Deck 7: Can the Mind Leave the Body the Mindbrain Problem

Question 1

This chapter uses the example of imagining a purple strawberry with yellow spots to show how the mind:

A) is prone to many errors that contradict physical reality.
B) experiences hallucinations that could easily account for lucid dreaming.
C) is susceptible to imaginings that do not promote rational questions.
D) can subjectively experience things that do not physically exist.

Answer 1

can subjectively experience things that do not physically exist.

Question 2

In his book, Yale psychologist Paul Bloom reviewed many scientific studies showing that people seem to be natural dualists. If a person takes what Bloom said as support for the claim that people are generally mind-body dualists, which kind of evidence is that person using?

A) Experimental research
B) Scientific authority
C) Case studies
D) Commonsense belief

Answer 2

Scientific authority

Question 3

Many mind-body dualists believe that the mind is not physical, and conclude that the mind can leave the body in an out-of-body experience (OBE). According to the text, what is the MOST fundamental problem that dualists have not yet resolved in drawing this conclusion?

A) How lucid dreams occur in a person
B) Why some people seem to enjoy having an OBE
C) Why OBEs occur in as many as 25% of college students
D) How the physical brain seems to produce an OBE

Answer 3

How the physical brain seems to produce an OBE

Question 4

Sometimes, lawyers offer the "his brain made him do it" defense of someone who committed a serious crime as a strategy to lessen disapproval of the defendant's actions. The problem with this defense is that it assumes that:

A) the brain controls all of behavior but that the mind can control the brain's influence on a person's actions.
B) a person can be responsible for all of the events in the physical world that impinge on the operation of the brain, but the mind cannot be.
C) the mind controls a person's actions and does not fully take into account the role of brain processes in behavior.
D) the mind and brain are separate entities, with the mind having no control over physical events even in the brain.

Question 5

Overgaard and his colleagues (2004) used transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) by placing a magnetic wand over an area of the skull corresponding to an area of the visual cortex. This disrupted activation in that area and caused participants to temporarily lose awareness of a visual stimulus. An advantage of TMS over other methods is that it allows researchers to:

A) monitor brain activity in a specific area of the brain.
B) control other influences (extraneous variables) that could affect brain activity.
C) experimentally manipulate the brain from outside of the skull.
D) examine multiple variables in the living brain at the same time.

Question 6

S. R. Wilmot and his cabin mate saw Wilmot's wife on board their ship when she had remained on land. Later Mrs. Wilmot asked if they had seen her on the ship. This incident is evidence supporting the claim that Mrs. Wilmot had left her body and "traveled" to the ship. As evidence, it is most susceptible to which limitation?

A) Commonsense belief depends on what Wilmot knew about OBEs.
B) Mrs. Wilmot may not have been an expert on OBEs.
C) The event described is unique and unrepeatable.
D) Just because many people may believe in this claim, that does not make it true.

Question 7

The influential French philosopher Rene Descartes famously said, "I think, therefore I am," revealing that he:

A) could doubt the existence of the mind, but not the body or brain having the experience of doubting.
B) could doubt the existence of the physical world, but not the existence of the mind doing the doubting.
C) believed the world did not exist except in his mind, and therefore could not be studied scientifically.
D) was a materialist or physicalist who distrusted all sensory experience.

Question 8

In anthropological studies, Shiels (1978) and Frazier (1996) documented many people in many cultures who believe in and who have experienced the mind or spirit separating from the body. Likewise, many studies of college students show that they hold this belief. Which kind of evidence is this, and how good or poor is it?

A) Statements of authority, which provide fairly weak support.
B) Commonsense belief, which provides fairly weak support.
C) Commonsense belief, which provides fairly strong support because such a large number of people from different cultures believe it.
D) Anecdotes involving people, which may be unique and unrepeatable.

Question 9

Suppose a person was having an out-of-body experience (OBE) while present in a laboratory and the researcher wanted to find out which specific area of the brain was active during this OBE episode. Which technique for studying brain function would work BEST to isolate the specific area involved?

A) Transcranial magnetic stimulation
B) Electrostimulation of the brain
C) Electroencephalography
D) Functional magnetic resonance imaging

Question 10

How phantom limb occurs and how people are able to imagine something that does not physically exist raises an issue related to the:

A) rationalist-empiricist debate.
B) mind-body problem.
C) problem of free will.
D) nature versus nurture question.

