Logical Reasoning

PT109 · S1 · Q1 Marmosets are the only primates

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Marmosets are the only primates other than humans known to display a preference for using one hand rather than the other.

Conclusion

Marmosets learn which hand to use by imitating their parents (if your parent is left handed, then you'll imitate your way into being left handed)

Evidence

Infant marmosets engage in lots of imitative behavior.

Evaluate

Any time we see the word hypothesis in the question stem, we know it will be a Causal conversation, so we can almost always organize it in our usual Curious Fact / Explanation style:

Curious Fact: Why are marmosets the only non-human primates that prefer one hand over the other? How do they develop a preference for one hand?

Author's Story: They engage in a lot of imitative behavior, so if they're imitating a left-handed parent then they'll end up left handed.

The two questions we always ask: - How ELSE could we explain the curious fact? - How plausible is the author's story?

For Strengthen questions, we sometimes rule out a different way to explain the curious fact, but usually we add some plausibility to the author's story.

The most common Strengthener in causal arguments is a No Cause, No Effect strengthener. Since the author thinks that imitative behavior leads to hand preference, any answer structured like would strengthen.

It could be that other primates (who don't have hand preference) don't have imitative behavior as much. It could be that marmosets who grow up without a parent to imitate end up having no hand preference.

A "more Cause, more Effect" strengthener would give us other instances of imitative behavior being joined with hand preference (such as establishing that humans ALSO engage in much imitative behavior as kids).

Goal

Look for something that makes it seem more likely that marmosets learn hand preference through imitative behavior.

1.

Which one of the following, if true, most supports the researchers' hypothesis?

  1. A study conducted on adult

    No Impact

    This is a real Nothingburger. We already knew that most marmosets were left handed, which allows space for many adults to be right-handed. This doesn't do anything to increase our belief that imitation is causing the handedness.

    1% picked this

  2. Right-handed marmosets virtually all have

    Weakens

    Assuming these siblings grew up around the same parents, this would hurt the author's story. If the kids learn by imitating their parents, then kids from the same parents should have the same handedness.

    2% picked this

  3. According to the study, 33

    No Impact

    Neat. But we're interested in the marmosets who do have handedness, and trying to assess the causal story of how they got there. These ones that don't have handedness aren't illuminating that conversation at all.

    2% picked this

  4. Ninety percent of humans are

    Too Weak

    This almost draws a parallel between the humans and marmosets, the only primates with handedness. If it said, "Humans also imitate a lot as parents, and even adopted children usually end up with the handedness of their parents", it would be compelling. The idea that left-handed kids are likely to have at least one left-handed parent is very muddy data that could just as easily mean that left-handedness is passed genetically, not through imitation.

    8% picked this

  5. Correct

    Marmosets raised in captivity with

    Why this is right

    This goes against the alternate explanation of handedness being genetically based. Kids end up matching the handedness of their adopted (unrelated) parents. It also plays off the fact that right-handedness in marmosets is rare, so it's not like the default trait we'd expect whether you live with your related parents or unrelated people. Raised in captivity means that they were there when they were young and still in their imitative phase. It sounds like they imitated their right-handed cellmates and became (atypically) right-handed as a result.

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

    88% picked this

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