Logical reasoning PrepTest 112 · Section 3 · Question 16

Question prompt

Herpetologist: Some psychologists attribute Remaining source text redacted.
Why the credited answer is right

Credited answer: D

The notes below walk through why it fits the stem and how to eliminate the rest.

Argument or Facts

Argument

Valid or Flawed

Flawed

Question Type

Strengthen with Necessary Premise Questions

Stimulus Summary

Some Psychologists: Stuff about reptiles
Herpetologist: Experiments show reptiles don’t alter their behavior, so they are incapable of complex reasoning.

Answer Anticipation

We gave the opposing point here short shrift, but there’s a good reason for that! The Herpetologist’s argument is completely self-contained - it doesn’t refer back to the Psychologists at all. Reread the stimulus starting at the pivot and see if you miss anything - you don’t! When an argument is self-contained like this, the question is a lot easier if you focus just on that argument.
With the stimulus severely shortened, we can see that the argument is much more straightforward. The Herpetologist uses the inability of reptiles to alter their behavior to conclude that they are incapable of complex reasoning. That assumes that an inability to alter behavior proves that something is incapable of complex reasoning - just a straight up connection between the premise and conclusion. Let’s find an answer connecting those concepts.

Answer choices

  1. A
    Animals could make major Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A is not credited
    Make major changes to ability → Complex reasoning. This answer allows a conclusion to be drawn that an animal is capable of complex reasoning based on a premise that they can alter their behavior. That’s the negation of the assumption made by the argument.
  2. B
    Simple stimulus–response explanations can Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B is not credited
    The argument doesn’t need stimulus-response explanations to work for all reptile behavior - just the ones that are relatively complex.
  3. C
    Reptile behavior appears more Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C is not credited
    The Herpetologist’s studies didn’t witness behavior that was less complex than it was in the wild - just behavior that wasn’t altered even when the environment was.
  4. D
    If reptiles were capable Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D matches the stem
    Complex reasoning → Alter behavior. Or, if we take the contrapositive, ~Alter behavior → ~Complex reasoning. This answer connects the premise to the conclusion. If animals that don’t alter their behavior can still have complex reasoning, then the argument falls apart. This answer is therefore necessary for the argument to work, so it is correct.
  5. E
    Complex reasoning and responses Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E is not credited
    This answer doesn’t address altered behavior at all, so it doesn’t connect to the premise. Even if complex reasoning and stimulus response can both contribute to the same behavior, there’s no indication that this is true specifically of reptiles.

What this tests

Question analytics

Based on historical answer selection rates for this question.

Answer choice distribution

  1. A 26%
  2. B 3%
  3. C 2%
  4. D Credited 64%
  5. E 6%

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Discussion

  • Why not A 1 reply

    Started by DevinFuller

  • D? 1 reply

    Started by santzoulis

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