Platypus Bill

Answer choices

1. A

   Weak Match5% picked this

   To determine the mating habits of birds, a biologist places decoys near the birds’ nests that resemble the

   This sounds a bit like our second quality. - hypothesizing that X has a certain trait because it's known that Y has that trait - using something artificial to simulate something natural But the decoy in this experiment actually looks like a bird, it doesn't just emit bird calls. In Scheich's experiment, the decoy was a battery. It emitted an electric field, just as a shrimp would, but it didn't visually resemble the shrimp. That's sort of important for the logic of the experiment, because that's how we know the platypus is reacting to the electric field of the battery, not to the battery's visual resemblance to shrimp (which it doesn't have).

   5%
2. B

   Weak Match10% picked this

   To determine whether certain animals find their way by listening for echoes to their cries, a biologist plays a tape of the

   This sounds a bit like our second quality. - hypothesizing that X has a certain trait because it's known that Y has that trait - using something artificial to simulate something natural The tape of the animals' cries is definitely an artificial rendering of their cries, but this is a weaker match for two reasons: 1. it's literally a recording of their cries, not some far-removed substitute. In Scheich's experiment, he didn't set up a fake shrimp tail do to tail flicks. He just used a battery. So the gap between the natural object and the artificial test object feels much wider than between an animal's actual cries and a recording of those cries. 2. In Scheich's experiment, the artificial object is meant to resemble some other entity (it's testing the platypus, but it's meant to resemble the shrimp). In this instance, they're testing animal X and using an artificial object to resemble animal X.

   10%
3. C

   Correct82% picked this

   To determine whether an animal uses heat sensitivity to detect prey, a biologist places a heat-generating object

   Why this is right

   This again sounds like our second quality. - hypothesizing that X has a certain trait because it's known that Y has that trait - using something artificial to simulate something natural This match is stronger than the other though for a couple reasons: 1. the hypothesis relates to being able to sense a certain property emitted by prey (in Scheich's experiment, the prey emits an electric field, and he's testing whether the platypus can detect the electric field). Here, we think an animal can detect a prey's heat. 2. the artificial object isn't a close facsimile of the prey animal. It's just something that emits the property being tested. In Scheich's experiment, a battery was used to generate an electric field. In this one, a heat-generating object is used to generate heat.

   Skill tested: Analogy · how this choice captures the passage's function is the move to repeat next time.

   82%
4. D

   Bad Match3% picked this

   A fisherman catches fish by dangling in the water rubber replicas of the fishes’ prey that have been

   This isn't even an experiment. This is just luring fish by giving them an artificial object that is designed to be a close replica of the natural object. It's visually similar and smells similar. Even if this were an experiment, it would only test whether fish could tell the difference between their actual prey and an object disguised to look and smell like their prey.

   3%
5. E

   Bad Match0% picked this

   A game warden captures an animal by baiting a cage with a piece of meat that the animal

   This also isn't an experiment. This is just luring animals with the actual food they want to eat. In Schiech's experiment, we don't think the platypus actually wants to eat a 1.5 volt battery. It's just sensing something emitted by the battery, which is also emitted by the platypus's prey.

   0%