right-handers. Importantly, they find evidence of a non-linear inverted “U” shaped relationship between the outcome of interest and a measure of laterality (see their Figure 4). Fitting a quadratic curve, they find that the peak corresponds to a value of laterality close to 0. In other words it is the ambidextrous that do best: there is a cognitive surplus at the point of “hemispheric indecision”.

End Quote

I also find it ironic that you are referring to a paper that specifically talks about brain lateralization and hemispheres in regards to hand dominance (left hand - right hemisphere, right hand - left hemisphere) when you don't agree with my views on brain hemispheres having specialized functions that at times are seperately used. Even the name of the paper refers to ambidexterity as hemispheric indecision...

"Cognitive Ability and Hemispheric Indecision: Two Surpluses and a Deficit"

I agree that a person can't conclude solely that if a genius has a certain tendency, that means the tendency is automatically generalized to the public. My thoughts on this matter are not based upon a sole thought. Instead they are based upon years of contemplation and study of anecdotal and empirical evidence.

You are also correct that my academic paper (based on my dissertation) doesn't mention functionality of brain hemispheres. I didn't find it necessary to mention this subject in relation to my study. However, that doesn't negate my theories on the matter or the existence of the concept. When writing a dissertation, it's important to be very narrow in focus or the work can easily become too large and scattered. I could have included several other subject areas related to my study and ended up with a work of over 1000 pages. Even staying narrowly focused, my original dissertation was over 240 pages long. The reason I mentioned and provided a link to my academic paper in the first place was for people who were interested in reading my research on mnemonic imagery since I referred to this area in the 3rd part of my right-brain training series.

My last post was speaking generally about questions related to genius (of which I do mention in my paper using the term virtuosos). Seperate from my paper, I also consider genius to possibly be related to both ambidexterity and brain hemisphere functions.

Mike

05-17-2007, 12:23 AM	#35 (permalink)
Mike Estep Member Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Duncan, OK Posts: 47	Brutha, Actually, the rest of the quote you mention refers to ambidexterity specifically (I bolded text for emphasis)... Quote Kopiez et al. (2006) analyse the relationship between one form of musical ability (sight reading) and a continuous measure of laterality with a sample of 52 pianists. They find a significantly higher level of performance by non-right-handers. Importantly, they find evidence of a non-linear inverted “U” shaped relationship between the outcome of interest and a measure of laterality (see their Figure 4). Fitting a quadratic curve, they find that the peak corresponds to a value of laterality close to 0. In other words it is the ambidextrous that do best: there is a cognitive surplus at the point of “hemispheric indecision”. End Quote I also find it ironic that you are referring to a paper that specifically talks about brain lateralization and hemispheres in regards to hand dominance (left hand - right hemisphere, right hand - left hemisphere) when you don't agree with my views on brain hemispheres having specialized functions that at times are seperately used. Even the name of the paper refers to ambidexterity as hemispheric indecision... "Cognitive Ability and Hemispheric Indecision: Two Surpluses and a Deficit" I agree that a person can't conclude solely that if a genius has a certain tendency, that means the tendency is automatically generalized to the public. My thoughts on this matter are not based upon a sole thought. Instead they are based upon years of contemplation and study of anecdotal and empirical evidence. You are also correct that my academic paper (based on my dissertation) doesn't mention functionality of brain hemispheres. I didn't find it necessary to mention this subject in relation to my study. However, that doesn't negate my theories on the matter or the existence of the concept. When writing a dissertation, it's important to be very narrow in focus or the work can easily become too large and scattered. I could have included several other subject areas related to my study and ended up with a work of over 1000 pages. Even staying narrowly focused, my original dissertation was over 240 pages long. The reason I mentioned and provided a link to my academic paper in the first place was for people who were interested in reading my research on mnemonic imagery since I referred to this area in the 3rd part of my right-brain training series. My last post was speaking generally about questions related to genius (of which I do mention in my paper using the term virtuosos). Seperate from my paper, I also consider genius to possibly be related to both ambidexterity and brain hemisphere functions. Mike Last edited by Mike Estep; 05-17-2007 at 02:12 PM.