LR Drill Set 6, Question 8
Experiments have found that eight-month-old babies keenly notice(26 more words not shown)
Which one of the following,(15 more words not shown)
- AEight-month-old babies must(36 more words not shown)
- BThere are a(20 more words not shown)
- CSome studies have(20 more words not shown)
- DThe age at(31 more words not shown)
- EAcquisition of knowledge(32 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Why does this attention fade and then come back? At eight months, babies notice small differences between similar speech sounds. Think of sounds as close as those in “cat” and “hat”: a listener has to attend to a small change to tell them apart. The experiments then show a marked decline around age one and a partial return around age three.
That is more than a claim that young children are good at hearing distinctions. We need to explain a change in both directions. Something has to make the one-year-olds less attentive, and then something has to account for renewed attention two years later.
What we’re looking for
I don't have a specific explanation yet. The question asks for the most complete one, so I'll use those two events as the test. An answer that explains only the decline may sound plausible, but it leaves half the puzzle unresolved.
Working the answers
- A
This offers a possible reason for attention to shift: older babies need to concentrate on meaning rather than fine differences in sounds. That could help explain the initial decline. But why does attention to sound differences return around age three? A doesn't tell us that the focus on meaning changes again. It's a partial explanation, which is why it can be tempting, but it isn't the most complete one.
- B
A similar pattern in attention to other phenomena would give us more examples of something to explain. It doesn't tell us what causes this pattern in speech sounds. Saying one-year-olds are less attentive to other things too leaves the decline and return just as unexplained.
- C
Being better at detecting subtle sounds than many adults describes how impressive the eight-month-olds' ability is. The question isn't asking us to rank babies against adults. We need to understand what happens between eight months, one year, and three years, and C supplies no reason for those changes.
- D
Variation in the age of peak attention doesn't explain a decline followed by a return. Some children could peak earlier than others for many reasons. Merely naming different peak ages doesn't identify what draws attention away and then allows it to recover in the observed pattern.
- ECorrect
Learning word meanings becomes important at about one year, and intense attention to tiny sound differences interferes with that learning. That gives us a reason for attention to shift away from those differences. Then, about 24 months later—around age three—the acquisition of word meanings diminishes dramatically. The competing activity has eased, which helps explain why attention to sound differences partly returns.
Both dates do work. The beginning of the competing activity fits the decline, and its later decrease fits the recovery. Unlike A, E explains why the initial shift needn't persist. It doesn't require the children to stop caring about meaning altogether or return to exactly their earlier level of sound attention.
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