RC Question 16 Explanation
DISCUSSION: Passage A argues that animals don’t communicate with conscious intent. In the final paragraph, the author says that recent research shows that it’s unclear if humans are conscious and animals lack intent. See lines 56-65.
___________
- This isn’t convincing. The author of passage A says that perception of mental state is what’s important (lines 3-5). It doesn’t necessarily matter if the perception is accurate.
- Ridiculous. Passage A didn’t mention specific researchers and passage B didn’t mention credentials.
The “researchers” in this question’s text refers to hypothetical researchers who read passage A and agree. It’s not referring to actual researchers discussed in the passage. - The author of passage B argues in the final paragraph that animal communication may be similar to human communication. But they never go so far as to cite “well-known evidence” that animals lie.
- CORRECT. This is an extremely difficult answer. The passage doesn’t directly mention empirical evidence. However, the final paragraph supports this answer.
1. Lines 53-56 say that Maritain et al. make circular arguments. That means arguments without evidence.
2. Then lines 56-65 say that research with chimpanzees calls into question other assumptions.
3. Research on chimps is necessarily empirical.
4. Empirical means real world evidence.
So we should pay more attention to real experiments, and less to assumptions. - This is not a good answer. Lines 6-10 say that certain communications may have evolved due to their benefits.
That’s far from saying that all systems can be explained in terms of their benefits.
Hi Graeme, could you address that passage A does in fact mention research on multiple occasions, implying empiricism (to some extent). I eliminated this choice because of line 17 passage A, in particular ( “Research also suggests….”) implying the claims they make are based off of at least two supporting instances of research(non-human primates, the frogs, and then eventually Macaques).This to me meets your claim that, Empirical = real world evidence, which you use as part of why D is correct in your explanation. Really confused on this one and would appreciate and answer!
Line 17 is in passage A and doesn’t tell us anything about what passage B would say about A’s stance, which is what we’re looking for (what Graeme wrote in the answer explanation is referring to passage B).
The stimulus is asking for passage B’s author’s opinion on passage A’s position (conclusion).
While passage A does look at related research (Ex. Line 17), it ends up making assumptions that conscious intent is actually just instinct (“seems”). Passage B, in lines 54-56, says that assuming intent is out of the picture from the start is circular since it itself is then used as evidence. The scientists that B talks about share a similar perspective with passage A. Thus, if B believes that the scientists mentioned should use empirical evidence instead of assumptions, B would also hold the same opinion about A.
Thank you! I understand the reasoning behind answer choice D, and none of the other choices are particularly enticing upon blind reviewing this section, I just don’t think it is particularly strong. To play devils advocate, the question is phrased ” …most likely to agree with which one of the following statements regarding researchers who subscribe to the position articulated in passage A?”.
To me, the position articulated in passage A, the conclusion in essence, is that animal communication is inadvertent b/c animals cannot attribute mental states to others, and the supporting information for this claim comes from what seems to be numerous empirical examples of animal communication, and one would think “researchers” subscribing to this position would have also utilized….research…to get there, as the author of passage A used.
I guess I probably assumed too much by thinking the author of passage B would have all of the details regarding the position taken in passage A and that the “position articulated” would include by default the evidence mentioned in passage A. I just couldn’t justify choosing D with so much explicit mention of research to support the position in passage A.
I can see why the mentions of “research” is causing confusion. The examples of research that Passage A mentioned have the following findings: 1) no evidence frogs call bcause of transmitting knowledge, 2) macaques don’t call because of transmitting knowledge, 3) chimpanzees don’t call because of transmitting knowledge.
All that the findings prove is that these animals don’t make vocalization to transmit knowledge. However, passage A’s author’s conclusion is that the vocalization production is not goal-directed nor purposeful. Just because these animals aren’t transmitting knowledge doesn’t mean they don’t vocalize without purpose! Passage A’s author is assuming “don’t transmit knowledge” = “not goal-directed/purposeful”. Basically, Passage A’s author “used” the research, but to support an unjustified position. This is what the scientists in passage B did, and passage B’s author criticized them for it.