PrepTest 150, Section 4, Question 13
Common sense suggests that we know our own(462 more words not shown)
According to the psychologists cited(17 more words not shown)
- Awe ignore the(16 more words not shown)
- Bknowledge of our(20 more words not shown)
- Cwe are unaware(13 more words not shown)
- Dour inferences regarding(14 more words not shown)
- Eour inferences regarding(15 more words not shown)
Reading the passage
Why would inferential knowledge feel direct? The second paragraph gives the missing step: the inferences happen so quickly that we don't notice making them. If I notice only the result—“I know what I'm thinking”—I may mistake the absence of a noticeable reasoning process for the absence of a reasoning process altogether.
What we’re looking for
Keep that distinct from accuracy. An inference can be reliable and still be an inference. Getting the answer right doesn't by itself explain why I think I reached it without any intermediate process.
Working the answers
- A
The psychologists don't say we receive corrective feedback and ignore it. The final paragraph instead explains that other people cannot use our private internal clues to produce a contradictory inference. That is different from refusing to listen to feedback we actually receive.
- B
“Usually unmediated” would make most of this knowledge genuinely direct. The psychologists' account is that we infer our thoughts but fail to notice doing so. It isn't an account of overlooking a few exceptions to otherwise direct access.
- CCorrect
This gives the causal link: the inferential process produces awareness of our thoughts, but we aren't aware of the process itself. That explains the impression that we simply perceive those thoughts directly.
- D
The writer does describe quick, reliable inferences, so accuracy isn't irrelevant to the broader account. But being accurate doesn't make an inference direct, and no comparison establishes that these inferences and our perceptions of the world are generally extremely accurate. The key explanation is the process going unnoticed.
- E
Clouded or uncertain inferences wouldn't explain a confident impression of direct access. The proposed mechanism is speed and lack of awareness, not uncertainty shared with ordinary perception.
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