Self-study
Various studies have concluded that song overlapping, the phenomenon where one bird begins a song while another of its species is singing, is a signal of aggression. █████ ███████ ███ █████ ██████ ██ █████████████████ ██████ █████ ████ ██ ██████ ███████████ █████ ███ ██████ ██ █ ██████ █████ ██ ███ ██████ ███████ ██ ███ ████████ ███ ███████████████ ██ ██████████████ ██ ███████████ ██ █ ████████ ██ █████████ ███████████ ██████████ ████████
Summary
Studies have concluded that song overlapping is a signal of aggression. These studies are based solely on receiver-response tests, which derive conclusions about behavior based on how others respond to it. Any response, including no response, can be interpreted as a reaction to aggression.
Strongly Supported Conclusions
The studies are inconclusive in showing that song overlapping is a signal of aggression.
10.
Which one of the following ████ █████████ █████████ ███ █████████
a
birds do not ███████ ██ █ ███████████ ██████ ██ ███████ ██ ██████████
This is unsupported because we don’t know how birds respond to the signal of aggression based on what the author tells us.
b
receiver-response tests can ███████ ██ ███████ ████ ████ ████████
This is unsupported because even if receiver-response tests could perceive any response as aggression, there may be other ways they could provide insight into bird behavior outside of evaluating the purpose of song overlapping.
c
song overlapping is ██████ ███ █ ██████ ██ ██████████
This is unsupported because even though we have reasons to doubt the existing studies conclusion, we cannot go so far as to conclude the opposite. We merely have to acknowledge that the prevailing hypothesis is unsupported.
d
song overlapping has ██ █████████████ ████████
This is unsupported because song overlapping may be used to communicate even if we have reasons to doubt existing studies showing it is a signal of aggression.
e
the conclusion of █████ ███████ ██ ████████████
This is strongly supported because the studies rely on a method that could show any response to be a signal of aggression. This means we have little reason to believe that song overlapping is uniquely a sign of aggression.