PT149 S4 Q20 ExplanationNeuroscientists subjected volunteers

Answer choices, explained

1. A

   Too Strong: heightened perception16% picked this

   People who are unable to discern pitch compensate by developing a heightened

   These people with amusia might just have normal perception of timing. They have abnormal perception of pitch (they don't hear differences that the rest of us hear). But this paragraph doesn't say that people with amusia are able to hear differences in timing that the rest of us don't hear, so there's no reason to think they have a heightened perception of timing.

   16%
2. B

   Correct57% picked this

   Amusia results more from an inability to discern pitch than from an inability

   Why this is right

   To understand this answer, we would first want to re-read the definition of amusia: difficulty telling different melodies apart / remembering simple tunes What causes this? If you were to hum a melody / a simple tune (like the "Happy Birthday" song), you would be making different pitches in a certain rhythm. A melody is a combination of pitch and timing. Since these facts established that people with amusia can't tell different pitches apart but can tell different timed sequences apart, they it's supportable to say what's stopping them from being able to hear and remember melodies is pitch, not rhythm. What confused me a lot in processing this answer was that I thought of amusia as an underlying condition that causes people to not be able discern pitch, whereas this answer is saying it in reverse (being unable to discern pitch is what causes amusia). For example, Crohn's Disease causes a lot of digestive discomfort. We wouldn't say that digestive discomfort causes Crohn's Disease. But apparently amusia is a name for the symptom, not a name for the underlying cause. I had to think about other words that end with that same suffix to realize that these are all conditions, not causes: - aphasia - amusia - amnesia - dementia - pneumonia All these conditions are caused by more than one thing. Aphasia (inability to express your thoughts) or dementia (confused thoughts) could be caused by a stroke or by Alzheimer's. Pneumonia (cloudy lungs) could be caused by a bacterial infection or by COVID. ... and so forth So if you think about "amusia" as a condition that results from something, this answer makes a lot more sense.

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

   57%
3. C

   Contradicted15% picked this

   People who are unable to tell pitches apart in isolation are able to do so in the context of a

   We were told that these people with amusia cannot tell melodies apart. This answer is saying, "Well ... sure they can; they just focus on timing". No. They can tell one timed sequence apart from another, but they can't tell melodies apart, as we were told.

   15%
4. D

   Too Strong: alone / not at all7% picked this

   The ability to tell melodies apart depends on the discernment of pitch alone and not at all on

   We can definitely infer that "the ability to tell melodies apart depends at least in part on the discernment of pitch", but we have no way to say that it depends entirely on pitch. It's possible it depends on pitch and timing, and since people with amusia can't hear pitch, they can't tell melodies apart.

   7%
5. E

   Out of Scope: learned / innate4% picked this

   Whereas perception of timing can apparently be learned, discernment of pitch is

   Nothing in this paragraph would allow us to speculate that people with amusia learned to detect differences in timing. We have just as much reason to think that they have an innate capacity to hear different timed sequences but don't have an innate capacity to hear pitch.

   4%