#22 - Concept Reference, Must Be True

[Administrator]

Complete Question Explanation
(See the complete passage discussion here: lsat/viewtopic.php?t=12412)

The correct answer choice is (B)

This question refers to the author’s discussion in the third paragraph of the passage, in which the author discusses the fact that people are used to dealing with the way their brains construe things rather than dealing with the sense perceptions themselves. This is why, the author continues, the front-to-back explanation is appealing—the notion of a chair “inside” the imaginary space within the mirror makes sense to us, despite the fact that this is a false premise, and allows us to understand this explanation.

Answer choice (A): The only mention of a top-to-bottom discussion appears in the first paragraph, where it is pointed out that top-to-bottom is not the way that things are reversed in mirrors. This has nothing to do with the fact that we are accustomed to dealing with our mental constructs, so this choice should be quickly ruled out of contention.

Answer choice (B): This is the correct answer choice. As discussed above, the author mentions this fact to show why the front-to-back explanation of mirrors is appealing, and this tendency facilitates our ability to understand this explanation.

Answer choice (C): This incorrect answer choice looks like it was designed specifically to confuse. Thankfully, if you took a shot at prephrasing the answer to this question, you probably saw through this choice—the fact that we are accustomed to dealing with our mental constructs facilitates our ability to understand the front-to-back explanation. It doesn’t facilitate our ability to challenge complex explanations, so this choice fails the Fact Test and should be ruled out of contention.

Answer choice (D): This is an Opposite Answer of sorts, since the fact that we are accustomed to dealing with our mental constructs, which is supported by the normally reliable equation to perceptions, facilitates our ability to understand the front-to-back explanation.

Answer choice (E): Our being accustomed to dealing with mental constructs does not facilitate our ability to overemphasize the fact that mirrors simulate sense impressions. This confusingly worded wrong answer choice is unsupported by the passage and thus fails the Fact Test.

[pmuffley]

Hello,

I chose D and I am hoping to get some clarity. I chose D because the passage states, "In general, we can safely presume a fairly reliable equation between our perceptions and their associated mental constructs, but mirrors are an exception. "

Answer choice D reads, "reject customarily reliable equations between perceptions and their associated mental constructs".

We can generally rely on ourselves in most cases to have an accurate understanding of the world around us, but mirrors are the exception. Therefore, the allow us to reject the typically accurate understanding that we have with our world.

Please help!

[Adam Tyson]

The language you are relying on to support that answer doesn't say quite what you might think it says, pmuffley. The line about mirrors being an exception to our normally reliable equations doesn't tell us anything about "rejecting" those equations. It just means that we cannot rely upon them when it comes to our perception of mirrors. Our perceptions about mirrors are inaccurate.

The question asks what our mental constructs facilitate (that is, what they help us to do), and the answer must be "according to the passage," so we should be looking for an answer that 1) quotes or paraphrases the passage and 2) shows what our mental constructs help us to do.

According to the first two sentences in the third paragraph, our mental constructs help us to accept as natural the explanation of what mirrors do based on the "front to back" explanation offered by the physicists in the previous paragraph. That is, we can accept that explanation, even though it is technically incorrect, because our mental constructs help us to make sense of it.