PrepTest 151, Section 2, Question 14
Researcher: People are able to tell whether a(67 more words not shown)
Which one of the following,(7 more words not shown)
- APeople are generally(17 more words not shown)
- BPeople are able(18 more words not shown)
- CExtroversion in people(14 more words not shown)
- DAny common ancestor(14 more words not shown)
- ESome of the(13 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
What are people noticing in a face with no expression?
My first guess might be some physical clue, perhaps smile lines. But a guess about a clue isn't an explanation of where the ability to recognize it comes from.
The researcher adds that people can also judge dominance from a chimpanzee's face. That makes a shared biological explanation seem plausible, even though the two judgments concern different traits: human extroversion and chimpanzee dominance.
There is still room to ask about learning. Could experience with chimps help? Could people learn a pattern in human faces that also works for chimp faces? The passage hasn't eliminated those possibilities just by observing success with both species.
What we’re looking for
We're asked to strengthen the biological explanation. I'd look for evidence that makes the shared primate biology more relevant to these judgments, rather than simply assuming recognition across species must be inborn.
Working the answers
- A
Failure to judge bonobos doesn't support the proposed biological basis for judging humans and chimpanzees. It limits how broadly the observed success extends. That needn't disprove every biological explanation, since different primates could differ in relevant ways, but it gives no added support for this one.
- B
Being able to identify more traits in humans tells us about the range of success, not where the ability comes from. More experience with humans might explain the difference, or a biological difference might matter. B doesn't establish which explanation is right or specifically strengthen the researcher's conclusion.
- CCorrect
The two apparently different traits are now linked to the same underlying kind of genetic predisposition: assertiveness. That makes the comparison more informative than merely finding that people can make two unrelated judgments about two primates. A shared biological basis for the traits gives more reason to consider a biological basis for recognizing them. It doesn't prove the recognition ability is inherited; it supplies support for that explanation.
- D
The date of a common ancestor doesn't tell us whether this ability comes from biology or learning. Either kind of explanation would need more than the fact that the species diverged long ago. D adds a date without connecting it to the ability under discussion.
- E
Composite pictures tell us something about how some images were produced. They don't establish whether the ability to judge a trait from a face was acquired through culture or biology. Without an additional connection, that feature of the experiment doesn't support the proposed origin of the ability.
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