Feedback Week 6 Quiz: What is consciousness?

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You submitted this quiz on Tue 30 Dec 2014 12:42 AM PET. You got a score of 1.50
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Question 1
What is phenomenal consciousness?
Your Answer

Score

Explanation

Wakefulness.
The ability to discriminate between flavours, such as Coca Cola
or chocolate.
The subjective "feel" of something, such as the taste of Coca
Cola or chocolate.
Consciousness of wonderful or phenomenal experiences.
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Question 2
What is the hard problem of consciousness?
Your Answer
To explain how creatures like ourselves can respond intelligently
to stimuli in the environment.
To explain how creatures like ourselves can achieve what are
known as higher states of consciousness, such as those sometimes
experienced during meditation.
To explain how creatures like ourselves have phenomenal

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Explanation

consciousness.
To explain how creatures like ourselves require sleep.

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Question 3
What is phenomenology?
Your Answer

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Using brain imaging techniques, for example employing an fMRI

scanner, to assess which parts of the brain are responsible for
conscious experiences.
The claim that our phenomenal, introspective states cannot be
explained scientifically.
Using introspection to reflect on our conscious life, from a
subjective point of view.
The subjective feel of something such as the taste of chocolate
or mint.
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Question 4
Which of the following would be examples of reductive explanations? (Pick 3)
Your Answer
Explaining the properties of water by appealing to

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its underlying chemical structure.

Explaining how a persons conscious feelings
arise by appealing to their brain mechanisms.

Explanation

Explanation

Explaining why we fall asleep by appealing to the

tiring activities of the preceding day.

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Explaining the pressure and temperature of

gasses by appealing to laws and mechanisms
concerning the constituent molecules of the gas.

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Explaining why a window is broken by appealing

to a brick which has been thrown though it.

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This explanation is causal,

but not reductive.

Explaining why a washing machine broke by

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This explanation is causal,

appealing to the incompetence of the technician who

maintains it.
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This explanation is causal,

but not reductive.

but not reductive.

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Question 5
What is Frank Jacksons thought experiment involving the character Mary supposed to show?
Your Answer

Score

Learning everything there is to know about neuroscience is not

sufficient to understand the poetic connotations associated with the
rose.
Learning everything there is to know about neuroscience is
sufficient to know what it is like, subjectively, to experience colour.
Learning everything there is to know about neuroscience would
not be sufficient to know what it is like, subjectively, to experience
colour.
The unhealthy psychological effects of prolonged solitary
confinement.
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Explanation

Question 6
Which of the following questions have scientists researching consciousness recently been interested
in? (Pick two)
Your Answer
What neural activity is
responsible for the fact that we

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Explanation

0.25

This is the so-called hard problem of

consciousness, which most scientists currently

experience anything at all?

What neural activity
determines the particular state

consider outside the realm of empirical research.

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of consciousness that we are

in, i.e. awake, asleep, or in a
coma?
What neural activity is
responsible for our moral
decision making, i.e. our

This is not a subject studied by consciousness

science (conscience and consciousness are
not the same thing!).

conscience?
What neural activity

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determines the content of

consciousness, i.e. what we
experience?
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Question 7
What is the difference between wakefulness and awareness?
Your Answer
Wakefulness determines whether there is any activity going on in
our brain, and awareness determines whether or not we are aware
of that activity.
Wakefulness determines whether we are awake or asleep, whilst
awareness determines whether we experience anything or not.

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Explanation

There is no difference both terms refer to whether or not we

are conscious.
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Question 8
What are the three hallmarks of a bistable image? (Pick 3)
Your Answer
Two interpretations of a single image

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Explanation

0.17

This does not seem to be possible.

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Whilst this is possible, it is not a feature

are consciously perceived at once.

Different people see a different
interpretation of the same image.
Two or more possible conscious
interpretations.
The interpretation that dominates

of bistable images in particular.

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awareness tends to switch every few

seconds.
An image can be interpreted in two or
more different ways, but only one
interpretation can ever be seen.
Only one interpretation is consciously

If this were the case then we would only

think that there was one interpretation.

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perceived at any one time.

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Question 9
What are bistable images used for in consciousness science?
Your Answer

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Explanation

They are not used, as it might be distressing to experience a

bistable image that our minds cannot fully comprehend.
They are used in order to place subjects into a trance-like state.
Investigating a case where our perceptual experience changes
even though the stimulus evoking it does not.
Investigating a case where our perceptual experience stays the
same even though our environment is changing.
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Question 10
What is backward visual masking used for in consciousness science?
Your Answer

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Investigating whether consciousness can be used exert an

influence on events that have already occurred.
Investigating whether images that we are consciously aware of
can be suppressed by later experiences.
Investigating whether images that we are not consciously aware
of can influence our behaviour.
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Explanation