Abstract:
This study assesses how individual seat preference in either a biology lecture or a movie theatre setting, and whether one sits on the left or right side, corresponds with brain laterality. The goal of this experiment is to determine why the individual chooses to sit where they do. It is predicted that the individual attending the biology lecture will sit on the right side, and the individual in a movie theatre will choose to sit on the left side. Seventeen Brock University Psychology seminar students participated in the experiment, by each filling out their seat preference in one of two locations. The means indicated that a significant number of participants choose to sit on the left paper-side of the movie theatre, and on the right paper-side of the biology lecture.
Research suggests that were an individual chooses to sit in different locations, has a correlation to how we learn and understand certain topics (Gur, 1975). Different qualities of information will be processed through either the left or right side of the brain. This depends on the nature of the information and where it can be best understood, this is called lateralization. The human brain behaves using functional and behavioral asymmetries. Functional asymmetries pertain to brain-side dominance when completing tasks, which is apparent in the example of handedness (OKUBO, 2010). Behavioral asymmetry is generally not noticed upon a movement and experiencing sensation. the nature of the information an individual learns is what determines the most effective side of the brain where it can be processed.
Literature review:
Individuals can be classified as 'right movers', 'left movers', or 'bidirectional'. Each of these concepts refers to the favored side that an individual moves their eyes, which activates the opposite side of the brain. This is called eye directionality (Gur, 1975). Eye directionality is the result of prominent activation of the dominant side of the brain laterally opposed to the direction the eyes move. An individual that is bidirectional moves their eyes across the right and left sides equally. Lateral factors are suggested to determine where an individual sit in a room. it is stated by (Gur, 1975). that when entering a room, an individual will situate themselves where they can best process information.
The Brian is separated into the left and right hemispheres, each specializes in the process of different types of information. The right hemisphere is activated by emotion, visual, and creative sensations. Preferred seating in a movie theatre would then be to the left (Weyers, Milnik, Mülller & Pauli, 2006). This is because visual information from a movie is relayed from the left visual field and processed in the right hemisphere of the brain. Examining video of subjects attending a film showed it signs of heightened blood pressure and reactions. This suggests these reactions were caused by the film entering through the right visual field (Weyers, Milnik, Mülller & Pauli, 2006). Subjects sitting in a biology lecture should then be able to orient themselves to the right side of the classroom. The information would be fed through the right visual field to be processed (Gur, 1975). Academic disciplines such as biology and other subjects are dominantly understood in the left hemisphere. Language, mathematics, and problem-solving are examples of left hemisphere information.
Lateral factors are also influenced by the concept of handedness (Gur, 1975. Experiments relating handedness to seating bias show a correlation. Overserving positively motivated 'right-handers in a movie confirmed that a positively motivated subject would place themselves to the right side of the theatre, to effectively understand the content (OKUBO, 2010). This bias was not exhibited in the 'non-right handers'. These results indicate that right-handers sit on the right side in order to transfer information to the left hemisphere to be processed (Harms, Reese & Elias, 2014).
Participants
The participants of this experiment were Brock University sociology students, within the same seminar group. The sample size of the experiment was 17 students.
Measures
The materials used to conduct this experiment included two sets of information sheets asking participants to mark down what seat they preferred in either a movie theater while watching a movie, or in a biology lecture. Each location had 100 seats to choose from, with an exception of the middle two seats in each row being off limits, to eliminate the bias middle seats would create. Each seat of a row had a number that was correlated to being a 'left mover' or a 'right mover'. The sample question corresponding to the movie theater was:
Imagine that you are attending a movie at a theatre. The diagram below represents the theatre which has 100 seats. The seats with x's are already taken. It is an inside room with artificial lighting. Assume that it is possible to see and hear perfectly from all parts of the room. Put a check on the seat that would prefer to sit in.
The alternate question involving the biology lecture was written in a very similar context, switching out a movie theatre with the lecture
Procedure
To begin the experiment each student was handed a piece of paper with the seating chart with a correlating location, of either a movie theatre or a biology lecture. The students were not told any additional information than to read the paper carefully and complete the instructions. Each student put an x on the seat they would prefer to sit in. each student was then asked to write down the scores for each person in each location grouping. The numbers in this sample size for the movie theatre was nine participants, and the number for the biology lecture was eight.
Results
The results for seat preference in the movie theatre resulted in a mean of 4.1. The results for the seat preference in the biology lecture resulted in a mean of 6.5. Looking at these results, it can be determined that on average an individual will choose a seat on the right paper side of the theatre, or in the 6th or 7th position. Data collected from the biology lecture resulted in a mean of 4.1, this means indicates the preference for an individual to sit on the left paper side of the lecture hall, or in the 4th position. The variance of the two-means calculated to -2.4. the outcome of the experiment had a negative correlation.
