Self-study
Support The everyday behavior of whales is particularly difficult to study because introducing novel stimuli, such as divers or submarines, into the whales' environment causes whales to behave in unusual ways. ████ ██████████ ████ ██ █████ ███ █████ ██ █████ █████ ███████ ██ █████ █████ ████ ██ ████████ ██ ████ █████ ████ ███████ ████ █████ ████ █████ ██████ ███ ██████████ ██ █████ █████ ███ █████ ███████ █████ ███ ███ █████ ██ ████ ███ ██████ █████ █████ ██████████ ██ █████ ███ ████████ ████████ ██ ███████
Summary
The biologists conclude that using human-commanded sea lions with cameras on their backs to film whales would allow biologists to study the everyday behavior of whales.
Why?
Because whales are accustomed to being around sea lions. (The biologists think that using sea lions with cameras on their backs would avoid the problem of “introducing novel stimuli,” which is something that occurs when divers or submarines attempt to enter whales’ environments.)
Notable Assumptions
The biologists assume that sea lions WITH CAMERAS ON THEIR BACKS would not be considered “novel stimuli” to the whale. This overlooks the possibility that, even though whales are used to being around sea lions, they might not be used to being around sea lions who are filming them.
11.
Which one of the following ██ ██ ██████████ ██ █████ ███ ███████████ █████████ ████████
a
Whales will often █████ ████████████ ██ ███ ████████ ██ ██████ ███ ██████████ ████████ ██████████ ████████ ██ ███████ ███ ███████
Not necessary, because we already know that whales behave in unusual ways around divers or submarines. Whether that behavior is aggressive or nonaggressive doesn’t affect the biologists’ reasoning.
b
The behavior of ███ ███ █████ █████ █████ ███████ ████ ██ ██████ ███ █████ ██ ███ ████ ████████ ██ █████ ███ ██████ ███ ███████████
Necessary, because if it were not true — if the behavior of sea lions under human command will NOT be within the range of behavior the whales are used to — then we cannot be confident that the whales won’t behave unusually, just as they do when divers or submarines attempt to observe them. In other words, (B) is necessary because the biologists must think the human-commanded sea lions won’t be considered “novel stimuli” to the whales.
c
The trained sea █████ ████ ███ ██ █████ ████ ████ ███ ████████ █████ ███████ ██ █████ ██████
Not necessary, because even if the sea lions are aware of their cameras, we have no reason to think that would affect how whales react to the sea lions.
d
Sea lions carrying █████ ███████ ████ ██ ████ ██ ████ ██████ ██ █ ████ ██████ █████ ████ ██████ ████
Not necessary, because the issue is whether the whales will behave unusually around the sea lions. The author thinks sea lions will allow us to study whales, not because sea lions can film much more closely than divers, but because sea lions won’t lead to unusual behavior.
e
Whales prefer the ████████ ██ ███ █████ ██ ████ ██ ██████ ██████ ██ ███████████
The issue is not what whales prefer; the issue whether whales will behavior unusually around sea lions. Even if whales prefer divers or submarines over sea lions, that doesn’t tell us anything about whether the whales might behave unusually around sea lions.