Self-study
To find out how barn owls learn how to determine the direction from which sounds originate, Support scientists put distorting lenses over the eyes of young barn owls before the owls first opened their eyes. ███ ████ ████ █████ ██████ ███████ ██ ██ ███████ ██████ ██████ ████ ███████ ██ ███ █████ ████ ████ ████████ █████ ████ ███ ████ ████████ ███ ██████ ████ ████████ ███ ███ ████ █████████ ██ ███ ██ ██ ████ █████████ ███ ████████ ██ ███ ██████ ██ ███████ ███ ██████████ ████████████ ████████████ ████ ████ █ ████ ███ ███ █████████ ██ ████████ ██████ ███ ██████████ ███ █████ ████ █████ ██████ ██████████ ██ ██████ ██ ███ ██████ ██ ██████ ███████
Summarize Argument: Phenomenon-Hypothesis
The scientists hypothesize that once barn owls learn to locate sounds through their hearing, they stop using their vision to locate sounds. They support this with a study where lenses were placed over baby barn owls' eyes. The owls misjudged sound locations and continued to do so even after they matured and the lenses were removed.
Identify and Describe Flaw
The scientists hypothesize that barn owls stop using their eyes to locate the source of sounds, because the owls in the study continued to misjudge sound locations even after the lenses were removed. But they ignore the alternative hypothesis that the lenses might have permanently damaged these owls’ eyes. In other words, what if the lenses just blinded the owls in the study, making them unable to use their vision to locate sounds even after the lenses were removed?
18.
The scientists' reasoning is vulnerable ██ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ ███████████
a
It fails to ████████ ███████ ███ █████ ██████ ███ ███████████ ████████ ██ █████ ██████ ████ ███ ██████ █████ █████████
It’s possible that the owls continued to misjudge the source of sounds because their vision was permanently impaired by the lenses, and not because all owls stop using vision to locate sounds once they develop “an auditory scheme” for doing so.
b
It assumes that ███ █████ ██ █████ ██ ███████ ████ ██ ███ █████
The argument is about barn owls, not all owls. Regardless, the scientists never assume that all barn owls have equally good vision. Instead, they draw a conclusion about all barn owls based on a study of barn owls that were given lenses from birth to maturity.
c
It attributes human █████████ █████████ ██ █ ████████ █████████
The scientists never argue that the owls use human reasoning. Instead, they hypothesize about the owls’ process of locating sounds.
d
It neglects to ████████ ███ ███████ ██████████ ██████ █████ ██████ ███ ████████ ██ █████ ████ ████████
The scientists’ hypothesis is only about how barn owls locate sounds. It doesn’t matter how the lenses might affect other bird species’ behavior.
e
It uses as ████████ ████████████ ███████ ████ ████ ██████████ ██ ███ ███████████
The scientists do use experimental results as evidence, but those results are relevant because they’re directly related to the conclusion.