For newborns of age four

Answer choices

1. A

   Unknown Comparison7% picked this

   Babies more easily learn to recognize the voices of their mothers than the voices

   This feels pretty close, except this situation stipulated that Mom is the primary caregiver. It might be that if Dad were the primary caregiver, then a 4-6 week old baby would stop crying for his voice. Or if Tony, the baby's nanny, is the primary caregiver, then the 4-6 week old baby would stop crying for Tony's voice.

   7%
2. B

   Too Strong: first thing1% picked this

   A mother’s voice is the first thing a baby learns

   We can't tell from this paragraph what the very first voice is that a baby learns to recognize. Perhaps the Dad's (or other Mom's) voice is already more recognizable from how much the baby heard their voice while in the womb, while the biological Mom's voice sounded weirdly different since the baby was actually inside her body.

   1%
3. C

   Correct82% picked this

   Babies associate the voice of the primary caregiver with release

   Why this is right

   This is quite a stretch as a correct answer, but it reinforces the causal difference-maker. The baby stops crying from discomfort when they hear the voice of their primary caregiver, but don't stop crying for anyone else. Given that the primary caregiver is probably the voice the baby is most exposed to, we might explain the halting of crying as simply "wait, what is that important person saying?" Like maybe they stop crying because they want to hear the voice they most recognize. But that's probably a less common sense way to explain this (a pre-linguistic baby wants to understand the words that a familiar adult is uttering?) than it is to think that the baby is trying to get attention for its discomfort, expects the primary caregiver to be the one most likely to relieve the discomfort, and associates the voice of the primary caregiver with "Okay, they received my message. They're on their way to help." Remember it's a temporary halt in crying, suggesting that if the baby hear's the caregiver's voice but does not get their discomfort promptly relieved, they'll just start crying again.

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

   82%
4. D

   Too Strong: only4% picked this

   Often only a primary caregiver can provide comfort to

   We knew that the baby would only temporarily halt crying for a primary caregiver, but "temporary halt in crying" isn't the same thing as "can provide comfort". It might be that someone besides a primary caregiver can pick the baby up and burp it, providing comfort. This paragraph was just saying "often, the only voice that could provide temporary comfort is a primary caregiver's"

   4%
5. E

   Too Strong: best5% picked this

   Discomfort in newborns is best relieved by hearing the

   The causal-difference maker isn't necessarily "Mom"; it might just be primary caregiver. And this information isn't saying that voice is the best way to relieve discomfort. It might be that picking up and burping, or feeding, or changing a diaper is the best way to relieve discomfort. We only heard that a certain type of voice can temporarily halt crying, while all other voices don't.

   5%