#18 - Some killer whales eat fish exclusively, but others

[Administrator]

Please post your questions below!

[lsatcheetah9876]

I listened to the podcast, but I don't think it really addressed the issue with this question.

I picked E. Cause it seems to demonstrate a seal that was not afraid of fish eating killer whales, and that the other seals are also not freaked out by this dialect of killer whale. I don't see how C supports it better.

[James Finch]

Hi LSAT Cheetah,

So the key to this Strengthen question is realizing the big gap between the evidence provided and the conclusion, that all harbor seals start with an aversion to the killer whales but learn to ignore the ones that eat only fish. That means we need another premise that shows that the seals learn to not be afraid of the fish-eating ones: the causal relationship is that being familiar with fish-eating killer whale chatter causes the effect that the harbor seals are not afraid.

There are multiple ways to help bolster that causal relationship: eliminate another potential alternate cause, show both the cause and effect in another context, show that without the cause, there isn't the effect, or without the effect we don't see the cause.

(C) is an example of showing a situation where the cause is absent (familiarity with fish-eating killer whale chatter) and so is the effect (being unafraid, ie they are afraid). So (C) works by showing that without the cause, we don't see the effect either.

(E) posits a parallel situation where an individual harbor seal learns to be afraid of a fish-eating killer whale because of a mistaken attack, while other harbor seals remain unafraid. However, this isn't the causal relationship we're looking for; we need to show the seals overcoming their fear after learning the fish-eaters' chatter, not becoming afraid after being mistakenly attacked. Remember, the conclusion in the stimulus is trying to show that the seals all begin afraid and gradually lose that fear as they learn which killer whales are dangerous and which aren't. (E) reverses this relationship, making it incorrect.

Hope this clears things up!

[Juanq42]

Hi LSAT Cheetah,

So the key to this Strengthen question is realizing the big gap between the evidence provided and the conclusion, that all harbor seals start with an aversion to the killer whales but learn to ignore the ones that eat only fish. That means we need another premise that shows that the seals learn to not be afraid of the fish-eating ones: the causal relationship is that being familiar with fish-eating killer whale chatter causes the effect that the harbor seals are not afraid.

There are multiple ways to help bolster that causal relationship: eliminate another potential alternate cause, show both the cause and effect in another context, show that without the cause, there isn't the effect, or without the effect we don't see the cause.

(C) is an example of showing a situation where the cause is absent (familiarity with fish-eating killer whale chatter) and so is the effect (being unafraid, ie they are afraid). So (C) works by showing that without the cause, we don't see the effect either.

(E) posits a parallel situation where an individual harbor seal learns to be afraid of a fish-eating killer whale because of a mistaken attack, while other harbor seals remain unafraid. However, this isn't the causal relationship we're looking for; we need to show the seals overcoming their fear after learning the fish-eaters' chatter, not becoming afraid after being mistakenly attacked. Remember, the conclusion in the stimulus is trying to show that the seals all begin afraid and gradually lose that fear as they learn which killer whales are dangerous and which aren't. (E) reverses this relationship, making it incorrect.

Hope this clears things up!

Hi James,

Your breakdown really helps me realize the causal relationship that I didn't notice before. I'd like to confirm my understanding through your explanation.

CAUSE: Harbor seals FAMILIARITY with killer whale dialects
EFFECT: Harbor seals AVOID seal-eating killer whales

Answer C features No cause, no effect because

CAUSE: NOT familiar with (fish-eating killer whale dialect)
EFFECT: Harbor seal did NOT avoid a SEAL-EATING KILLER WHALE (instead, the mature seal avoided a FISH-EATING killer whale).

In other words, it provides support to the hypothesis that even mature harbor seals LEARN unfamiliar killer whale dialects until they realize they are not seal-eating killer whales.

[KelseyWoods]

Hi Juanq42!

You analysis is essentially correct but I will nitpick just a little and say that your stated effect should be "ignore fish-only killer whales." They start off with an aversion to all killer whales, but their familiarity with the whale dialects leads them to ignore the killer whales that only eat fish. But they always avoided the seal-eating killer whales (because they started off avoiding ALL killer whales, both seal-eating and fish-only).

Ultimately, doesn't make a big difference in your analysis. Just being a little more precise!

Great job!

Best,
Kelsey

[lsatbossintraining]

Hi folks -

I chose (C) b/c, if the seals swam away from the recorded chatter of killer whales that only eat fish when they first heard it, it’s supports the that they start with an aversion to all killer whales - or put another way, that’s their default - but learn how to ignore over time.

(E), the other answer I initially thought could be right, seemed off-mark b/c it didn’t seem to support the learning aspect of the biologists’ hypothesis.

Got a feeling there’s more to nuance to this question, though, so wondering if someone would be kind enough to provide a breakdown.

Many thanks,
Kyle

[Jeremy Press]

Hi Kyle,

Your question is actually about question #18 in this section, but I'll answer it here, and request that our admins move your question and my answer to the question 18 thread.

Your reasoning with respect to answer choice C is right on point--there's no more nuance to it than that, so great job!

You're also right with respect to answer choice E. The conclusion we're trying to support has two parts: the initial aversion of seals to killer whales, followed by the learning to ignore certain killer whales. Answer choice E actually misses the mark on both parts. It talks about a seal that develops an aversion after a negative encounter (but not a seal with an initial aversion), and it doesn't talk about any seal learning to ignore certain whales (merely talking about certain seals that don't avoid whales with the mistaken killer whale's dialect, without telling us whether or not they learned that non-avoidance behavior). Again, great work!

I hope this helps!

Jeremy

[jm123]

For this question, I chose E over C.

At first, I eliminated C because it mentions "mature harbor seals." Whereas the stimulus mentions "young harbor seals." Is this irrelevant to answer choice E because it mentions that the harbor seals "first listen," so it is shifting its focus to the C+E relationship in the stimulus because it says they rapidly swim away because they have yet to learn the whales' dialect.

Then E is incorrect because it does not mention that it will learn to ignore the other whales that do not eat fish, it only mentions it will avoid the one and all that have the same chatter that mistakenly attacked it. It gets close to the C+E relationship in the stimulus but does not fully strengthen it.

Am I correct with my analysis of both answer choices?

[Adam Tyson]

Good catch on answer C, jm123! Mature vs young is not the issue - the issue is whether they start out not trusting any killer whale, and then later learn to trust the "safe" ones. C reflects that - when a new whale shows up that they don't know, they don't trust it.

Answer E is more like learning to distrust a whale, rather than starting off avoiding it and then learning to trust it. But it's not relevant at all because we don't know if the other seals are familiar with this whale's dialect or not. We don't know if they learned to trust it, or if they just trusted it from the beginning. Learning to trust it would strengthen the argument, trusting it from the beginning would weaken it, and so this answer should just leave us scratching our heads and wanting more info.

[omccord]

Hello,

Could someone please explain the stimulus and answer choices? I'm seeing in comments that there's apparently some causal reasoning, but I can't see it myself :/ Any help would be appreciated, thank you!