#18 - Asked by researchers to sort objects by shape, most

[Administrator]

Complete Question Explanation

Must Be True—CE. The correct answer choice is (C)

In this stimulus we learn of a study in which toddlers are able to follow rules initially but fail to adapt to new rules. The author attributes this to an inability to adapt resulting from an underdeveloped prefrontal cortex. The author makes this basic causal assertion:

• Cause Effect
  
  Inability failure to adapt

Answer choice (A): The stimulus is not about ability with regard to any given type of sorting, but rather about the ability to adapt to changing rules

Answer choice (B): The stimulus does not suggest that toddlers are entirely unable to adapt to new rules, but rather that they may have trouble as a result of an underdeveloped cortex.

Answer choice (C): This is the correct answer choice, supported by the stimulus which provides a reason other than willful disobedience—inability based on an underdeveloped pre-frontal cortex.

Answer choice (D): The stimulus does not involve effects of upbringing at all, so this answer choice does not pass the fact test and is not correct.

Answer choice (E): While the author discusses the need for a developed prefrontal cortex in order to develop the ability to adapt, there is no suggestion that such development is proportional with the referenced skill.

[rleung]

For my answer I chose E and I'm still not quite getting why E would be a wrong answer. I initially had C and E as Contenders, but I ruled out C because I was thinking that telling a toddler to sort through colors and having the toddler fail was not really a question about disobedience. I thought it might be too strong of an inference for the stimulus to talk about disobedience.

[Shannon Parker]

Hi there,

In this question the word disobedience is simply referring to the failure to follow a rule or direction. The stimulus states that most of the toddlers were able to sort the objects by shape. However when subsequently asked to sort them by color, they continued to sort them by shape. This can be read as when subsequently asked to sort them by color, they were disobedient.

The author then states that researchers believe the failures (the disobedience) to be caused by insufficient development of the prefrontal cortex, which is essential for the function of adapting to new rules, and slow to mature. Thus the disobedience may be caused by an underdeveloped prefrontal cortex and therefore not willful.

(E) discusses proportionality which the author does not discuss in the stimulus and therefore can be ruled out.

~Shannon

[bli2016]

Hi, I chose B and I was wondering which phrase points out that some toddlers are able to adapt to new rules. Is the phrase "almost invariably" in the second sentence? If it had said "invariably", would that have made answer B correct? Thanks!

[Francis O'Rourke]

Hi Bli,

The short answer is no. Even if all the toddlers in the study were unable to adapt to new rules, we wouldn’t be able to generalize to a fact about all the toddlers in the world. It may strengthen the idea that toddlers are unable to solve problems that require adaptation, but it does not prove it: only one clever three year-old not included in the study would make answer (B) untrue.

The phrase “almost invariably” does leave open the possibility that some toddlers tried out new approaches.

[silent7706]

Hi,

I'd like to confirm whether I eliminated (A) for the right reason. I eliminated (A) because I feel that the stimulus does not assert a positive correlation between prefrontal cortex(PFC) development and the ability to adopt new rules. It merely states that PFC development is insufficient in those toddlers. Hence we can't make a comparison of the degree of their PFC development based on their abilities to sort objects by color.

Thanks in advance.

[Jeremy Press]

Hi silent7706,

Great observation! I agree that the stimulus does not provide sufficient basis for inferring the definite existence of a positive correlation between prefrontal cortex development and ability to adopt new rules. That being so, the correlation implied by answer choice A is not sufficiently supported by the stimulus.

There's another reason why answer choice A is not supported in the stimulus: it's not discussing the issue of "adaptation to new rules." Adaptation implies a shift from one type of rule to a new type of rule. Thus, the study looked at toddlers who began with a sorting rule about shape, and then had to change to a new sorting rule about color. Answer choice A is not discussing adapting from one rule to another. It's merely discussing absolute ability (or inability) to follow one single type of rule, i.e. sorting by color. For that reason, answer choice A is not supported either.

I hope this helps!

Jeremy

[haganskl]

Hello. I would like to confirm if I have the facts straight.

1. Most toddlers in a study were able to sort colors after being asked.

2. The toddlers struggled when given a new rule.

3. The prefrontal cortex is essential for adapting to new rules.

4. The prefrontal cortex matures slowly.

5. The prefrontal cortex develops into adolescence stage.

[Robert Carroll]

hagan,

To your points:

1: Note the toddlers were able to sort by SHAPE, but sorting by color afterwards was difficult for them.

2: True!

3: That follows the stimulus.

4: That also follows the stimulus.

5: It follows the stimulus that the development continues until at least adolescence, yes.

Robert Carroll

[spikesjb]

Hello,

I also agree that there is no mention of proportionality between the development of the prefrontal cortex and the ability to adapt to new situations (along with the fact that the stimulus say it "often" results from insufficient development, which also opens up the possibility there are potentially other factors at play here), but couldn't it also be true that a major issue with (E) is that instead of referencing "new rules," (E) says "new situations?"

The stimulus makes no explicit references to new situations. It only explicitly says that the prefrontal cortex can be responsible for adapting to new rules, not new situations. While it is true that the babies are essentially in a new situation because of the new rule of sorting by color, this is only a new situation because there is a new rule, which is why the development of the prefrontal cortex is relevant here.

A new situation for a baby might be experiencing a new way of laughing, like from someone making a silly face. Perhaps there is a toddler that has never laughed because of a silly face, but when in a situation for the first time where someone makes a funny, silly face, does the stimulus actually provide proof that the prefrontal cortex would be relevant here to the baby adapting to this new "situation?" I don't think so, because the stimulus only claims that the prefrontal cortex is relevant when adapting to new rules.

I feel like, partially, for E to be true, every new situation has to be accompanied by a new rule, which would make the prefrontal cortex relevant in all new situations, but I do not think it is true that all new situations are accompanied by new rules that need to be adapted to.