Logical Reasoning

PT113 · S4 · Q6 In a study, infant monkeys

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In a study, infant monkeys given a choice between two surrogate mothers—a bare wire structure equipped with a milk bottle, or a soft, suede-covered wire structure equipped with a milk bottle—unhesitatingly chose the latter.

Information

Comparisons

would you rather your fake mom be ... A) a bare wire structure, w/ milk B) a soft, suede structure, w/milk

All the infant monkeys immediately chose (B).

would you rather your fake mom be ... A) a bare wire structure, w/ milk B) a soft, suede structure, w/o milk

All the infant monkeys immediately chose (A).

Evaluate

What do these two trials tell us about infant monkeys?

What is the Causal Difference-Maker that made them switch from all picking the soft/suede to all picking the bare wire?

Milk, of course!

We can see that the infants are prioritizing milk over soft suede.

Goal

Look for an answer reinforcing the idea that they'd prefer soft suede over bare wire if they have that option, but they care way more about the milk than about the suede vs. wire.

6.

Which one of the following is most supported by the information above?

  1. Infant monkeys’ desire for warmth

    Too Strong: nearly as strong

    We have the power to say "their desire for warmth and comfort is less than their desire for food". But we don't know how much less it is. Maybe it's nearly as strong a desire. Maybe it's way less strong of a desire. From the fact that all the infants "unhesitatingly chose the milk over the suede", it doesn't sound like it was that strong of a competing desire. On Inference questions that allow students to make predictions (i.e. a lot of students make a prediction on this one that "the infants care more about the milk than about the suede"), we'll often see (A) as a close-but-not-quite version of that idea, and the real answer will be hidden later in the choices.

    6% picked this

  2. For infant monkeys, suede is

    Out of Scope: animal fur

    The passage never talks about animal fur, so we have no grounds for assuming that animal fur would be a more convincing substitute than suede. Our common sense probably suggests it would be, but we're not using anything from the passage to support this answer.

    1% picked this

  3. For infant monkeys, a milk

    Unsupported Comparison

    Unsupported Comparison: less convincing Opposite, if anything We have no reason to think that the infants are basing their preferences on which human item (milk bottle or suede) is a more convincing substitute for the corresponding part of their moms. The infants may be basing their preferences on whether they're more attracted to food/nourishment than to soft cuddliness. Furthermore, our common sense would say that the infants would gravitate towards the more convincing substitute. Given the choice between suede and milk bottle, they all went towards the milk bottle. Yet this answer is saying the milk bottle is less convincing.

    5% picked this

  4. For infant monkeys, a milk

    Too Strong: equally

    We have no way to infer how convincing the infants found the bottle or the suede as substitutes. It's super hard to say they found two things identically convincing. This answer also does nothing to address the divergence, that all the infants chose bottle over suede.

    12% picked this

  5. Correct

    Infant monkeys’ desire for food

    Why this is right

    This reinforces the choices we saw the monkeys make. If there were going to get milk either way, then they'd all prefer the warmth and comfort of suede over the austerity of bare wire. But if it's a choice between getting the milk or getting the warmth and comfort of suede, they're picking milk all day, err'yday. That unhesitating preference suggests that they prioritize food supply over cuddliness.

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

    76% picked this

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