PrepTest 149

Incorrect. There's no indication that the sense of timing in the study is heightened—it's possible that the group's ability to note these changes in timing and track timed sequences of music are shared with the general public.

Correct. Argument or Facts:
Facts

Question Type:
Must Be True

Stimulus Summary:
Those with amusia couldn't distinguish pitch in musical notes, but they could follow timing changes.

Answer Anticipation:
The stimulus talks about two potential things that someone might have difficulty tracking in music—pitch and timing. For those with a particular disorder, they were able to note changes in timing but not in pitch. Therefore, this study supports the hypothesis that amusia has to do with pitch and not timing.

Answer Explanation:
This answer highlights that those with amusia had difficulty tracking pitch but not timing. It reflects the details of the study, so it's correct.

Key Takeaway:
This question's difficulty lies much more in there being multiple answers that are tempting rather than there being no answer that seems to be correct. In Must Be True questions, the incorrect answers will generally bring up concepts that weren't present in the stimulus, so focus on details that might be out of scope.

Incorrect. The volunteers aren't established to be able to distinguish pitch when they were tracking the timed sequences or noting changes in timing. This answer conflates the two parts of the study.

Incorrect. Those with amusia have difficulty telling melodies apart, and they have difficulty telling pitch apart. That supports the conclusion that distinguishing pitch is a key part of telling melodies apart. However, since the group could tell timing, we don't know if timing also plays a key role in telling melodies apart. We'd need to see a group that can distinguish pitch but not timing to see how necessary timing is to the ability to tell melodies apart. As such, this answer can't be supported in saying that telling melodies apart "depends" on pitch "alone."

Incorrect. First, there's no indication that amusia is an inherent disorder or something that comes from nurture. Second, even if it is, there's no indication that it's the only relevant disorder—there might be another that throws people's timing off innately. Since the argument doesn't establish anything about innate vs. learned behavior, this answer is out of scope.