#7 - Although instinct enables organisms to make complex

[Jeremy Press]

Hi NY,

Your proposed rewording would make answer choice E correct, although worded that way it would be redundant. In other words, the "only" in your rewording is doing the same work that the word "purely" is doing. That wording of answer choice E is correct because we do know from the stimulus that it is the size of insects' brains (and the resultant incapacity for a sufficient number of neurons) that makes them incapable of flexible/noninstinctual behavior. This means that organisms with brains smaller than insects would also be incapable of flexible behavior.

The reason answer choice E is wrong as stated is that we cannot tell from the stimulus whether, for example, there are organisms with brains slightly larger than insects, but still not large enough to contain the requisite number of neurons to exhibit flexible behavior.

I hope this helps!

Jeremy

[michellesdesh]

In regards to your deduction, "that insects are pure instinct—incapable of “flexible” (that is, non-instinctive) behavior)."
I got to the right answer but assumed that because they only mentioned 2 types of behavior: instinctive behavior and flexible behavior, that within the context those are the only 2 behaviors and because insects can't be flexible, they are purely (only) instinctual. I did question though, because it only mentions 2 types of behaviors, should we dismiss that there can be other types of behavior?

Do we assume that when a number of behaviors/actions/things are brought up, those are the only behaviors/actions/things that are brought up? For instance, if I said "when on a ski trip, sitting down on a ski lift requires less athleticism than skiing down a hill. skiing down a hill requires a large level of athleticism, and 3 year olds have not reached that level of athleticism at their age." in the same fashion of this question then, (i think) the deduction is "3 year olds on ski trips can only sit on ski lifts"; Is the scope of the question then narrowed to the two activities of "sitting on a ski lift" and "skiing down the hill?" rather than opening it up to other activities 3 year olds could do, like drinking hot coco etc?

Sorry for the random example, just figured that it explained what i meant by "behaviors/actions/things". Thanks in advance!

[Rachael Wilkenfeld]

Hi Michelle,

In this case, they establish there are only two types of behavior. Because they define flexible behavior as "non-instinctual" we can fairly split all behavior into the two groups of "instinctual" and "non-instinctual/flexible." There are no other options once they define flexible as non-instinctual.

For your example, there are more options than sitting on a ski lift or skiing down hill. However, you would only have two options if you set it up like the stimulus. In that case, you would have wrote that the only options were sitting on a ski lift or not sitting on a ski lift. That splits the choices into one of two options, and all actions would fall into one of the two options. Running down the hill is not sitting on the ski lift. Singing on stage is not sitting on a ski lift. The only action that would be sitting on a ski lift would be..sitting on the ski lift. Just like in our stimulus, where all behavior is instinctual or non-instinctual.

Hope that helps!
Rachael

[glasann]

Doesn't answer choice B make the assumption that there are only two kinds of behavior -- instinctual and noninstinctual? Of course we do know from the stimulus that insects behavior can't be noninstinctual, but how do we know then that it's "exclusively" instinctual? Couldn't there be other behavior types other than these two?

[gavelgirl]

Hi PowerScore!

So I originally answered A and I did so without diagramming (I know, I was mad at myself too). After seeing the explanation of why it was B I tried diagramming the problem. I am not sure if I did it correctly, but if you could let me know that would be helpful so I could try that for a future problem. Thanks in advance!

1.) Brain Mech. of Flexible Behavior Large Number of Neurons
2.) Insects NOT have Large Number of Neurons

To connect these two independent claims to attempt an inference, I took the contrapositive of the second statement and turned it into:
3.)Large Number of Neurons NOT an Insect

Then I made a long chain and its contrapositive.
4.) Brain Mech. of Flexible Behavior Large Number of Neurons NOT an Insect
5.) An Insect NOT have Large Number of Neurons NOT capable of Flexible Behavior

Doing this makes me see that answer choice B was following #5 because if it is not "flexible behavior" (non-instinctual), then it must be instinctual?

If I did this correctly, great. But I have trouble identifying when I should be diagramming, what to diagram, and it it's always the best option? Should I know to diagram every time I see it to be a SN question? Thanks again.

[g_lawyered]

Hi,
The most recent explanation posted by Administrator is fairly easy to follow. Similar to the previous student posts, I'm having troubling linking the conditional reasoning together which is why when I went to answer choices- I didn't find any that matched my analysis. I had to try to pick one that I could infer without conditional reasoning.

I read from previous posts that the 1st sentence didn't have to be written out in conditional reasoning. But I thought so. Here's how I wrote my statements out. I used ~ to mean NOT:

Statement 1: Instinctual behavior ----> ~ reasoning AND fewer nerve cells than flexible behavior
Contrapositive: Reasoning OR ~ fewer (equal to or more than) nerve cells than flexible behavior ----> ~ Instinctual behavior

Statement 2: Flexible behavior ----> Large # of Neurons
Contrapositive: ~ Large # of Neurons ----> ~ Flexible behavior

Statement 3: Insect brain ----> ~ Large # of Neurons
Contrapositive: Large # of Neurons ---> ~ Insect brain

Chain relationship:
Flexible behavior ----> Large # of Neurons ---> ~ Insect brain

from this chain relationship I couldn't have inferred than insect brain is instinctual (as answer choice B states) because I didn't see how I can link insect brain to instinctual.

Can anyone review my conditional reasoning and see where I went wrong? And also advise how we reach answer choice b without conditional reasoning? Because I saw a lot of conditional reasoning in the stimulus yet the most recent explanation from Administration doesn't have any.
Also, I saw that the breakdown said this was an SN question.. what does that mean? I thought it was a MBT question with conditional reasoning.

