While studying a large colony of macaque monkeys, scientists interacting with baby monkeys under a week old found that the babies would imitate some, but not all, of the scientists' actions. ███ ██████ ███████ ███████ █████ ████ ███ █████ ███ █████ ███████ ████ ███ ██████████ ████ ███ ██████ ███████████ ████ ███ ██████████ ██████ ███ ██████ █████ ██████ ██ ████ ████ █████████ ██ █████ ████ █████ ██ ████████ ████ ███ ████████ ███ ████████ ███ ███ ██████ ███ ████ ██ █████ ████████ ████ ███████████ ████ ███████
Baby monkeys imitate humans, but only sometimes. We tried getting them to imitate 4 different actions, and they only imitated the two that are also used by adult monkeys.
Assuming this sample is representative of all the other actions, this data suggests the monkeys only know to mimic the actions adult monkeys routinely use.
There is a critical difference between Must Be True and Most Strongly Supported questions: whereas MBT answer choices are either right or wrong on their own merits, MSS answer choices are inherently comparative. The right answer often falls short of the MBT standard, and is right because the assumptions it requires or the ways in which it extends beyond the stimulus’ support are more reasonable than the other answer choices.
The statements above, if true, ████ ████████ ███████ █████ ███ ██ ███ ██████████
Baby macaques under █ ████ ███ ███ ███████ ██████ ██ ████████ ████ ████
This directly contradicts the stimulus, which states that baby macaques mimic some, but not all, of the things they see.
Baby macaques under █ ████ ███ ██████ ███████ ████ ████████ ███████ ████ ██ ███ ███ ███████ ███ █████████ ████████
This particular causal explanation finds no support in the stimulus. We know the babies don’t imitate hand gestures, but we have no idea why that is.
We also know the baby monkeys do have the musculature to smack their lips, which leaves open the question of why they didn’t open and close their mouths.
Adult macaques use ███ ████████ ███ ████████ ███ ███ ██████ ██ █████████ ██████ █████████
While this is a reasonable guess in the real world, 100% of the support for this claim comes from our outside knowledge. We have no in-stimulus information about why any monkeys do anything – all our evidence is mere observation about what they do. Compare that to (E), which, despite also requiring assumptions, is rooted in evidence directly supporting its claim.
Baby macaques under █ ████ ███ ███████ ███ ██████████ ███████████ ████ ████ ███ █████ █████████
If the baby monkeys mistake scientists for adult monkeys, why aren’t they mimicking all their expressions? Why only some?
(D) is a more specific (and therefore less well-supported) version of (E). We do have evidence that there is a link between seeing stuff that adult macaques do and mimicking that behavior, but the stimulus gives us no information on why that connection exists.
Baby macaques under █ ████ ███ ████ ███████ █████ ████████ ████ ████ ██ █████ █████████
(E) fails the MBT standard, but that doesn’t make it wrong. This is an MSS question, and (E) is right because the limited evidence we have provides some direct support for this inference.
(E) demonstrates inductive reasoning – it infers a general claim from specific instances, assuming those instances are representative of the whole. Although that logic is never valid, it’s often reasonable.
Imagine watching a machine sort marbles into different piles. After 5 minutes you notice all the red marbles are in one pile and all the blue marbles are in another pile. It would be reasonable, although not valid, to infer that the machine is sorting marbles by color. You have some support for that claim.
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