1.) How did you react to your results?  Were you surprised?  Angry or hurt? Pleased?  Discuss what you felt and why you think you felt what you did.

         When I saw that I slightly preferred white people it was a little shocking. Personally I really didn't think that I was biased towards any skin tone. Being partially Armenian it was weird to me that I would slightly prefer people with lighter skin. I understand it's probably because I've been raised in a place with mostly white people, but I have periodically had friends that were darker skinned than I am. I was pretty upset because I really don't think that I prefer any race to another and seeing it in black and white scared me a little.
For the second experiment on religion I found it weird that I disliked Islam the most. I wasn't as surprised because it's the religion I know least about.

2.) Do you believe that your test results say something about you that you should pay attention to?  Why or why not?

        I don't think I have anything to worry about with the test results. I've lived my entire life being an equal person and just because the test I took told me otherwise shouldn't make me have to pay attention to anything regarding this. I know that I am not a racist person and slightly preferring white people probably isn't anything to get worried about. I'm not too sure that I have a problem that I need to pay attention to regarding religion because I've lived my life without minding other people's preferences.

3.) Do you think that these tests are valid?  When you first saw your results, did you question or accept the tests' validity?
        I honestly don't think that the tests are very valid. I mean I believe there is some truth to what the tests had resulted because everyone got different results. I am still questioning the results of the test because I really don't think I have preferences over different races in society or at least I've never noticed that I have. I'm not too sure how I feel about the accuracy about the religion test. I think my score was so low with Islam was because I really don't know that much about the religion as I do Christianity and Judaism even though I have no preference.

4.) Give examples of the cultural messages that many support attitudes linking a dominant group in your nation or culture with "good" or "superior" attributes and a subordinate group with "bad" or "inferior" ones. Are these attitudes generalizations that can be called stereotypes?  How can generalizations be distinguished from stereotypes?
        It seemed like most of the results were linked with extremely mild white supremacy. I think people stereotype when they go into different ideas of superior people being the white people because there is a majority in the United States which also has to do with inferior people. Usually people will generalize things that become stereotypes later on that are racist and discriminating. With the religion aspect I think that this activity showed that people in the USA are more prone to thinking that Christians are the "good" and "superior" people while the Islams (especially in today's culture) are bad.

5.) If some of our consciously held beliefs, attitudes, and values are undermined by what Gladwell,another writer we'll be reading soon....http://www.gladwell.com/blink/index.html, calls rapid cognition (others call this intuitive thinking or even gut feelings), what do you suggest we can do to combat jumping to (false) conclusions?
       We could probably do things like spend more time with each other. Although it seems like segregation is over there still is some and I think if we grew up around more people with different skins colors we wouldn't be so prejudice. I also think that you need to stop teaching about the hate that different people have and focus more on the facts that everyone is human.

Why TOK?

TOK is designed to help us answer questions more intuitively and with a deeper understanding. It will help us answer questions with more of an idea of how to go about answering it. TOK is a tool to also help us thinking more about why things happen.

Addition: TOK will help us become better people with different characteristics like knowledgeable and risk takers. This will shape us as what the IB thinks are role model citizens.

1.) inferential learning mechanisms - the way someone learns how to live in society (babies for example)

2.) In the first 3 years of life, babies seem to undergo a huge transformation according to the article "What every baby knows". Right when they are born they are able to respond and recreate facial expression. As they grow older they recognized what those facial expressions can be tied with, different emotions for example which they then react themselves to.

3.) "Babies are like scientists, continually overthrowing theories that no longer fir the evidence". I think this quote has a lot to do with how we used to perceive babies. We used to think they weren't intellectually capable to understand most of the things that they do. Now after research they have "overthrown the theories" and proved that they are far more intellectual than anyone had previously guessed.

What is TOK anyway?

TOK is a course that will help me understand the way I know things.

How am I a knower?

I think that sense perception and the arts tie into how I am a knower. The way I see things greatly affected the way I made and even make art. In 9th and 10th grade in my art class, I would use my perception to further my art. Now my perception goes into how I portray different scenes in my 10th and 11th grade theatre class.