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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 does Eagleman say seeing is?

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

3. What are two examples of optical illusions?

4. What does Eagleman say has happened to complicated processes in his analogy of consciousness?

5. How many connections does a typical neuron make to neighboring neurons?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Eagleman say about how vision works?

2. Why does Eagleman say it is not correct to change lanes by turning the wheel right and then straightening it out?

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

4. What does Eagleman say scientists continually study, and what is the result?

5. What ways can our vision be fooled?

6. What does Eagleman say about the auditory sense?

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

8. What does Eagleman say Sigmund Freud understood?

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

10. What happens to a blind person who recovers his/her sight?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

There are ways to measure how our unconscious minds affect our conscious thinking even without our knowing it, Eagleman explains. For example, a person may consciously profess to have no prejudicial feelings about people of a certain race, but experiments that ask them to associate certain words such as "like" or "dislike" with photographs or words describing different races or creeds can reveal that they may move slightly toward the "dislike" option before choosing "like". This reveals a conflict between the unconscious and unconscious minds, Eagleman claims.

1. Do you think you could have unconscious feelings, such as prejudice, of which you are unaware? Why or why not? Use examples from your own life and Incognito to support your answer.

2. Discuss what conflicts might rise between the unconscious and conscious mind when you decide not to study for a test. Use examples from your own life and Incognito to support your answer.

3. Do you think the unconscious mind always makes the best decisions over the conscious mind? Why or why not? Use examples from your own life and Incognito to support your answer.

Essay Topic 2

Our conscious minds represent only a small part of the activity of our brains. As evidence, Eagleman refers to the common experience of reacting to something before a person is fully aware of what is happening, such as when a car backs out in front of a driver and the driver has already stepped on the brakes before he fully "sees" the other car. Major league baseball players are able to hit 100-mph fastballs even though they must begin their swing before their brains have had time to visually process the image of the approaching ball.

1. Discuss an incident in your life in which you reacted to a situation before you fully realized what the situation was and relate this to Eagleman's ideas of the unconscious reacting. Use examples from your own life and Incognito to support your answer.

2. Do you think Eagleman is correct that our conscious minds only represent a small part of the activity of our brains? Why or why not? Use examples from your own life and Incognito to support your answer.

3. Discuss the ways in which Eagleman's assertion about the unconscious has changed the way you view your behavior. Use examples from your own life and Incognito to support your answer.

Essay Topic 3

Wilson has cited a number of people in this book. Discuss he following:

1. Choose three people whom Eagleman mentions positively and give a brief idea of his opinions about those three people (or stereotypes). Use examples from Incognito to support your answer.

2. Choose three people whom Eagleman mentions negatively and give a brief idea of his opinions about those three people (or stereotypes). Use examples from Incognito to support your answer.

3. Judging what Eagleman says about different people in his text, how would you characterize him as a friend? As a colleague? Use examples from Incognito to support your answer.

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