Self-paced
Babies who can hear and have hearing parents who expose them to speech begin to babble at a certain age as a precursor to speaking. ██ ███ ████ ████ ████ ██████ ████ ████ ███████ ███ ███████████ ████ ████ ███ ████ ████ █████ ██ ███████ █████ ██ ██████ ██ █████ ██ ███ ████ ████ ████ ███ ████ ████ ██████████ ████ ████████ ████ ███████████ ██████ ███ ████████ ██████ ██ ██████ ███ ████████ ██ ████████ █████████ ██ ███████
Stimulus Breakdown
The stimulus tells us about babies' development of babbling. There's no argument, just a collection of facts. Let's lay those facts out:
1) hearing babies with hearing parents babble out loud as part of speech development;
2) deaf babies with deaf parents babble in sign language around the same age;
3) this sign-babbling is analogous to vocal babbling.
The correct answer will present a hypothesis which is incompatible with these facts. It's hard to predict what exactly that hypothesis will be, so our safest bet is to proceed by process of elimination. Incorrect answers will be compatible with the stimulus.
15.
The information above, if accurate, ███ ████ ██ ████ ██ ████████ ███████ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ ███████████
a
Names of persons ██ ██████ ███ ███ ████████ █████ ██ █ █████████ █████ ██████ ███ ████ ██████ █████ ███ █████ ██ ███████ ██ ██████████
The stimulus only addresses babbling, which doesn't involve words yet. Since we don't have any information about how babies start to use actual words, (A) is fully compatible with the stimulus.
b
The development of ████████ ██████████ ██ ██████ ███████ █████████ ██ ███ ████████ ██████████ ██ ███ █████ ██████ █ ███████ ████ ████████ ███████████████ █████ █████████
The stimulus tells us that language development doesn't have to be vocal: deaf babies with deaf parents go through the same early development as hearing babies, but they do so non-vocally. That's incompatible with a hypothesis that language development relies on vocal abilities, making (B) the correct answer.
c
In the absence ██ ██████ ███ ███████████ ████ ████ █████ ██ █████ █████████ ██████ ███████ █████████████ ██████████
The stimulus only tells us about babies who do have adults around to communicate in their presence. Since we have no idea what happens without adults around, any such hypothesis is compatible with the stimulus.
d
In babbling, babies ███ ███████ ████ ███ █████ ██ ███████ ████████████ ████ ███ ███ ██ ████████ ██ █ █████████ ████
The stimulus gives us a strictly factual description of babbling, without ever mentioning babies' intentions in producing these sounds or signs. Since the stimulus doesn't tip the scales either way, (C) is absolutely compatible with it.
e
The making of ████ ████████ ██ ███████ ██████ ███ ████ ███████ ███████ ██████ ██ ███████████ ██ █ ████ ██ █████ ██████████ █████████
The stimulus only discusses hand gestures (specifically signs) in the context of deaf babies with deaf parents. Similarly, our knowledge of language development in hearing babies with hearing parents is limited to their vocal babbling. Since the stimulus doesn't weigh in on gestures in this context, any hypothesis about such gestures is compatible with it.