Faster Than Thinking: teacher key

Feelings, grade 9 edition, written for 9th grade. Some feelings arrive before you have time to think. Read how the brain makes a quick emotional call, how stress hormones change the body, and how putting a name on a feeling changes the brain.

Read the book. Print this page for the key.

Questions and answers

1. What does Paul Ekman write about emotional responses?
   • They are automatic (answer)
   • We choose each one
   • They only happen in dreams
2. Which hormones are released when the brain perceives a threat?
   • Adrenaline and cortisol (answer)
   • Dopamine and serotonin
   • Only tears
3. Why are emotional events often remembered more vividly?
   • The amygdala signals the hippocampus to store them more robustly (answer)
   • They happen more slowly
   • They are shorter
4. What happened in the 2007 UCLA study when people labeled the emotion of a face?
   • The amygdala was more active
   • The amygdala was less active (answer)
   • Nothing changed
5. In this book, what does masking mean?
   • Showing an emotion you do not feel (answer)
   • Wearing a costume
   • Forgetting a face
6. Which of these does whether an emotion is helpful depend on?
   • How strong it is and how long it lasts (answer)
   • Only the color of the room
   • Only how old you are

Words

• automatic: happens by itself
• adrenaline: a stress hormone
• cortisol: a stress hormone
• sympathetic: body nerve system
• dopamine: a brain chemical