Self-study
Asked by researchers to sort objects by shape, most toddlers in a large study had no trouble doing so. ████ ████████████ ████ ██ ████ ██ ██████ ███ ████████ ██████ ██ ████ ██████████ █████████ ███ ███ ████ ███ ██████ ██████████ █████████ ████ █████ █████ █████████ ███ ███████████ ███████ ████ ████████ ██ █████ ██ ███ █████ █████ ██████ ████ ████████████ ███████████ ██ ███ ██████████ ██████ ██ █████████ ███ ██████ ██ █████████ ███ █████████ ████ ████████ ██ ███ ██████ ███ ██ ████ ██ ███████ ██████████ ██ ███████ █████ ████ ████████████
Summary
In a large study, most toddlers were able to sort objects by shape when asked by researchers. However, when the researchers asked the toddlers to sort the objects by color, the toddlers struggled. The researchers hypothesize that this is because of the toddlers' insufficient prefrontal cortex development. The cortex is essential for functions like adapting to new rules, and continues to develop into adolescence.
Strongly Supported Conclusions
Some rule-breaking behaviors exhibited by toddlers may not be intentional.
18.
Which one of the following ██ ████ █████████ ██ ███ ███████████ ██████
a
Toddlers unable to ████ ███████ ██ █████ ████ ██ ████ █ ████ █████████ ██████████ ██████ ████ █████ ████████ ██ ███ ████ ████
This answer is unsupported. We don’t know from the study whether the inability to sort objects by color is an effect of an underdeveloped cortex. Rather, we know difficulty in adapting to new rules is an effect of an underdeveloped cortex.
b
Only adolescents and ██████ ███ █████ ████████ ████ ███████ ████████ ██ ███ ██████
This answer is unsupported. We know that an underdeveloped cortex might prevent someone from adapting to new rules, but we can't say that not a single pre-adolescent child has a developed enough cortex to do so. This is too strong.
c
Certain kinds of ████████ ██ ███ ████ ██ ████████ ███ ███ ██ █████████ ████████████
This answer is strongly supported. The stimulus suggests that the toddlers behaved the way they did because they were more or less incapable, not because they willfully disregarded the researcher’s instructions.
d
The maturing of ███ ██████████ ██████ ██ ████ █████████ ████ ██████████ ██ ███████ ███ ███████████ ██ ████████ █████████
This answer is unsupported. We don’t know how important of a factor upbringing is for adaptive behavior. Upbringing was not a factor that was part of the researcher’s study.
e
Skill at adapting ██ ███ ██████████ ██ ███████ ████████████ ██ ███ █████ ██ ███████████ ██ ███ ██████████ ███████
This answer is unsupported. We don’t know from the study whether the development of a person’s cortex is proportional to this skill. We only know that these two things may be related, not the details of that relationship.