LR Drill Set 5, Question 6
Researchers trained an octopus to grab a red(50 more words not shown)
Which one of the following,(7 more words not shown)
- ANo other researchers(20 more words not shown)
- BThe octopuses that(22 more words not shown)
- CAlthough learning by(15 more words not shown)
- DWhen placed in(19 more words not shown)
- EWhen placed in(24 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
That certainly looks like learning by watching. One octopus is trained to choose the red ball, and the others choose it after watching. Why would the critics object?
Maybe the observers already liked red.
If those octopuses would have grabbed the red ball anyway, watching the trained octopus might have had nothing to do with their choice. We have to separate “they did this after watching” from “they did this because they watched.” The behavior alone doesn't settle that difference.
So I'd look for some reason red was already attractive to them. Perhaps something about what they can see or what they normally seek out favors red objects. Those are possibilities to investigate, not facts about octopuses that we're entitled to assume.
What we’re looking for
We're supporting the critics, which means making this experiment less convincing as evidence of learning by observation. A fact ruling out a prior color preference would help the other side. Keep that direction straight as we read the choices.
Working the answers
- A
This doesn't supply a reason to think these octopuses already preferred red. If anything, the lack of an observed color preference among other untrained octopuses makes that objection less well supported. It isn't proof that no prior preference existed here, but it certainly doesn't give the critics the alternative explanation we were looking for.
- BCorrect
Red might already mean food to these octopuses. Some of their prey was reddish, and none was white, so their previous experience gives us a reason they might reach for a red object without having learned the behavior by watching another octopus. That doesn't prove the observers learned nothing. It does make the result less decisive: the observation and their earlier feeding experience now offer competing explanations of the same choice.
- C
Why couldn't an animal outside the social category learn by watching? Learning by observation has been seen in many social animals, but that doesn't mean it occurs only in social animals. Without that extra restriction, the classification of octopuses doesn't establish a problem with this experiment's interpretation.
- D
This changes both the animal we are examining and the comparison it faces. It concerns the trained octopus choosing between two red objects of different shapes. Our question is why the observers preferred red to white. The trained animal's preference for a ball over a disk doesn't explain the observers' behavior.
- E
This gives us a comparison group that didn't watch and didn't prefer a color. That contrast tends to support the idea that watching mattered. It doesn't eliminate every possible difference between the groups, but it points against the critics' concern rather than supporting it. Don't choose an answer merely because it discusses the right experiment; ask which side its evidence helps.
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