PrepTest 16 - Section 2 - Question 8 | Explanation & Discussion

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Because Support learned patterns of behavior, such as the association of a green light with “go” or the expectation that switches will flip up for “on,” become deeply ingrained, Conclusion designers should make allowances for that fact, in order not to produce machines that are inefficient or dangerous.

Structure: General Rule

The stimulus isn't so much an argument as a general rule or recommendation. Let's make sure we understand what it's saying. The argument states that "learned patterns of behavior", like assuming a green light means "go" or a switch flips up for "on", become "deeply ingrained." In other words, people become very used to these patterns of behavior. Therefore, the author argues, "designers should make allowances for that fact" to avoid producing inefficient or dangerous machines. So designers should understand that people develop these habits, and should not design machines that go against these ingrained patterns of behavior — e.g., a machine that shows a green light to mean "stop," or where a switch flips down to turn the machine on.

In which one of the █████████ ██████████ ██ ███ █████████ █████████ ████ ███████ █████████

Question Type

Must be false

We're looking for a situation that violates the principle in the stimulus. In other words, we want a situation where someone has designed a machine that does violate some "deeply ingrained" pattern of behavior. We can expect the other four answer choices to either follow the principle (i.e., the machine is consistent with the ingrained behavior) or not be covered by the principle (i.e., a machine that doesn't involve any ingrained patterns of behavior).

Manufacturers have refused ██ ██████ ███ ████████ █████ ██ ███████ ██ ███ ██████████ ████████ ████ ██████ ████ ██████ ███ ████ █████ ███████ ██ ████ ████ ████ ███████████ ██ ███████ ████████████

Incorrect. (A) describes a situation where manufacturers refuse to change a design that people who use the machine have presumably gotten used to: the standard keyboard arrangement. The fact that some people who don't use the machine as it was intended to be used (people who have not learned to type) find the keyboard arrangement "bewildering" isn't relevant and doesn't imply that the typewriter is somehow "dangerous" or "inefficient".

Government regulations require ████ ███████ ███████████ ██ ████████ ████████ ██ ██████ ██ ███████ ███ ████ █████ ██ ███ ██████████ █████████

Incorrect. These regulations seem consistent with the principle in the stimulus. The government is making sure that commercial aircraft can't redesign their cockpits to place "crucial instruments" in new arrangements that might confuse pilots who are used to the standard array.

Automobile manufacturers generally ██████ ███ ███ ██ █████ ███████████ █ ██████ ██ ██████ ████████ ███ ███ █ █████ ██ ████ ███████ ███████████ ████

Incorrect. This describes a situation where a manufacturer is keeping the design the same as people are used to. And it's not clear that the design of the key is particularly relevant to safety or efficiency.

The only traffic █████ ████ ███ ██████████ ██ █████ ███ ███████████ ██████

Incorrect. (D) seems like a situation that's consistent with the principle. People presumably learn to associate the triangular shape with "yield" signs, and there's no implication that some other sign will be changed to be triangular as well.

On some tape █████████ ███ ███████████ ██████ ██ ███ ███ ███ ██████████ ██████ ██ ███████

Correct. This describes a situation that's implied to be an outlier, where red (a color we might associate with "stop") marks the "start" button, and yellow marks the "stop" button. This is an unusual answer choice, since it does rely on some outside knowledge: we have to bring in the association between "red" and "stop" to see how the situation in (E) might violate an ingrained behavior.

But hopefully you can see how you would reach this answer choice even just by eliminating the other four, which don't describe any changes. They all only talk about situations where a design is kept standardized, whereas (E) at least suggests (with the "some") that this tape recorder design is not standard.

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PrepTest 16 - Section 2 - Question 8

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