Self-study
For newborns of age four to six weeks whose mothers have been the primary caregivers, the following is true: When the newborns are crying due to hunger or other similar discomfort, merely hearing the mother's voice will lead to a temporary halt in crying, while the voices of others do not have this effect.
Summary
We’re learning a fact about a very specific group of people. The group is… newborn babies of four to six weeks, whose mothers are their primary caretakers, and who are crying due to hunger or a similar discomfort. Got all that? Great! Well, for those guys, the sound of their mother’s voice makes them stop crying temporarily. Other people’s voices do not do this.
Strongly Supported Conclusions
This stimulus supports the following conclusions:
Babies aged four to six weeks can at least sometimes distinguish their primary caretaker’s voice from other voices.
Babies aged four to six weeks who are in discomfort can at least sometimes be soothed by their primary caretaker’s voice.
The sound of their primary caretaker’s voice may lead babies aged four to six weeks who are in discomfort to anticipate relief.
4.
Which one of the following ██ ████ ██████████ █████████ ██ ███ ███████████ ██████
a
Babies more easily █████ ██ █████████ ███ ██████ ██ █████ ███████ ████ ███ ██████ ██ █████ ███████
This is not supported. The stimulus only talks about babies whose primary caretakers are their mothers, and only mentions voice recognition in a limited context. We just can’t compare babies’ recognition of their mothers’ voices with other voices based on these facts.
b
A mother's voice ██ ███ █████ █████ █ ████ ██████ ██ ██████████
This is not supported. The facts we are given don’t suggest when babies learn to recognize different things. We just know that babies can sometimes recognize their mothers’ voices by four to six weeks old, not what might come before or after.
c
Babies associate the █████ ██ ███ ███████ █████████ ████ ███████ ████ ███████████
This is strongly supported. These babies clearly have some positive association with their primary caretakers’ voices—why else would they stop crying? It’s reasonable to infer an association with release from discomfort, especially given that they’re crying from discomfort.
d
Often only a ███████ █████████ ███ ███████ ███████ ██ █ ████████
This is not supported. The stimulus doesn’t offer any broad facts about who can comfort a newborn and when. All we know is that, for a very specific subset of babies, their primary caregiver’s voice can lead them to pause their crying. Does that even count as comfort? Who knows!
e
Discomfort in newborns ██ ████ ████████ ██ ███████ ███ ████████ ██████
This is not supported. First, we can’t assume that the newborns are actually relieved of their discomfort. They stop crying temporarily, but may well keep feeling bad. Second, there’s nothing to compare with if we want to call a mother’s voice the “best” option.