Thanks in advance!
Gabriela

[Jeremy Press]

Hi PowerScore!

So I originally answered A and I did so without diagramming (I know, I was mad at myself too). After seeing the explanation of why it was B I tried diagramming the problem. I am not sure if I did it correctly, but if you could let me know that would be helpful so I could try that for a future problem. Thanks in advance!

1.) Brain Mech. of Flexible Behavior Large Number of Neurons
2.) Insects NOT have Large Number of Neurons

To connect these two independent claims to attempt an inference, I took the contrapositive of the second statement and turned it into:
3.)Large Number of Neurons NOT an Insect

Then I made a long chain and its contrapositive.
4.) Brain Mech. of Flexible Behavior Large Number of Neurons NOT an Insect
5.) An Insect NOT have Large Number of Neurons NOT capable of Flexible Behavior

Doing this makes me see that answer choice B was following #5 because if it is not "flexible behavior" (non-instinctual), then it must be instinctual?

If I did this correctly, great. But I have trouble identifying when I should be diagramming, what to diagram, and it it's always the best option? Should I know to diagram every time I see it to be a SN question? Thanks again.

Hi gavelgirl,

Nice job! That's exactly how you should've done it. For me, the question of whether to diagram in a Must Be True question mostly involves whether (1) there are multiple conditional statements (here, there are), and whether (2) there are shared terms between those conditional statements (here, there are, "large number of neurons"). That makes it a perfect question for diagramming, as I see it!

[Jeremy Press]

Hi,
The most recent explanation posted by Administrator is fairly easy to follow. Similar to the previous student posts, I'm having troubling linking the conditional reasoning together which is why when I went to answer choices- I didn't find any that matched my analysis. I had to try to pick one that I could infer without conditional reasoning.

I read from previous posts that the 1st sentence didn't have to be written out in conditional reasoning. But I thought so. Here's how I wrote my statements out. I used ~ to mean NOT:

Statement 1: Instinctual behavior ----> ~ reasoning AND fewer nerve cells than flexible behavior
Contrapositive: Reasoning OR ~ fewer (equal to or more than) nerve cells than flexible behavior ----> ~ Instinctual behavior

Statement 2: Flexible behavior ----> Large # of Neurons
Contrapositive: ~ Large # of Neurons ----> ~ Flexible behavior

Statement 3: Insect brain ----> ~ Large # of Neurons
Contrapositive: Large # of Neurons ---> ~ Insect brain

Chain relationship:
Flexible behavior ----> Large # of Neurons ---> ~ Insect brain

from this chain relationship I couldn't have inferred than insect brain is instinctual (as answer choice B states) because I didn't see how I can link insect brain to instinctual.

Can anyone review my conditional reasoning and see where I went wrong? And also advise how we reach answer choice b without conditional reasoning? Because I saw a lot of conditional reasoning in the stimulus yet the most recent explanation from Administration doesn't have any.
Also, I saw that the breakdown said this was an SN question.. what does that mean? I thought it was a MBT question with conditional reasoning.

Thanks in advance!
Gabriela

Hi Gabriela,

The SN label means "sufficient/necessary" and indicates that there is a conditional reasoning component to the question. Your mileage on diagramming when there is conditional reasoning in a stimulus may vary. As I answered another student, I really like the idea of diagramming in this question! Some others may not. Your diagramming of statements 2 and 3 is absolutely fine here and should lead you to answer choice B. The first statement in the stimulus is not conditional, and I'd refer you to Adam Tyson's post above for the reason why (so there's no need to diagram that statement).

Regarding the equivalency between flexible and noninstinctual behavior, in this particular stimulus the author clearly indicates that "flexible behavior" is supposed to be read as the same thing as "noninstinctual behavior," where the author says, "noninstinctual (also called flexible) behavior." That's the author telling us those are the same concepts. So where you diagrammed "Flexible behavior" in your diagrams, you could have also diagrammed "~Instinctual behavior" (i.e., "NOT instinctual behavior").

I hope this helps!

[Jeremy Press]

Doesn't answer choice B make the assumption that there are only two kinds of behavior -- instinctual and noninstinctual? Of course we do know from the stimulus that insects behavior can't be noninstinctual, but how do we know then that it's "exclusively" instinctual? Couldn't there be other behavior types other than these two?

Hi glasann,

Adam actually answers that exact question in his post above in the second page of this thread (very well, too!). I'll quote him here, in his post's entirety:

"The answer, Yaesul, is in what we call a two-value system. The author has divided all behavior into two categories - instinctual and noninstinctual. Every behavior must logically fit into one of these two groups, simply because "noninstinctual" can only mean everything that is not instinctual. Once we know that noninstinctual behavior isn't possible for insects, that leaves only one other option - instinctual. There is nothing else! You're either here, or you're not here. My alma mater is either a public school or else it is not a public school. My neighbor either did go to Las Vegas or he did not go to Las Vegas.

So I'll toss this one back to you - if an insect's behavior is not noninstinctual, what else could it be? What else is there other than instinctual?

That's the power of a two-value system. You can divide the world neatly into two parts, and if you aren't in one part then you must be in the other. Life rarely works that cleanly, but logic, and the LSAT, frequently does.

Enjoy that, or else do not enjoy that!"

[asid178]

Dear PS,

Can you please diagram the stimulus, I had trouble determining which information was relevant for the diagram and which was not. I also would appreciate if you could highlight which words in this question indicate a sufficient/ Necessary relationship because it wasn't clear to me.

My diagram was as follows:

Flexible brain → Large number of neurons
contrastive: / Large number of neurons →/Flexible brain therefore → instinctual brain

No insect brain → Large number of neurons
contrastive: if large number of neurons → Not insect brain