Q18 - Asked by researchers to sort

[bailey.danielle98]

Hi

Can someone explain why E is not the correct answer choice for this question?

I eliminated answer choices A, B and D but answer choice C seems out of scope - the stimulus does not address the toddlers being disobedient...it just says they cannot adapt to a new rule.

E seems like it is most supported by information in the stimulus.

Thanks in advance.

[giladedelman]

Thanks for the question!

Answer (E) is incorrect mainly because we have no basis to say that skill at adapting is roughly proportional to the level of development of the prefrontal cortex. The stimulus tells us that the cortex is essential for this skill, but it's a big leap from there to say that, for example, as the cortex develops 10%, skills also develop around 10%.

The other problem with (E) is that the stimulus deals specifically with new rules, while this answer choice refers to new situations.

Now, why is (C) correct? Well, the researchers suggest that the toddlers' failure to follow the new rules was due to some extent to insufficient development of the prefrontal cortex. If it's due to insufficient brain development, it's a very small leap to infer that certain toddler behavior may not be willfully disobedient. In other words, they were breaking the new rules not on purpose, but because their brains weren't developed enough to make sense of them.

(A) is out of scope. We have no basis for comparing one set of toddlers to another.

(B) is too extreme. We don't know that "only" adolescents and adults can adapt to new rules.

(D) is way out of scope. More important than upbringing?

So, does that answer your question? Do you see why (C) is correct and (E) is incorrect? Let me know if this one is still bugging you.

#officialexplanation

[bailey.danielle98]

This is a huge help thanks! I was struggling to choose between C and E but I now see why C is the correct answer.

So important to pay attention to the detail ("new situation" vs. "rules") when trying to choose between two answer choice. The "skill roughly proportional to the level of development" part is also a big jump from the information provided in the passage!

[Celeste757]

hello! reviewing this question on my own... but isn't "willfully disobedient" out of scope?? doesnt the passage mean that in the study they tried and failed? isnt this too strong language? obviously not, because its the right answer, but i find this confusing.

[giladedelman]

Hi!

This is an example of how we can't be too quick to label things "out of scope." True, the stimulus doesn't specifically mention willful disobedience, but that's not enough to say it's out of scope; maybe there's something there that supports the idea that some toddlers' actions are not willfully disobedient.

So our job is to figure out, is there any example or indication in the stimulus of toddlers behaving in a way that is not willfully disobedient? Yes, there is: just as you said, the toddlers tried and failed. They tried to follow the new rules, but were unable to. So they weren't willfully disobedient, they were just incapable of being obedient.

That's our job here: to figure out which answer the passage supports. Not which one is a word-for-word match.

Does that answer your question?

[timmydoeslsat]

Hey Gilad,

I would like your opinion on whether you believe answer choice A can be dismissed for the following reason: Do we truly know that we have a situation of toddlers being unable to sort objects by color?

The reason I posit this question is that we truly do not know if toddlers are unable. We know that the difficulty seen in the stimulus could be attributed to the fact that the color task was chosen as the 2nd task rather than the 1st. So it may be true that toddlers have no problems with sorting by color.

[daniel]

As far as Inference questions go, I thought this one was interesting. I usually expect the correct answer choice for inference questions to involve a positive inference, but in this case, it is a negative inference. This is, perhaps, roughly analogous to the difference between "supporter" and "defender" necessary assumption questions? As with "defender" assumptions, we need to be careful not to judge something to be out of scope, simply because it mentions a concept that is not presented in the stimulus.

If there are other questions similar to this (where the correct answer choice is a negative inference), can someone post a list of them?

[ohthatpatrick]

(C), like most correct Inference answers, still requires that we synthesize ideas. We could have stated the inference more positively by saying, "The toddlers failure to sort by color was caused by their insufficiently developed prefrontal cortex."

This answer choice is just taking that synthesis (which you might say is a positive inference) and phrasing it negatively.

You primarily see negative phrasings be correct (or at least tempting) in 4 contexts:
Inference
Necessary Assumption (ruling out an objection)
Strengthen (ruling out an objection)
and
Flaw - answer choices that begin with "takes for granted/presumes" act just like Necessary Assumption ideas so the same "defender" idea applies

They're popular in Reading Comp Inference questions as well. Negative phrasings are an easy way for test writers to disguise the idea they're secretly alluding to.

If a passage says, "Romana Francesca's license to practice medicine in 1890 is the first known occurence of its kind", we can infer "Doctors practicing medicine in Ancient Greece did not leave any documents attesting to licensure that have since been discovered".

[obobob]

Inference
Necessary Assumption (ruling out an objection)
Strengthen (ruling out an objection)
and
Flaw - answer choices that begin with "takes for granted/presumes" act just like Necessary Assumption ideas so the same "defender" idea applies

Hi, can someone please provide an example for each? I am having a hard time understanding these with any concrete example

[ohthatpatrick]

INFERENCE
given: Patrick was the first person to finish his watermelon.
we can infer: Janice was not the earliest person to finish her watermelon


STRENGTHEN / NECESSARY ASSUMPTION
given: Patrick loves watermelons. Thus, he would love green Starbursts.

potential correct answer (rules out an objection):
Starburst does not primarily use lime flavoring to make its green Starbursts.

potential correct answer on FLAW
(prefaced by "takes for granted" so identical to Necessary Assumption):
takes for granted that Starburst does not primarily use lime flavoring to make its green Starbursts.

Hope this helps.