Logical reasoning PrepTest 113 · Section 4 · Question 6

Question prompt

In a study, infant Remaining source text redacted.
Why the credited answer is right

Credited answer: E

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

Argument or Facts

Facts

Valid or Flawed

NA

Question Type

Must Be True Questions

Answer Anticipation

The study here offered infant monkeys two different sets of options. When both options had food but only one was soft, they went with the soft option, suggesting that they pick something comfortable, all other things being equal. That’s not particularly surprising - why have just food when you can have food and a nice suede thing to cuddle with?
However, the second set was more interesting. When one had food but wasn’t soft Tand the other was soft but didn’t have food, what would they choose? They went with food, suggesting that they go with food over something comfortable.
The correct answer should highlight one of these preferences, but it’s the second one that was more of a question that needed exploration, so let’s expect that to be the correct answer.

Answer choices

  1. A
    Infant monkeys' desire for Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A is not credited
    The second study was the only one where they were given a choice between the two, and they “unhesitatingly” chose food, suggesting that the desires might not be all that close in strength.
  2. B
    For infant monkeys, suede Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B is not credited
    There’s no way to get into the monkey’s heads to know how they compared suede to their mother’s touch, nor is there any discussion of how they’d respond to fur.
  3. C
    For infant monkeys, a Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C is not credited
    The question is about food vs. comfort, not how convincing the replacements are in the study. There’s no indication they were looking for a replacement for their mom specifically - just something to meet their needs and wants.
  4. D
    For infant monkeys, a Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D is not credited
    Another answer about things being a “convincing” substitute - we don’t know if the monkeys were convinced that something was a replacement mom, just that it served their current needs or wants for food/comfort.
  5. E
    Infant monkeys' desire for Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E matches the stem
    In the second study, they were given a choice between a soft structure without food (comfort) and a wire structure with food (food). They “unhesitatingly” chose the latter, strongly suggesting that they will pick food over comfort, supporting this answer. This answer aligns with the outcome of the study that was more of a question going into it, which is how we were able to anticipate it!

What this tests

Question analytics

Based on historical answer selection rates for this question.

Answer choice distribution

  1. A 8%
  2. B 1%
  3. C 4%
  4. D 7%
  5. E Credited 80%

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