Question 11

In terms of their philosophical position on the mind-body problem, people who believe in ghosts and reincarnation are likely to be:

A) mind-body dualists.
B) materialists or physicalists.
C) reductionists.
D) idealists.

Question 12

In 1997, members of the Heaven's Gate cult committed suicide so that their spirits could rendezvous with alien beings in a different dimension. This suggests a committed belief in:

A) functionalism.
B) mind-body identity.
C) mind-body dualism.
D) physicalism.

Question 13

Mr. S. R. Wilmot reported that he and his roommate saw Wilmot's wife on board their ship when she had remained on land. Later Mrs. Wilmot asked if they had seen her on the ship. If someone cites this incident as an example that supports the claim that Mrs. Wilmot had left her body and "traveled" to the ship, then the evidence used is a(n):

A) anecdote.
B) statement of authority.
C) commonsense belief.
D) case study.

Question 14

Suppose someone claims that the mind or spirit can actually leave the body and states that it must be true because so many people from different cultures believe it. Which is the BEST analysis of these statements?

A) Anecdotes of experience simply tell about other people and make a weak argument.
B) Statements of authority cite the beliefs of many other people, but the people may have no special knowledge of the out-of-body experience.
C) Testimonials or opinions of many people do not make a basic argument.
D) Commonsense belief supports the claim, but this consensus of opinion may be wrong.

Question 15

The history of the development of better techniques for identifying the specific brain areas associated with mental abilities and behaviors has been concerned with:

A) localization of function.
B) finding ways to help people recover from brain damage.
C) studying the contribution of the firing of neurons.
D) neural adaptation.

Question 16

Stephanie has decided that all consciousness states correspond directly with brain states, and that someday scientists will identify the brain states that produce conscious experiences. Which label MOST specifically describes her philosophical position?

A) Subjectivism
B) Reductionism
C) Interactionism
D) Monism

Question 17

Believing that one's mind or spirit can hover over and observe one's own dying body from above it in a near-death experience implies endorsement of:

A) reductive materialism.
B) physicalism.
C) reductionism.
D) mind-body dualism.

Question 18

To claim that the out-of-body experience is astral projection is to describe it in _____ terms.

A) scientific
B) pseudoscientific
C) paranormal
D) natural

Question 19

Compared to the general public, cognitive psychologists and neuroscientists people are more likely to be:

A) mind-body dualists.
B) materialists or physicalists.
C) idealists or subjectivists.
D) idealists.

Question 20

Surgeon Wilder Penfield systematically applied tiny currents to the brains of conscious patients with epilepsy to determine which areas of the brain responded normally and which were damaged. Penfield used the technique of _____ to map the specific functions of the somatosensory cortex.

A) transcranial magnetic stimulation
B) electrostimulation of the brain
C) electroencephalography
D) functional magnetic resonance imaging

Question 21

Which is the MOST appropriate way to view the out-of-body experience (OBE) as a scientific question?

A) OBE is an actual phenomenon to be explained by science in natural terms.
B) OBE is not a real experience and so does not need scientific explanation.
C) People who have an OBE probably have some sort of psychological problem.
D) Very little scientific progress has been made on the scientific study of OBE.

Question 22

In response to the out-of-body-experience (OBE) study conducted by Tart (1968), which rebuttal was offered for the claim that Miss Z's mind had left her body to view the numbers hidden out of sight from her?

A) Miss Z was not known to be capable of having an OBE prior to the study.
B) Tart said that Miss Z was not observed to have moved during the test.
C) Disturbances in the EEG recordings suggested Miss Z might have moved.
D) Miss Z was known to have exaggerated how many times she had actually had an OBE.

Question 23

In relationship to out-of-body experiences (OBEs), electrostimulation of the brain can:

A) actually produce the temporary departure of the mind from the brain.
B) induce a lucid dream in which the mind leaves the body after the brain has been stimulated with a micro-current.
C) produce an OBE, so it contributes to a natural explanation of OBE in terms of a physical event.
D) induce an OBE in which the mind leaves the body after the brain has been stimulated with a micro-current immediately before the person falls asleep.

Question 24

Some scientists who have conducted research on people adept at having out-of-body experiences (OBEs) have occasionally shown that their subjects can identify objects out of ordinary sight when the subject has not moved. These scientists may make an argument that the mind actually leaves the body during OBEs. What is the MOST important question these scientists have not answered?

A) Why are people who have OBEs also more likely to have lucid dreams?
B) Why can people report they have had an OBE after trying to have one?
C) Why do OBEs occur in as many as 25% of college students?
D) Why does the brain appear to be involved in the production of OBEs?

Question 25

A limitation of the studies by Blanke and his colleagues who electrostimulated the brains of individuals undergoing surgery to produce out-of-body experiences is that:

A) the findings might not generalize to people with healthy brains since the subjects had epilepsy or other problems.
B) the stimulation did not reliably induce the changes in body perception, with many failures being seen in attempts to replicate the effect.
C) surgeons were doing the stimulation, rather than trained experimental psychologists.
D) the studies used participant observers and naturalistic observation, so the results may not generalize to the population.

Question 26

According to research by Blanke and colleagues (2002), stimulating the temporal parietal junction with small amounts of electricity is likely to produce a(n):

A) lucid dream.
B) waking dream.
C) out-of-body experience.
D) trance state of consciousness.

Question 27

People who have out-of-body experiences tend to have more:

A) flashbacks.
B) lucid dreams.
C) déjà vu experiences.
D) personal problems.

Question 28

Case studies by Ramachandran on patients with phantom limb sensations suggest that the:

A) brain shows little plasticity.
B) brain has a representation of parts of the body that can be activated when a limb is amputated.
C) nerve endings from the missing limb continue to send pain signals to the brain so the amputee feels the missing limb.
D) experience of phantom limb provides good support for mind-body dualism.

Question 29

Which statement provides the BEST conclusion based on the evidence presented in this chapter's literature review about out-of-body experience (OBE)?

A) OBE is something people learn how to do under ordinary conditions, so most people probably will have this kind of experience during their lifetime.
B) As the OBE clearly shows, the mind and the body are two separate entities although they appear to be connected during life.
C) OBE probably occurs as the result of brain damage, even if that damage is subtle and a person is not aware of it.
D) OBE is an illusory experience likely produced when the brain fails to correctly integrate information about the body's position.

Question 30

Which finding provides the strongest evidence in support of the conclusion that the mind does not actually leave the body in an out-of-body experience (OBE)?

A) S. R. Wilmot made an OBE report about the appearance of his wife on a ship when Mrs. Wilmot was in a physically distant location.
B) There are many occurrences of OBE-like phenomena in different cultures.
C) Out-of-body-like experiences in people can be experimentally induced and demonstrated.
D) An experienced OBE subject projected himself to a location and reported correctly at least part of a display during 58% of study trials (Osis & McCormick, 1980).

Question 31

According to Susan Blackmore's (1987) cognitive psychological theory of out-of- body experience (OBE), an OBE occurs when:

A) a person has a lucid dream or some other unusual experience.
B) the normal flow of sensory data is disrupted as the cognitive system constructs its usual model of experiencing the self as in the body.
C) geomagnetic activity from the earth's magnetic field creates the impression that a person is dissociated from his or her body.
D) a person who is susceptible to epilepsy has a micro-seizure that produces irregular activity in the angular gyrus of the brain.

Question 32

Suppose someone concluded that out-of-body experiences (OBEs) can be explained in natural terms, such as a sort of illusion or hallucination produced by the brain when the mental processes for constructing the experience of being "in the body" have been disrupted. This explanation of OBE in natural, psychological terms is MOST consistent with:

A) physicalism or materialism.
B) mind-body dualism.
C) subjectivism or idealism.
D) interactionism as proposed by Descartes.

Question 33

Case studies by Ramachandran of amputees who experience pain in missing limbs together with research on the mapping of the body onto the brain's somatosensory strip suggest that:

A) the brain shows little plasticity and cannot relearn to not feel the missing limb.
B) the brain can create a representation of parts of the body that may be activated when a limb is amputated.
C) nerve endings from the missing limb continue to send pain signals to the brain so the amputee feels the missing limb.
D) the experience of phantom limb sensations provides good support for mind-body dualism.

Question 34

Tart (1968) tested whether Miss Z, a subject who had many out-of-body experiences (OBEs), could accurately perceive things when outside of her body. The important limitation of this study as OBE evidence is MOST related to:

A) the very unnatural test conditions owing to the failure to use scientific equipment.
B) the quantity of evidence it provided.
C) the fact that Miss Z was able to leave her body only once, while being tested.
D) the predictability of the outcome as a true experiment design.

Question 35

According to the text, which statement is TRUE about near-death experiences?

A) They provide strong evidence that the mind/spirit can actually leave the body.
B) People often have out-of-body experiences as part of near-death experiences.
C) Near-death experiences almost always occur when people have religious experiences.
D) Near-death experiences often occur when people are completely healthy.

Question 36

The fact that some people experience pain in a missing limb after amputation is MOST consistent with:

A) brain-based explanations of OBE.
B) the view that the mind actually leaves the body.
C) the position taken by mind-body dualists.
D) the position taken by either dualists or physicalists.

Question 37

Ramachandran's work with amputees who experience phantom limb sensations is relevant to the study of out-of-body experiences (OBEs) because:

A) OBE occurs much more frequently in people with phantom limbs than in people with intact limbs.
B) OBEs and phantom limbs are both evidence that the brain shows great plasticity, leading to a variety of unusual experiences.
C) OBE may be likened to the brain producing the illusory experience of a missing part of the body as a representation of that part of the body.
D) OBEs and phantom limbs result from physically stressful experiences and permanent biochemical changes in the nervous system.

Question 38

Andrea concludes that out-of-body experiences (OBEs) are actual experiences of the mind leaving the body. Which assumption might call into question and even challenge Andrea's evaluation of the common experience of OBE that people report?

A) OBEs occur when people are in a special state of mind or under special conditions.
B) More people actually have OBEs than are willing to admit to having had such experiences.
C) Many people fall prey to naive realism when they mistake an illusion for an OBE.
D) Having an OBE may lead a person to become a mind-body dualist.

Question 39

The study by Blanke and his colleagues showing that people can be induced in the laboratory to experience something like an out-of-body experience provides the BEST support for the position that:

A) the mind experiences something like an illusion when it leaves the body.
B) the mind can actually leave the body due to chemical changes that are induced.
C) mental experience is not related to the functioning of the physical brain.
D) the brain shows great plasticity and can change its functioning after being damaged.

Question 40

Suppose the out-of-body experience (OBE) is explained as occurring when perception becomes destabilized and the brain's construction of its usual model of the mind as inside the body is disrupted. This is a _____ explanation of the OBE.

A) psychological
B) paranormal
C) developmental
D) philosophical

Question 41

Do ghosts actually exist? Use what you have learned about the scientific study of the out-of-body experience (OBE) to answer this question to the extent that that discussion is relevant.

Question 42

Javette read this chapter's literature review and decided that the bulk of the good scientific evidence, especially the research on the brain, led her to the conclusion that an out-of-the-body experience (OBE) results from the neural activity in the right precentral gyrus, producing the "illusion" that the mind has left the body. She further decided that this showed that all consciousness could be reduced to brain activity. Which thinking error did Javette commit?

A) Sweeping generalization
B) Confusing correlation with causation
C) Confirmation bias
D) Belief perseverance

Question 43

A critical analysis of the discussion about whether the mind actually leaves the body in an out-of-body experience shows that the bulk of high-quality scientific evidence does not support the claim that it leaves the body. Therefore, people who persist in believing the claim are:

A) endorsing a physicalist position.
B) committing a logical fallacy.
C) not really wrong because we are all entitled to our own opinion.
D) holding a psychological misconception.

Question 44

Does astral projection (the paranormal claim of soul travel) actually occur? Use what you have learned about the scientific study of out-of-body experiences (OBEs) to answer.

Question 45

The MOST appropriate conclusion based on the bulk of this chapter's high-quality evidence concerning the question of whether the mind actually leaves the body in an out-of-body experience (OBE) is:

A) the qualified conclusion that in certain circumstances the mind may leave the body.
B) the tentative conclusion that the mind does not actually leave the body.
C) the clear and certain conclusion that the mind does not actually leave the body.
D) the clear and certain conclusion that the mind can leave the body in an OBE.

Question 46

Out-of-body experiences (OBEs) may occur after stimulation of the brain, while in dream-like states, and in laboratory experiments. These facts are MOST consistent with the hypothesis that:

A) they occur as a result of the separation of the mind from the brain and body.
B) only certain people can experience OBEs under special conditions.
C) there is a natural-and not a paranormal-explanation for OBEs because so many people have had them under different conditions.
D) most people are prone to have OBEs, which is why 75% of college students have had them.