Discussion
The findings of our experiment did not support the hypothesis, that a right-side bias would be present when sitting in a movie theatre. Results of the experiment calculated out to a mean difference of -2.4. This qualifies as a significant difference and is a variability. This outcome disproves the theory and means that more people would sit on the right instead of the left. Compared to other studies, the hypothesis was disproven. subjects were indicated to have different preferences on seating due to 'hard' topics and 'soft' topics ( Gur, 1975). 'soft' topics are those recognized by the right hemisphere, and 'hard' topics being recognized by the left hemisphere. Our experiment revealed that a significant number of people would choose the right side of the theatre when enduring 'soft' topics. Contrary to other studies, our experiment also disproves that an individual is able to orient themselves in the appropriate position for processing ( Gur, 1975).
Studies also show that a right-side bias is linked with emotional stimulation (Weyers, Milnik, Mülller & Pauli, 2006). Therefore, seat choice to the right of the theatre would make sense to process the event of a film. Within our study an individual would not be able to process this information with great ability, due the mean reflecting a left side bias of 4.1.
All movies create an emotional influence by nature. The human brain generates behavioural asymmetries when we experience such stimuli (Harms, Reese & Elias, 2014). Studies finding that there is a lateral right-side bias, made it easier to process emotion. Since our experiment did not show this bias, there is a lack of behavioral asymmetry in the theatre when the sample group picked a theatre seat.
Shortcomings to the study resulted in a negative outcome and therefore did not support the hypothesis. There was not a large enough sample size to determine an accurate right or left side bias.
These findings could generate knowledge in the general public. By knowing the right- side advantage, people could use this information to better the way they learn and understand during class. When doing formal test and training in the work force it can be beneficial for employees to retain and understand as much knowledge as possible, this could affect public policy by benefiting work training.
This experiment was carried out with only 17 seminar students. Consequently, the low sample size of the group does not result in accurate data. Because of low numbers, outliers can be present within the data making it hard to have an accurate conclusion to the study. The study could have been presented to the wider general public and not strictly brock university psychology students, to give a wider sample. Having this wider sample of students would result in less outliers and more accurate numbers. Other suggestions for future researchers could be to include more locations, other than a biology lecture and a movie theatre. Because specific subject fields trigger certain parts of the brain, it could be beneficial to test this theory in other locations as well. It would be interesting to conduct future studies to determine how individuals that have experienced brain trauma, and if it can have an effect on brain lateralization, and where the best location of seating would be for certain topics.
Abstract:
This study assesses how individual seat preference in either a biology lecture or a movie theatre setting, and whether one sits on the left or right side, corresponds with brain laterality. The goal of this experiment is to determine why the individual chooses to sit where they do. It is predicted that the individual attending the biology lecture will sit on the right side, and the individual in a movie theatre will choose to sit on the left side. Seventeen Brock University Psychology seminar students participated in the experiment, by each filling out their seat preference in one of two locations. The means indicated that a significant number of participants choose to sit on the left paper-side of the movie theatre, and on the right paper-side of the biology lecture.
Research suggests that were an individual chooses to sit in different locations, has a correlation to how we learn and understand certain topics (Gur, 1975). Different qualities of information will be processed through either the left or right side of the brain. This depends on the nature of the information and where it can be best understood, this is called lateralization. The human brain behaves using functional and behavioral asymmetries. Functional asymmetries pertain to brain-side dominance when completing tasks, which is apparent in the example of handedness (OKUBO, 2010). Behavioral asymmetry is generally not noticed upon a movement and experiencing sensation. the nature of the information an individual learns is what determines the most effective side of the brain where it can be processed.
Literature review:
Individuals can be classified as 'right movers', 'left movers', or 'bidirectional'. Each of these concepts refers to the favored side that an individual moves their eyes, which activates the opposite side of the brain. This is called eye directionality (Gur, 1975). Eye directionality is the result of prominent activation of the dominant side of the brain laterally opposed to the direction the eyes move. An individual that is bidirectional moves their eyes across the right and left sides equally. Lateral factors are suggested to determine where an individual sit in a room. it is stated by (Gur, 1975). that when entering a room, an individual will situate themselves where they can best process information.
The Brian is separated into the left and right hemispheres, each specializes in the process of different types of information. The right hemisphere is activated by emotion, visual, and creative sensations. Preferred seating in a movie theatre would then be to the left (Weyers, Milnik, Mülller & Pauli, 2006). This is because visual information from a movie is relayed from the left visual field and processed in the right hemisphere of the brain. Examining video of subjects attending a film showed it signs of heightened blood pressure and reactions. This suggests these reactions were caused by the film entering through the right visual field (Weyers, Milnik, Mülller & Pauli, 2006). Subjects sitting in a biology lecture should then be able to orient themselves to the right side of the classroom. The information would be fed through the right visual field to be processed (Gur, 1975). Academic disciplines such as biology and other subjects are dominantly understood in the left hemisphere. Language, mathematics, and problem-solving are examples of left hemisphere information.
