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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What would happen if the people actually performed this motion in reality?

2. What does Eagleman claim most people possess?

3. What does the amount of brain effort that vision uses indicate about vision?

4. What does Eagleman say about the ways to measure how our unconscious minds affect our conscious thinking?

5. What does Eagleman say about people who marry that is related to the idea of implicit egotism?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Eagleman say about how vision works?

2. Summarize the experiment Eagleman writes about concerning photographs of women and how men responded.

3. How is our brain wired for performing complicated tasks and why?

4. How is one's conscious mind limited and how does this make the mind more difficult to understand?

5. What has given greater insight into the workings of the mind since Freud's time?

6. What is another illustration of how one reacts to something before the person is even aware of the situation?

7. What is seeing and what is the most important aspect of seeing?

8. How does Mike May adjust to his regained sight?

9. Who is Mike May and what happens to him?

10. How can the brain see without eyes and what is one way this is possible?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Eagleman presents the example of an experiment where men were shown photographs of the faces of several women and asked to rate their attractiveness. Photographs where the women's eyes had been dilated were consistently ranked as more attractive. When asked why they had chosen some women as more attractive than others, the subjects did not mention the dilated eyes as a factor, yet they clearly were. Eagleman adds that dilated pupils in a woman indicate a state of sexual arousal, suggesting that the subjects who found these photos more attractive were acting on a natural impulse of their unconscious minds.

1. Do you think attraction is a conscious choice or and unconscious one? Why or why not? Use examples from your own life and Incognito to support your answer.

2. Discuss one situation in which you were attracted to something, e.g. a person, a food dish, a car, etc. but were not sure why you felt the way you did and relate it to Eagleman's idea of unconscious attraction. Use examples from your own life and Incognito to support your answer.

3. If Eagleman is correct about why men might be attracted to a woman, what do you think that might mean about most marriages? Use examples from your own life and Incognito to support your answer.

Essay Topic 2

Eagleman in writing about Mel Gibson cites anti-Semitism was demonstrated by Gibson. Discuss one of the following:

1. Define anti-Semitism and give examples of it from both Incognito and other sources.

2. Do you think anti-Semitism still exists in the United States? Explain.

3. Discuss the idea put forth by Eagleman that Mel Gibson may have two brains, one not prejudice and one that is. Use examples from Incognito to support your answer.

Essay Topic 3

What we like is also determined largely by unconscious thinking and a natural tendency to like ourselves, Eagleman claims. This is called "implicit egotism," and is a well-established phenomenon, he explains. It is illustrated by the fact, for example, that people marry others with first names that start with the same letter more often than would be expected by chance. Eagleman claims this is because we implicitly prefer others that are like ourselves in some way.

1. Discuss how you feel about yourself and whether you think your feelings stem from your unconscious. Use examples from your own life and Incognito to support your answer.

2. Do you think most people like themselves? Why or why not. Use examples from your own life and Incognito to support your answer.

3. Do you think it is a positive trait that a person likes him/herself? Why or why not? Use examples from your own life and Incognito to support your answer.

(see the answer keys)

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