College Reading-Reading Assignment Instructions for “This Is Your Brain Under Hypnosis”
Winter Quarter 2015
Instructor: Richard Alishio
Please do the following:
1. Highlight and then look up all of the vocabulary words you feel you must understand in
order to fully grasp the main ideas of this article. This doesn’t mean you have to look up
every word you don’t know; it does mean that you have to look up those words whose
meaning is needed to understand the article.
2. Be prepared to explain the following:
A. The history of hypnosis and the origins of the word
B. Attitudes toward hypnosis in the past and present
C. The “cogs and wheels of normal brain function”
D. Who is and isn’t hypnotizable
E. What the “Stroop Effect” is
F. What the advantages of being hypnotizable might be
G. A general summary of the article
In order to prepare, it is a good idea to highlight the key passages of the article and be able to
speak using the highlights. You may also use notes on a separate sheet of paper if you wish.
An example of the “Stroop effect”:
RED
YELLOW
How did scientists use the word-color combinations to study
hypnosis?