Here are a few examples of questions that appeared on the final exams in a few
different years. None of the topics covered below was covered this year. This
is just to give you an idea of the TYPE of question you can expect.  Note that
for each question you are expected to draw on ALL of the readings (book
chapter and 4 articles) for that topic area. Also included below is the
preamble/instructions from one of the exams. 

THIS EXAM PAPER INCLUDES 2 BACK-PRINTED PAGES AND 6 QUESTIONS.
YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR ENSURING THAT YOUR COPY OF THE PAPER IS
COMPLETE. BRING ANY DISCREPANCY TO THE ATTENTION OF YOUR INSTRUCTOR.

PLEASE ANSWER ANY 4 OF THE 6 QUESTIONS. ONLY THE FIRST FOUR ANSWERS WILL BE
MARKED. EACH QUESTION IS WORTH 25
MARKS. EACH ANSWER SHOULD OCCUPY NO MORE THAN 2 PAGES TYPED AND
DOUBLE-SPACED OR PRINTED CLEARLY ON REGULAR LINED PAPER.  YOU
MAY CONSULT YOUR TEXTBOOK AND OTHER PRINTED REFERENCE MATERIALS
BUT YOU ARE EXPECTED TO WORK ON YOUR ANSWERS ENTIRELY ON YOUR OWN --
DO NOT CONSULT WITH OTHER MEMBERS OF THE CLASS IN FORMULATING YOUR ANSWERS.
INCLUDE YOUR NAME AND STUDENT NUMBER AT THE TOP OF
EVERY PAGE YOU HAND IN. 

OBJECT RECOGNITION
Evidence from behavioural neuroscience experiments suggests that
faces are treated specially by the brain, and invoke completely
different representations from those predicted by Marr's theory of
object recognition. Discuss this position (and feel free to argue
either for or against it) in light of your course
readings for the topic of "object recognition".

SPATIAL PROCESSING AND ATTENTION
The brain does not have a single attention system, but rather,
many different attentional systems that are specialized for different
situations and tasks. Discuss this position in light of your course
readings for the topic of "spatial processing and attention".

SPATIAL VISION
Spatial representations may be divided into two types, allocentric or 
world-centered, and egocentric or viewer-centered. Describe evidence,
drawn from your course readings, for each of these two types of
representations, commenting on where in the brain they may be formed
and in what situations they might be used. 

MOTOR CONTROL AND PLANNING. 
The motor control system is comprised of a large number of brain areas 
involved in converting plans and decisions into actions. Suppose you were in
your kitchen holding a piece of bread and you decided to make toast. Drawing on the
readings in this section of the course, outline how you think this motor act would
be encoded by neocortical neurons in your motor system, from the planning to
the execution of the action.

MOTOR CONTROL
There is a widely held view, as described in the Banich textbook, that
the brain's motor control circuits are organized hierarchically
from spinal to cortical mechanisms.
Outline the major neural circuits involved in this
hierarchy, and describe what is known about the internal representations
used to guide motor actions. (note: by "internal representations", I
mean what sort of neural code is used, or in what form is the
information internally coded). For the latter, you may base your answer
on the examples from your course readings of 1) spinal neurons
involved in leg extension, and 2) presumably higher level brain regions
involved in learning a visually guided reaching task. Comment on why
these multiple levels -- spinal versus cortical -- might exist, how their 
representations do or do not differ, and how
the levels may interact in a hierarchical fashion.  

LANGUAGE
Coltheart has presented a dual-route model of reading whereby
words are read either in a whole-word fashion or via a sounding-out mechanism,
whereas Plaut has more recently presented a single network that
appears to handle both types of reading. Disucss the
neuropsychological evidence both in favour of and against each of
these models. Consider the neurobiological plausibility of each
model. Also, Comment on what sort of language-related brain areas and
internal representations would be predicted by each model, and what
additional evidence would be required to choose between the two models.