PrepTest 150, Section 4, Question 14
Common sense suggests that we know our own(462 more words not shown)
It can most reasonably be(29 more words not shown)
- AExperiments involving children(14 more words not shown)
- BAdults are more(11 more words not shown)
- CSince adults are(21 more words not shown)
- DMental processes are(18 more words not shown)
- EChildren are less(14 more words not shown)
Reading the passage
Why study children rather than only adults? The experiments suggest children can have the relevant thoughts while being less capable of identifying them. Adults' inferences may be so practiced and rapid that the process is hard to notice. Children's mistakes give the researchers something visible to investigate.
What we’re looking for
That's the useful advantage to look for. We can infer it from the contrast the writer gives us without inventing a motive for the researchers or claiming that children's responses settle every question about self-knowledge.
Working the answers
- A
Creativity isn't offered as a reason for using children. The relevant difference concerns identifying thoughts, not producing more imaginative answers.
- B
This reverses the comparison. The first paragraph describes children as less capable than adults of identifying the thoughts they have. It doesn't make adults the less accurate reporters.
- C
Adults' infallibility is part of the belief being challenged, not an established fact. The psychologists don't limit inferential access to children while granting adults perfect direct access.
- DCorrect
Children's greater tendency to make certain errors can make the relevant mental process easier to study. Here, the contrast between correctly describing a phenomenon and misdescribing one's thoughts about it supplies evidence the psychologists can examine. The advantage concerns revealing errors; it doesn't require children to lack the underlying thoughts.
- E
The experiments concern identifying one's own thoughts. This answer concerns inferring other people's thoughts from their behavior. Less experience at that different task doesn't establish why children were useful subjects for these experiments.
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