The Phantom Hand Reading Answers

Nov 23, 2023

The Phantom Hand Reading Answers is an academic reading topic. The Phantom Hand Reading Answers have a total of 13 IELTS questions in total. The specified topic generates 3 question types: correct letter, one words and no more than three words and/or a number. Candidates should read the IELTS Reading passage thoroughly in order to recognize synonyms, identify keywords, and answer the questions below. IELTS reading practice papers, which feature topics such as The Phantom Hand Reading Answers. Candidates can use IELTS reading answers to enhance their performance in the reading section.

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Section 1

Read the passage to answer the questions below

The Phantom Hand Reading Answers

This illusion is extraordinarily compelling the first time you encounter it.

There is a very striking illusion in which you can feel a rubber hand being touched as if it were your own. To find out for yourself, ask a friend to sit across from you at a small table. Set up a vertical partition on the table, rest your right hand behind it where you cannot see it, and place a plastic right hand in view. Ask your assistant to repeatedly tap and stroke your concealed right hand in a random sequence.Tap, tap, tap, stroke, tap, stroke, stroke. At the same time, while you watch, they must also tap and stroke the visible plastic dummy at exactly the same time in the same way. If your friend continues the procedure for about twenty or thirty seconds, something quite strange will happen: you will have an uncanny feeling that you are actually being stroked on the fake hand. The sensations you feel will seem to emerge directly from the plastic.
Why does this happen? Matthew Botvinick and Jonathan Cohen, at the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University, who reported the so-called rubber-hand illusion in 1998, have suggested that the similarity in appearance feels the brain into mistaking the false hand for your real hand. They believe this illusion is strong enough to overcome the discrepancy between the position of your real hand that you can feel and the site of the plastic hand you can see.
But that is not the whole story. William Hirstein and Kathleen Carrie Armel of the University of California discovered a further twist: the obiect your helper touches does not even need to resemble your hand. The same effect is produced if they tap and strike the table. Try the same experiment, but this time get your acquaintance to rub and tap the surface in front of you while making matching movements on your real, concealed hand. You will eventually start feeling touch sensations emerge from the wood surface.
This illusion is extraordinarily compelling the first time you encounter it. But how can scientists be certain that the subject really believes that they are feeling sensations through the table? Kathleen Carrie Armel again and Vilayanur S Ramachandran learned that, once the illusion has developed, if you 'threaten' the table by aiming a blow at it, the person winces and even starts sweating. This reaction was demonstrated objectively by measuring a sudden decrease in electrical skin resistance caused by perspiration. It is as if the table becomes incorporated into a person's own body image so that it is linked to emotional centers in the brain; the subject perceives a threat to the table as a threat to themselves.
This may all sound like a magic trick, but it does have practical applications. In fact, the experiments were inspired by work with patients who had phantom limbs. After a person loses an arm from injury, they may continue to sense its presence vividly. Often, the Phantom seems to be frozen in a painfully awkward position. To overcome this, a patient was asked to imagine putting their phantom arm behind a mirror. By then putting their intact arm on the reflective side, they created the visual illusion of having restored the missing arm. If the patient now moved the intact arm, its reflection – and thus the phantom - was seen to move. Remarkably, it was felt to move as well, sometimes relieving the painful cramp.
Beyond a practical application, these illusions also demonstrate some important principles underlying perception. Firstly, perception is based largely on matching up sensory inputs. As you feel your hand being tapped and stroked and see the table or dummy hand being touched in the same way, your brain asks itself, 'What is the likelihood that what I see and what I feel could be identical simply by chance? Nil. Therefore, the other person must be touching me.' Secondly, this mechanism seems to be based on automatic processes that our intellect cannot override. The brain makes these judgments about the senses automatically; they do not involve conscious thought. Even a lifetime of experience that an inanimate object is not part of your body is abandoned in light of the perception that it is.
All of us go through life making certain assumptions about our existence. 'My name has always been Joe,' someone might think. 'I was born in San Diego, and so on. All such beliefs can be called into question at one time or another for various reasons. One the premise that seems to be beyond question is that you are anchored in your body. Yet given a few seconds of the right kind of stimulation, even this obvious fact is temporarily forsaken, as a table or a plastic hand seem to become part of you.

Section 2

Answer and Explanation
Questions 14-17

The text reports the findings of three teams of researchers. Match statements 14- 17 with the correct team A, B or C.

Botvinick and Cohen
Hirstein and Armel
Armel and Ramachandran
The illusion does not depend on the 'phantom' looking like a real hand.

Answer: B
Supporting statement: “....the object your helper touches does not even need to resemble your hand. The same effect is produced if they tap and strike the table........”
Keywords: touches, resemble
Keyword Location: para 3, line 2
Explanation: it is given that the object that the person helping you touches has no relation with the ‘phantom’ looking like a real hand.

The brain can disregard the spatial information.

Answer: A
Supporting statement: “.....suggested that the similarity in appearance feels the brain into mistaking the false hand for your real hand.......”
Keywords: appearance, real
Keyword Location: para 2, line 3
Explanation: It is given that the brain can be fooled by feeling the fake hand to be the real hand. It is not able to distinguish between real and fake hand.

If the fake hand is threatened, the subject will show signs of fear.

