Logical Reasoning

PT152 · S4 · Q6 Psychologist: Thinking can occur without language

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Psychologist: Thinking can occur without language.

Main Conclusion

Thinking can occur without language.

Intermediate Conclusion (thus)

A thought of a typical human face must exist in the infants' minds.

Evidence

In a study, 3 month old infants, who obviously have no language, can detect irregular photos, ones that don't match their internal representation of what a human face should look like.

Evaluate

Whenever we read Main Conclusion and Role, we remind ourselves that the Main Conclusion is usually not the last claim. It's usually earlier than the Support. And, specifically, it's usually the First Sentence or a Rebuttal.

Reminding ourselves of that tendency before we read the argument on Role / Main Conclusion helps us interpret the first sentence as the main conclusion. It doesn't sound like some obvious author opinion, but it does sound like a general statement that the paragraph starts to defend with research.

The last sentence has an obvious conclusion indicator attached (Thus), but we know that Role is super famous for Intermediate Conclusions, so we want to consider whether this "Thus" is indicating the main conclusion or an intermediate one.

The final claim supports the first claim. Since an infant, who doesn't have language, has the thought of a typical human face, this shows that thinking can occur without language.

Goal

We're being asked about this final claim. We know it's a conclusion, because it's prefaced by "Thus". But in this case it's an intermediate / subsidiary conclusion. It's supported by the 2nd and 3rd sentences, but it supports the 1st sentence.

6.

The statement that a thought of a typical human face must exist in the infants' minds plays which one of the following roles in the psychologist's argument?

  1. Correct

    It is a conclusion drawn

    Why this is right

    This answer describes an Intermediate Conclusion. It is a conclusion, because it's supported by at least one premise, but it's also a premise used to support the Main Conclusion. The more general conclusion is that "thinking can occur without language". Why should we believe that thinking can occur without language? Because infants, who don't have language, still have the means to think about what a typical human face looks like. Why should we believe that? Because there was a study that showed that 3-month old infants knew when a picture of a face wasn't a normal human face.

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

    82% picked this

  2. It is attributed to certain

    Not Attributed

    The author of this paragraph is drawing this conclusion. It hasn't been attributed to the researchers. That would sound like, "Thus, they concluded that ..."

    4% picked this

  3. It is the main point

    Wrong Role

    The first sentence is the main conclusion. This is a supporting conclusion.

    12% picked this

  4. It is used to refute

    Not Refuting

    No one ever claimed that "infants have no knowledge of language", so the author cannot be refuting that position. There's no opponent in this argument.

    1% picked this

  5. It states the hypothesis to

    Not a Hypothesis

    The 3rd sentence is a speculative hypothesis to explain the curious data from the 2nd sentence. How are infants able to detect anomalies in pictures? Because, they probably can compare this picture to a mental image they have a normal human face. The 4th sentence, which we're being asked about, is an inference you could draw from that hypothesis: "Say ... if they're comparing a picture to an internal mental image, then I guess you could say they have a thought in their minds about what a typical human face looks like."

    2% picked this

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