What We Expect to See: teacher key

Ghosts, grade 11 edition, written for 11th grade. Expectation changes what people decide they saw and heard, and the Ganzfeld effect shows a brain filling in blanks. The idea runs through faces, dark vaults, a concert and a stage trick.

Read the book. Print this page for the key.

Questions and answers

1. What do researchers report prior expectations shape?
   • The weather
   • Perceptual decision-making (answer)
   • The size of a room
2. According to the explanation offered, what does the higher visual cortex do when there is nothing to see?
   • It shuts down
   • It amplifies whatever information is available (answer)
   • It sends the eyes to sleep
3. Why did the researchers test again in Edinburgh with people alone?
   • Hampton Court was closed
   • The Hampton Court study had low statistical power because visitors were analysed as groups (answer)
   • The visitors were too young
4. How were the Purcell Room concerts counterbalanced?
   • Infrasound was added to different pieces in each of two concerts, and nobody was told when (answer)
   • Infrasound played the whole time
   • Only the performers knew
5. Why might a dark vault bring on unusual feelings?
   • Dark rooms are always colder
   • It may cause mild sensory deprivation and match a person's idea of a haunted place (answer)
   • People get sleepy
6. What does amplifies mean?
   • Makes stronger (answer)
   • Makes quieter
   • Makes older

Words

• expectation: what you predict
• Ganzfeld: blank-field effect
• pareidolia: seeing faces
• amplifies: makes stronger
• counterbalanced: evenly swapped
• infrasound: very low sound