Take a Brain Quiz

How well do you know stuff about your own brain? Take our quiz. Choose an answer to each question: fact (true) or fiction (false).

A. Punishment and reward is the best way for us to learn. Fact or fiction?

B. Men are happier than women. Fact or fiction?

C. We only use 10% of our brains. Fact or fiction?

Ready for the answers? Scroll down.

A. Punishment and reward is the best way for us to learn.

Fiction: Although this research from the 1930s is still widely quoted, it has been overturned. Social modeling is actually the most natural and effective way to learn and was formulated (or discovered) by Albert Bandura in the 1950s. If you have children, you have already figured this out the first time you wondered where they got that horrible behavior from and realized it was you.

Social modeling brings importance to congruence and credibility in the workplace: walking your talk. Your employees will more naturally (and unconsciously) model your behavior than your words, when they are at odds with each other.

B. Men are happier than women.

Fiction. It's the same; men and women are equally happy. This is true despite the list of reasons that men are happier than women that is floating around the Internet right now (Your last name stays put; Phone conversations are over in 30 seconds flat; Men can play with toys all their lives; Men get extra credit for the slightest act of thoughtfulness, etc.). However, women experience higher intensities of emotions, both positive and negative, than men. This explains why women are more predisposed to depression than men.

C. We only use 10% of our brains.

Fiction. We'd be close to dead if this were true. We use all of our brains. Each part has a specific function or memory store that contributes to all the things we do as humans: talking, walking, breathing, sleeping, thinking, smelling, seeing, etc. This myth might have gotten started in reference to the part of our brain that we have access to at any one time; that is, our consciousness. It's clear that our consciousness compared to our subconscious is a much smaller subset of our whole apparatus, akin to an iceberg where the underwater part is our subconscious and the part floating above the surface is our conscious.

How did you do? We'll post another quiz soon, so you'll get a chance to improve your score.