View a FREE sample

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

Short Answer Questions

1. What question has been addressed by philosophers for ages?

2. What does Chapter 4 explore?

3. What did the actor do after the incident?

4. What was one routine in charge of?

5. To what do human beings seem to be predisposed without prior learning?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Chapter 4 explore?

2. Explain the study that was performed on how men rate a woman's attractiveness.

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

4. What does Eagleman have readers consider about Whitman?

5. How does Eagleman interpret the incident?

6. What does Eagleman suggest about our culpability in our actions, particularly males?

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

8. To what part of the body are newborns drawn and what does this imply about human beings' predisposition?

9. What does Eagleman say about the abilities of a bloodhound?

10. What does Eagleman say about a man named Alex?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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 2

Eagleman dismisses the assumption that all people are equally equipped to make sound and rational decisions. We are all at the mercy of the unconscious workings of our minds, and our ultimate behavior is a result of the biological balance within our brain. As an example, he points out that the overwhelming number of criminals are male. This suggests that there is a genetic component to the balance among the various rival parts of the brain.

1. Do you think that all people are equally equipped to make sound and rational decisions? Why or why not? Use examples from your own life and Incognito to support your answer.

2. Do you believe you are at the mercy of your unconscious mind? Why or why not? Use examples from your own life and Incognito to support your answer.

3. What kinds of balance between emotional and rational thoughts and feelings do you encounter in your life? Does the rational or emotional part of your brain have more sway over you? Why? Use examples from your own life and Incognito to support your answer.

Essay Topic 3

Our intuition tells us that we experience the world as it actually exists, Eagleman explains in chapter two. But we are actually unaware of most of what is happening. We can move an arm and be aware that it has moved, but we are unconscious of the flurry of neural impulses that caused the arm to move. Eagleman proposes an analogy that consciousness is like a newspaper, where complicated processes have been compressed into headlines. We read these "headlines" with our conscious minds while remaining unaware of the full "story."

1. Why do you think our intuition tells us the world we experience actually exists? Use examples from your own life and Incognito to support your answer.

2. Thinking back to yesterday, discuss ideas, actions or thoughts of which you may not have been aware. Use examples from your own life and Incognito to support your answer.

3. Do you think humans need to be more aware of the "behind the scenes" of any behavior or action? Why or why not? Use examples from your own life and Incognito to support your answer.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,415 words (approx. 5 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample