Past Quiz Questions

Instructions: These are questions from past quizzes. Each question is designed to be answered independently. Your response should demonstrate:

Choose — identify a relevant concept from the topic area
Explain — describe clearly how the concept works
Connect — relate it to the broader framework
Extend — apply the concept to new ideas, implications, or questions

Question 1: Different Ways to Be Intelligent

Intelligence comes in many forms. Octopuses think with their arms. Birds are smart without mammal-style brains. Even slime molds can learn without neurons. Language models process text. Each solves problems differently.

Choose any organism or system from the course that demonstrates intelligence or learning. Explain what makes it interesting and describe what this example teaches us about the different ways minds can work. What does this example reveal about intelligence in general?

Source: Quiz 1 (Chapters 0 & 1 - What Is a Thought? / History of Minds)

Question 2: When Things Go Wrong, We Learn How They Work

Scientists learn about minds by studying unusual cases. Patient H.M. lost his memory after surgery. ELIZA fooled people despite being simple. The binding problem shows when perception breaks. Each revealed something important.

Select one example from the course where something unusual or broken helped scientists understand how minds normally work. Describe what was unusual about this case and explain what it revealed about normal brain function or intelligence.

Source: Quiz 1 (Chapters 0 & 1 - What Is a Thought? / History of Minds)

Question 3: Why Evolution Matters for Understanding Minds

Evolution shaped how brains work. Vision triggered the Cambrian explosion. Energy limits constrain brain size. FOXP2 mutations enabled language. Convergent evolution shows intelligence can evolve multiple ways.

Pick any evolutionary topic from the course that helps explain why brains or minds work the way they do. Explain the evolutionary story and describe why this matters for understanding how minds function today.

Source: Quiz 1 (Chapters 0 & 1 - What Is a Thought? / History of Minds)

Question 4: Draw and Label

Choose any concept from Chapters 2, 3, or 4 and create a labeled diagram. Use annotations to explain, connect, and extend your understanding. Your diagram should demonstrate how the concept works and why it matters in the broader context of neural physiology and plasticity.

Source: Quiz 2 (Chapters 2, 3, 4 - Electrical, Chemical Signaling & Plasticity)

Question 5: Neural Signaling

Choose any concept related to electrical or chemical signaling in neurons. Demonstrate your understanding by explaining how it works, connecting it to broader principles of neural communication, and extending your analysis to new implications or applications.

Source: Quiz 2 (Chapters 2 & 3 - Electrical & Chemical Signaling)

Question 6: Neural Plasticity

Choose any concept related to how the brain changes with experience. Explain the mechanism, connect it to the broader framework of neural plasticity, and extend your discussion to consider real-world applications or implications.

Source: Quiz 2 (Chapter 4 - Neural Plasticity)

Question 7: Draw and Label

Draw a clear, labeled diagram of one of the macroscopic features of the human nervous system we covered in Chapter 5—such as the brainstem and its parts, the cerebral cortex and its lobes, the ventricular system, the blood supply, the spinal cord cross-section, or any other structure or system you choose. Use annotations to explain what the parts do.

Source: Quiz 3 (Chapter 5 - Macroscopic Organization)

Question 8: Sensing and Moving

The brain's ultimate purpose is to sense the world and move the body. Using examples from nervous system organization, explain how the nervous system is organized to accomplish both of these goals—how does sensory information get in, what happens in between, and how do motor commands get out?

Source: Quiz 3 (Chapter 5 - Macroscopic Organization)

Question 9: Supporting the Neurons

Besides neurons, there are many structures, systems, and physiological processes that support nervous system function—such as the meninges, cerebrospinal fluid, blood supply, or the glymphatic system. Pick one of these or any other support system and explain how it protects or maintains the brain.

Source: Quiz 3 (Chapter 5 - Macroscopic Organization)

Question 10: Perception as Inference

Perception is not passive reception but active inference—your brain constructs reality by combining sensory data with predictions and prior expectations. Choose a specific perceptual phenomenon (examples: rubber hand illusion, phantom limbs, blind spot filling-in, change blindness, color constancy, or center-surround receptive fields) and explain how it demonstrates that perception is inference rather than direct sensing. Then describe what this tells us about the relationship between the physical world and your conscious experience. Finally, predict what would happen if the brain's predictions became completely decoupled from sensory data.

Meta-Learning Reflection: Which aspect of "perception as inference" challenges your intuitive understanding of how you experience the world? Why does it feel like you directly perceive reality when you're actually constructing it?

Source: Quiz 4 (Chapters 6 & 7 - Sensation, Perception & Vision)

Question 11: Parallel Processing and Functional Specialization

Both touch and vision use parallel processing streams that remain segregated throughout their pathways. Compare and contrast how touch divides information (four mechanoreceptor types, dorsal column vs anterolateral pathways) with how vision divides information (rods vs cones, M vs P ganglion cells, ventral vs dorsal streams). Explain why the nervous system uses this strategy of parallel specialized channels instead of a single unified pathway, considering the trade-offs involved. Then use a clinical example (patient D.F., Ian Waterman, or specific visual/tactile deficits) to show what happens when one stream is damaged while others remain intact.

Meta-Learning Reflection: What surprised you most about how different types of sensory information are kept separate rather than integrated? What questions do you still have about why the brain is organized this way?

Source: Quiz 4 (Chapters 6 & 7 - Sensation, Perception & Vision)

Question 12: Receptive Fields and Neural Coding

From mechanoreceptors to somatosensory cortex, and from photoreceptors to visual cortex, information is transformed at each level through receptive field properties. Trace how receptive fields change across at least three levels in either the tactile or visual system (for example: photoreceptor → bipolar cell → ganglion cell → LGN → V1, or mechanoreceptor → dorsal column nuclei → thalamus → S1). For each level, describe what new features are extracted that weren't present at the previous level. Then explain the computational logic: why does the nervous system build increasingly complex feature detectors rather than just sending raw receptor data to cortex? Consider the constraints of energy, bandwidth, and noise.

Meta-Learning Reflection: What aspect of hierarchical feature extraction is hardest for you to grasp? How does understanding receptive fields change your view of what "sensing" means?

Source: Quiz 4 (Chapters 6 & 7 - Sensation, Perception & Vision)