Logical ReasoningDifficulty: Easy

PT147 S1 Q8 Explanation

While studying a large colony

A free, expert breakdown of this official LSAT Logical Reasoning question.

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Stimulus

While studying a large colony of macaque monkeys, scientists interacting with baby monkeys under a week old found that the babies would imitate some, but not all, of the scientists' actions. The babies readily smacked their lips and stuck out their tongues when the scientists did, but stared impassively when the scientists sticking out the tongue are used by adult macaques when interacting with babies.

What this question is testing

Most Supported

Your task

Break the argument into its conclusion and evidence, then do exactly what the question stem asks with that structure.

Common trap

Answers that sound relevant to the topic but don't connect to the argument's actual reasoning.

Winning move

Predict what a right answer must do, then test each choice against the conclusion-evidence gap.

Reading along? Open the full official question in LawHub — we show a fragment here and keep the reasoning in our own words.

The question
8.

The statements above, if true, most strongly support which one of

Answer choices

  1. Contradicted (if anything)1% picked this

    Baby macaques under a week old are natural mimics of whatever

    The babies did NOT imitate two of the behaviors they saw from the scientists.

  2. Too Speculative: can't control muscles2% picked this

    Baby macaques under a week old cannot imitate hand gestures because they do not yet

    While this could explain why they didn't imitate the hand gestures, so could many other hypotheses. We have no support for this specific hypothesis, so it's too speculative.

  3. Unsupported Causality: to entertain6% picked this

    Adult macaques use lip smacking and sticking out the tongue to

    This is speculating the causal backstory on why adults smack their lips and stick out their tongues. Maybe it's to entertain. Maybe it serves a different function. We have no way to support one theory over another.

  4. Opposite (if anything)6% picked this

    Baby macaques under a week old mistake the scientists interacting with them

    If the babies thought the scientists were their parents, they'd presumably imitate ALL the things the scientists did. The fact that the babies only imitated stuff their true parents did suggests more that babies could tell the difference.

  5. Correct84% picked this

    Baby macaques under a week old only imitate human gestures also used

    Why this is right

    While "only" feels strong, this is still the best available answer. It matches the available data.

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

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