PrepTest 113, Section 4, Question 2
The vomeronasal organ (VNO) is found inside the(63 more words not shown)
Which one of the following,(6 more words not shown)
- AIt is not(15 more words not shown)
- BRelative to its(15 more words not shown)
- CCertain chemicals that(30 more words not shown)
- DSecondary anatomical structures(13 more words not shown)
- EFor many animal(12 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Having the organ and having a working organ aren't necessarily the same thing. Most humans have a detectable VNO, but the evidence about its function comes from what happens when researchers stimulate its cells.
How much intervention does that take? My first question is whether the reported response tells us what the organ does under ordinary conditions. If researchers have to prompt it in some unusual way, I'd want to understand that before accepting the description of it as functioning. That is a concern to investigate, not a definition that automatically makes any prompted response irrelevant.
What we’re looking for
For a weakener, I'd initially look for information showing that the effect depends on unusual experimental conditions. We need a reason to question what the reported smell sensations establish about the VNO. We don't have to prove that the organ does nothing.
Working the answers
- ACorrect
This raises a different problem from my initial concern: which cells produced the smell sensation? The researchers stimulated VNO cells, but they may have stimulated other cells too. Those other cells could account for what the subjects experienced.
The observation can therefore be real without showing that the VNO produced it. Imagine pressing two buttons at once and hearing a bell. That doesn't yet tell us which button rings the bell. Here, the argument credits the VNO without knowing whether the stimulation isolated it. A weakens that connection without establishing that some other cell definitely caused the sensation.
- B
Less developed doesn't mean unable to work. A small or rudimentary organ could still perform some sensory function. We need a reason to question that function, and a comparison of its development with other animals doesn't establish the missing connection.
- C
The human organ could operate differently. Chemicals important in another animal might play no role in humans while another process produces a sensory response. C doesn't tell us that those particular chemicals are required for every functioning VNO. It also doesn't say the chemicals are absent, only that they don't appear to play the same role.
- D
Are those associated structures necessary for a human VNO to function? We aren't told. Their presence in other animals doesn't establish that humans need them too. Without that connection, their absence doesn't explain away the reported response or challenge its attribution as directly as A does.
- E
This describes what the organ is thought to do in other species. The conclusion concerns most humans. Learning about the function in those animals doesn't show that the human response was caused by something other than the VNO, or otherwise give us a reason to doubt the human conclusion.
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