Answer: C
Supporting statement: “.....once the illusion has developed, if you 'threaten' the table by aiming a blow at it, the person winces and even starts sweating.......”
Keywords: threaten, blow
Keyword Location: para 4, line 4
Explanation: It is given that if the fake hand is threatened then the person will react as if it is his real hand. For example if someone blows at it then the person will wince and may also start sweating.

A hand-shaped object is required for the illusion.

Answer: A
Supporting statement: “......have suggested that the similarity in appearance feels the brain into mistaking the false hand for your real hand. .....”
Keywords: similarity, appearance
Keyword Location: para 2, line 3
Explanation: It is given that the object must look somewhat similar to the real hand so that the illusion can take place. Any object will not work for this case.

Questions 18-20

Choose the correct letters A, B, C or D in answer to these questions.

How do researchers explain the fact that subjects respond physically when someone threatens to hit the table in front of them?
A. The table becomes an integral part of the image subjects have of themselves.
B. it is a reflex action triggered by the movement of the other person's hand.
C. An electrical connection is established between the subject and the table.
D. Over time, the subject comes to believe that the table is one of his possessions.

Answer: A
Supporting statement: “..... if you 'threaten' the table by aiming a blow at it, the person winces and even starts sweating.......”
Keywords: winces, sweating
Keyword Location: para 4, line 4
Explanation: It is given that the illusion makes the table feel like a part of the body to the person. Hence the person moves when someone threatens the table.

What does the phantom hand experiment show us about the nature of human perception?
A. It is based on conscious thought processes.
B. It is primarily an unconscious process.
C. It is closely related to intellectual ability.
D. It relies only on sensory information.

Answer: B
Supporting statement: “...... The brain makes these judgments about the senses automatically; they do not involve conscious thought......”
Keywords: judgements, involve
Keyword Location: para 6, line 7
Explanation: It is given that the brain is involuntarily taking decisions by taking into account its senses. It does not involve any kind of conscious thought.

Which of these statements best summarizes the wider implications of the experiments described in the text?
A. The experiments are valuable in treating patients who have lost limbs.
B. The experiments cast doubt on a fundamental human assumption.
C. The experiments show humans to be less intelligent than was once thought.
D. Human beings arrive at the truth by analyzing the evidence of their senses.

Answer: B
Supporting statement: “.....All such beliefs can be called into question at one time or another for various reasons. One the premise that seems to be beyond question is that you are anchored in your body.......”
Keywords: premise, anchored
Keyword Location: para 7, line 2
Explanation: It is given that the beliefs of humans can be questioned. Because there are ways to fool the brain and nervous system. Hence it raises a question on very fundamental things.

Questions 21-26

Choose ONE WORD FROM THE TEXT AND/OR A NUMBER for each answer.

It is a recognized phenomenon that patients who have been injured and lost (21).............. sometimes continue to have feelings, like pain or (22)............, in these parts of their body. In order to assist patients like this, doctors can use a (23.................. placed vertically on a flat surface. The patient imagines that he is putting his phantom arm behind the mirror and his (24 ...................... arm in front. When the patient moves the latter, the (25)....................... also moves, giving the patient the illusion that his non-existent arm is moving- In some cases, this illusory movement may succeed in (26....................... the patient's discomfort.

Q.21

Answer: LIMBS
Supporting statement: “......After a person loses an arm from injury, they may continue to sense its presence vividly......”
Keywords: sense, presence
Keyword Location: para 5, line 2
Explanation: It is given that a person has lost their arm from some kind of an accident. But they still continue to feel their limbs.

Q.22

Answer: CRAMP
Supporting statement: “.....Remarkably, it felt to move as well, sometimes relieving the painful cramp.......”
Keywords: well, painful
Keyword Location: para 5, line 8
Explanation: It sometimes also creates pain in that part of the body. It feels like reliving the cramp.

Q.23

Answer: MIRROR
Supporting statement: “...... To overcome this, a patient was asked to imagine putting their phantom arm behind a mirror......”
Keywords: phantom, mirror
Keyword Location: para 5, line 4
Explanation: It is given to overcome the pain and the awkward positioning of the phantom hand. Doctors put a mirror behind the phantom arm.

Q.24

Answer: INTACT
Supporting statement: “.....By then putting their intact arm on the reflective side, they created the visual illusion of having restored the missing arm.......”
Keywords: illusion, missing
Keyword Location: para 5, line 6
Explanation: It is given that behind the person’s phantom arm the doctors put the mirror. So that the patient can see his/her real arm in the reflection and get a feeling of having restored his/her missing arm.

Q.25

Answer: REFLECTION
Supporting statement: “..... If the patient now moved the intact arm, its reflection – and thus the phantom - was seen to move......”
Keywords: intact, phantom
Keyword Location: para 5, line 7
Explanation: It is given that if the patient moves the intact arm the reflection from the mirror also moves. It makes the person feel the cramp again.

Q.26

Answer: RELIEVING
Supporting statement: “.....Remarkably, it was felt to move as well, sometimes relieving the painful cramp.......”
Keywords: felt, cramp
Keyword Location: para 5, line 8
Explanation: The illusion of moving of phantom arm sometimes make the person feel pain like a real hand.

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