Lateral factors are also influenced by the concept of handedness (Gur, 1975. Experiments relating handedness to seating bias show a correlation. Overserving positively motivated 'right-handers in a movie confirmed that a positively motivated subject would place themselves to the right side of the theatre, to effectively understand the content (OKUBO, 2010). This bias was not exhibited in the 'non-right handers'. These results indicate that right-handers sit on the right side in order to transfer information to the left hemisphere to be processed (Harms, Reese & Elias, 2014).
Participants
The participants of this experiment were Brock University sociology students, within the same seminar group. The sample size of the experiment was 17 students.
Measures
The materials used to conduct this experiment included two sets of information sheets asking participants to mark down what seat they preferred in either a movie theater while watching a movie, or in a biology lecture. Each location had 100 seats to choose from, with an exception of the middle two seats in each row being off limits, to eliminate the bias middle seats would create. Each seat of a row had a number that was correlated to being a 'left mover' or a 'right mover'. The sample question corresponding to the movie theater was:
Imagine that you are attending a movie at a theatre. The diagram below represents the theatre which has 100 seats. The seats with x's are already taken. It is an inside room with artificial lighting. Assume that it is possible to see and hear perfectly from all parts of the room. Put a check on the seat that would prefer to sit in.
The alternate question involving the biology lecture was written in a very similar context, switching out a movie theatre with the lecture
Procedure
To begin the experiment each student was handed a piece of paper with the seating chart with a correlating location, of either a movie theatre or a biology lecture. The students were not told any additional information than to read the paper carefully and complete the instructions. Each student put an x on the seat they would prefer to sit in. each student was then asked to write down the scores for each person in each location grouping. The numbers in this sample size for the movie theatre was nine participants, and the number for the biology lecture was eight.
Results
The results for seat preference in the movie theatre resulted in a mean of 4.1. The results for the seat preference in the biology lecture resulted in a mean of 6.5. Looking at these results, it can be determined that on average an individual will choose a seat on the right paper side of the theatre, or in the 6th or 7th position. Data collected from the biology lecture resulted in a mean of 4.1, this means indicates the preference for an individual to sit on the left paper side of the lecture hall, or in the 4th position. The variance of the two-means calculated to -2.4. the outcome of the experiment had a negative correlation.
Discussion
The findings of our experiment did not support the hypothesis, that a right-side bias would be present when sitting in a movie theatre. Results of the experiment calculated out to a mean difference of -2.4. This qualifies as a significant difference and is a variability. This outcome disproves the theory and means that more people would sit on the right instead of the left. Compared to other studies, the hypothesis was disproven. subjects were indicated to have different preferences on seating due to 'hard' topics and 'soft' topics ( Gur, 1975). 'soft' topics are those recognized by the right hemisphere, and 'hard' topics being recognized by the left hemisphere. Our experiment revealed that a significant number of people would choose the right side of the theatre when enduring 'soft' topics. Contrary to other studies, our experiment also disproves that an individual is able to orient themselves in the appropriate position for processing ( Gur, 1975).
Studies also show that a right-side bias is linked with emotional stimulation (Weyers, Milnik, Mülller & Pauli, 2006). Therefore, seat choice to the right of the theatre would make sense to process the event of a film. Within our study an individual would not be able to process this information with great ability, due the mean reflecting a left side bias of 4.1.
All movies create an emotional influence by nature. The human brain generates behavioural asymmetries when we experience such stimuli (Harms, Reese & Elias, 2014). Studies finding that there is a lateral right-side bias, made it easier to process emotion. Since our experiment did not show this bias, there is a lack of behavioral asymmetry in the theatre when the sample group picked a theatre seat.
Shortcomings to the study resulted in a negative outcome and therefore did not support the hypothesis. There was not a large enough sample size to determine an accurate right or left side bias.
These findings could generate knowledge in the general public. By knowing the right- side advantage, people could use this information to better the way they learn and understand during class. When doing formal test and training in the work force it can be beneficial for employees to retain and understand as much knowledge as possible, this could affect public policy by benefiting work training.
This experiment was carried out with only 17 seminar students. Consequently, the low sample size of the group does not result in accurate data. Because of low numbers, outliers can be present within the data making it hard to have an accurate conclusion to the study. The study could have been presented to the wider general public and not strictly brock university psychology students, to give a wider sample. Having this wider sample of students would result in less outliers and more accurate numbers. Other suggestions for future researchers could be to include more locations, other than a biology lecture and a movie theatre. Because specific subject fields trigger certain parts of the brain, it could be beneficial to test this theory in other locations as well. It would be interesting to conduct future studies to determine how individuals that have experienced brain trauma, and if it can have an effect on brain lateralization, and where the best location of seating would be for certain topics.