Self-study
Some researchers claim that people tend to gesture less when they articulate what would typically be regarded as abstract rather than physical concepts. ██ █████ ███ ████ ████ █ ███████████ ██ ███ ████ █████████ ██ ████████████ ██████ ██ ██████ ███ ████████████ ██████ ███████ ████ ██████ ████████ █████ ████ ███████████████ ██ ██████████ █ ████████ ███████ ████ ████████ ██████████ ██████ ████ █ █████ ██ ██████████████ █████ ██ █████████
Summarize Argument
Some researchers say that people tend to gesture less when they articulate abstract rather than physical concepts. The author concludes that we shouldn’t reject the researcher’s claim merely because the correlation they describe doesn’t hold for everyone. This is because some people perceive words that seem to describe something abstract as describing something physical. (The implication is that this differing perception might show that people who don’t seem to fit the general correlation described earlier might be perceiving some “abstract” words as physical.)
Describe Method of Reasoning
The author offers an explanation for why some people don’t fit the general correlation, as part of a defense of the researchers’ claim against criticism that the correlation isn’t universal.
22.
Which one of the following ████ ██████████ █████████ ███ ██████ ██ █████████ ████ ██ ███ █████████
a
appealing to the █████████ ██ █ ████ ██ ██ ███████ ██ ████ ████ █ ███████████ ██ █████████
The author doesn’t conclude that the correlation is universal. He argues that the observation that it isn’t universal isn’t enough to show the researchers are wrong.
b
appealing to a █████████ █████████████ ██████████████ ██ ██ ███████ ██ ███████ █ █████ █████ ███ ███ ██ ████████
The author doesn’t rely on a “universal psychological generalization.” He relies on a phenomenon that is true for some people (how they perceive certain words). This isn’t something that is experienced universally.
c
citing a psychological ████ ██ ███ ██ █████████ █ ██████████████ ████ ██████████ █████████████ ████████
Cites to a psychological fact (how some people perceive certain words) to try to reconcile a generalization (the researcher’s claim) with seemingly disconfirming evidence (the fact the correlation between gestures and articulating abstract/physical concepts isn’t universal).
d
advocating an explanation ███ █ ██████████ ██ ██████████ ██ ███████████ ████ █████ ████████ ████████████ ███ ███████████
The author doesn’t rule out explanations. He offers an explanation for why the correlation between gestures and abstract/physical concepts isn’t universal — some people perceive “abstract” words as physical; that might be why they gesture more when articulating those words.
e
offering a reason ███ █████████ ████ █ ██████ ████████ ██████████████ ████████ █████ ████ ██████████ ████████
We don’t know that the researcher’s claim is “widely accepted.” Also, the author defends that claim. He doesn’t try to show that we need more evidence in order to believe it.