Q6 - In a study, infant monkeys

[stephen.dewart]

I don't like the correct answer (E) -- I was really thrown off by its stating "...desire for warmth and comfort". Doesn't that require a significant assumption? The question DOES ask "which...is MOST SUPPORTED..." but am I really supposed to deduce from the monkey preferring suede that he does so out of a desire for warmth and comfort? Maybe he likes the texture or the color or the continuity (vs. bare wire).

Thanks!

[ManhattanPrepLSAT2]

Hi there --

I believe you may have PT, S or Q # incorrect --

If you find the correct stats for the monkey q, I believe it's already been answered on the forums (sorry I can't remember the correct #s!), but please let us know if you need further clarification --

MK

[stephen.dewart]

Hi there,

My mistake -- it's actually PT37 (I just labeled it wrong). Doesn't appear it's been posted within this section. If you can clarify it, I'd really appreciate it!

[ManhattanPrepLSAT2]

Here's an answer from a book we are about to publish:


We know the following facts:
(1) baby monkeys preferred the soft/milk mother to the wire/milk mother
(2) baby monkeys preferred the wire/milk mother to the soft/no-milk mother

What is the difference between these two sets of circumstances? In the second, the softer suede mother no longer had milk"”and the babies switched their previous preference. This suggests that this variable (milk/no milk) is somehow important.

(A) is tempting because it seems to address the underlying decision between warmth/food, but this choice is ultimately not supported by the statements. We know that the babies chose milk over no-milk in the second experiment (and can infer that this is a choice of food over warmth), but we have no way to compare that desire with the level of preference for the soft mother in the first experiment. What if they strongly preferred food, but only marginally cared about warmth/comfort? We have no way of knowing.

(B) is not supported by the statements. We cannot make a comparison to fur when this experiment only involves a distinction between suede and wire.

(C) is not supported by the statements. The only comparisons in this experiment are between soft/wire and milk/no-milk"”we cannot make any inferences about how comparable the experimental conditions were to "real" mother conditions.

(D) is not supported by the statements. We cannot make a comparison to the features of a real monkey mother when this experiment only involves a distinction between suede and wire.

Choice (E) contains many of the same words as choice (A), but with an important difference"”choice (E) only makes a statement about which of the two types of desire (for food/ for warmth)"”when in conflict with each other"”wins out. If the monkeys preferred the soft mother all other things being equal, but when confronted with a choice between soft/no food and wire/food went with the wire/food mother, this indicates that their previous preference was overpowered by the food/no food distinction. This is our answer.


Just to add on, in response to your point -- you are absolutely right that we are required to make a leap to go from the soft-suede to desire for warmth and comfort - and milk bottle to food for that matter (maybe they really love the bottle as a toy) --

It's just, as can often be the case, that (E) is the answer that requires the least, or smallest, leaps, of all the answer choices.