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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 we cannot choose?

2. What can insects do that human beings cannot do?

3. What does the amygdala regulate?

4. What does Eagleman say the majority of criminals are?

5. What was winning the battle for control of Whitman's behavior in Eagleman's analogy?

Short Essay Questions

1. What incident does Eagleman discuss concerning Mel Gibson?

2. What does a team of rivals have to do with the brain?

3. What does Chapter 4 explore?

4. How does Eagleman see many of the small sub-routines of the mind and what example does he give?

5. Explain the physical division in the brain and what can happen if the two hemispheres are severed.

6. How does Eagleman use an example of early robotics to illustrate how the mind may be divided?

7. Who is Charles Whitman and what did he do and what may have contributed to his actions?

8. What does Eagleman say is hard wired into our brains?

9. What example does Eagleman cite to demonstrate the difference between the rational and emotional mind?

10. How does Eagleman compare the conscious mind to our senses?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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.

Essay Topic 2

While there are many competing aspects of the brain Eagleman argues, he focuses on two which he labels the "rational" and "emotional." The rational mind is focused on analyzing the outside world while the emotional mind looks inward. He presents the results of an experiment that pits these two rivals against one another. Subjects are presented with a fictional situation where allowing one person to die would save the lives of five others. In one version of the situation, the person would have to pull a lever to move a runaway train onto a track where it would kill one person but miss killing five. In this version, most people agree they would pull the lever, as the loss of one life is preferable to the loss of five. In another version, however, the situation is presented so that the person would actually have to push one person from an overhanging bridge to stop the train that would otherwise kill five people. Subjects found this version more difficult. The experimenters concluded that the emotional aspect of actually touching a person and pushing them to their deaths overrode the rational computation that it was better to lose one life than five lives.

1. Which mind do you think is more reliable, the rational or the emotional? Why? Use examples from your own life and Incognito to support your answer.

2. Discuss a situation where you made a decision with your emotions rather than your logic. Use examples from your own life and Incognito to support your answer.

3. Do you think you would have the same problem with pushing a person off a bridge as the people in this experiment? Why or why not? Use examples from your own life and Incognito to support your answer.

Essay Topic 3

Often, authors will write about "what they know," and sometimes knowing a little about the author makes the books more interesting. Discuss the following:

1. Research and give a brief biographical sketch of Eagleman.

2. What in Eagleman's background may have helped him in writing Incognito? What may have influenced the way he depicts various characters and scenes?

3. Do you think there is always some of the author's own life in his/her books? Why or why not? Give examples.

(see the answer keys)

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