Q24 - People perceive color by means

[ohthatpatrick]

I'll go ahead and post a complete explanation for posterity.

Question Type: Explain the Discrepancy EXCEPT

Task:
Understand the surprising tension described in the stimulus. Eliminate the four answers that help to resolve that tension and explain study's result.

What's the paradox?
GIVEN THAT
color perception consists of having the right photopigments to pick up on each color's wavelenghts
WHY IS IT THAT
a bunch of people who COULD see red vs. green, COULDN'T distinguish between as many shades of red as other people.

(A) This describes how people might sense red but not as many varieties. Eliminate.

(B) This explains the result by saying the 10-20% weren't necessarily perceiving the colors differently, they were just answering confusingly-phrased questions differently. Eliminate

(C) This suggests that the 10-20% could probably still see the various shades of red, but just didn't care enough about it to answer the study's questions accurately.

(D) This is about people who CAN'T see red vs. green. They're not part of the study, so they're totally irrelevant. This is our answer!

(E) This suggests that the 10-20% could probably still see the various shades of red, but didn't have enough different subtle ways of saying "red" (like 'blood orange', 'wine', 'crimson', etc.) to name all the distinctions.

Hope this helps.


#officialexplanation

[peg_city]

I understand why D is the right answer however, how does A explain the results of the study?

Thanks

[timmydoeslsat]

The stimulus tells us that people who are color-blind are not able to tell the difference between red and green.

Why is this?

Absence of a certain photopigment. We will go ahead and just say that the absence of photopigment X is what causes this.

The study has as its subjects people that are able to easily distinguish between red and green. However, the paradox is that out of those people, 10-20% of them failed to report the differences in the multitudes of red that the majority reported.

Answer choice A explains how the 10-20% could have failed to report those red differences.

The stimulus talked about how an ABSENCE of a photopigment can cause the red-green problem. However, do we know what happens if you have really low amounts of a photopigment compared to someone else?

This answer choice gives us that situation. Perhaps the 10-20% of this group has unusually low concentrations of this red pigment, and this causes them to see fewer shades than those with normal concentrations.

[efd628]

Can someone explain why D is the right answer?

[drb_]

Can someone explain why D is the right answer?

I'm new to this, so hopefully I'm right in my explanation.

This question is an 'Except' question, so each answer should be able to explain the study's results besides one.

The study references a group of people who are "easily [able to] distinguish red from green," however 10-20% cannot distinguish between different shades of red.

Answer choice D references people who "are unable to distinguish red from green." This is not the same group the study is talking about. Therefore, this does not explain why they cannot tell the difference between the shades of reds. This answer is actually a repeat of a part of the passage.

All the other answer choices are possible explanations as to why people who can tell the difference between red and green, are unable to distinguish from red and other reds.

I hope I helped.