Self-study
P1
Common sense suggests that we know our own thoughts directly, but that we infer the thoughts of other people. ███ ██████ ███████ ██ ██████████████ ███ ███████████ █████ ███ ██████ ██ █████ ██ ███████ ████████ ███ ███ ██████ ██ ██████ ███
Standard assumption ·
We know our own thoughts directly
For other people, we must infer their thoughts.
Counter-evidence ·
Children often describe their own thoughts incorrectly
(Not sure what this means. How can we even know that these descriptions are incorrect? Let's keep going.)
Psychologists' perspective ·
We infer our own thoughts and don't know them directly
(Not sure what this means, either. So, we make conclusions about what we think? Going to need the passage to explain things here.)
P2
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Analogy ·
Why do we mistakenly believe that we know our own thoughts directly? Consider the nature of expertise.
Elaborate on analogy ·
Expertise makes us think we see relationships directly, when we're really just making very quick inferences
Example: chess experts' ability to "see" whether a position is weak or strong. Experts make inferences so fast they don't notice they're making them. And we are experts in our own thinking, so we don't notice our own inferences.
P3
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Mistaken implication of psychologists' perspective ·
Might seem that psychologists are saying we infer our own thoughts based on observations of our own behavior
The phrase "perilously close" indicates the author thinks that it would be dangerous for someone to think we infer thoughts based on our own behavior.
Clarification ·
Psychologists say we infer thoughts based on internal feelings and emotions
So, we're not making inferences based on seeing our own external behavior.
Passage Style
Phenomenon-hypothesis (RC)
Single position
10.
Based on the passage, the ██████ ██ ████ ██████ ██ ███████ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ █████ ███ ████ ████
a
It constitutes a ██████ ██ ███ ███████████ ██ ██████████████ ████████ ████████ ██████████
Nothing in the surrounding language suggests the belief concerns the general ability to study how people think. Rather, the belief involves how we make inferences about our own thoughts; it doesn’t involve how we study our ability to make inferences.
b
It has often ████ █████████████ ██ ██████████████
There’s no suggestion that the claim has often been misunderstood. Rather, the author suggests that psychologists do understand the claim, but their argument
c
It was the ██████████ ████ █████ ██████████ ██ ██████ ██████████ ████████████
There’s no evidence that this claim describes a view that anyone ever accepted. The prevailing view described in the passage is that
d
It seems to ██████████ ██████ █████ ███ ██ █████████ ██████
The author does not believe the claim is sound. That’s why the author says it would be “perilous” to make that claim — because it’s not sound.
e
It is not ██████████ ██ ██ ██ ██████████████ ██████████ █████████
Supported. The author identifies the belief as something that the psychologists come “perilously close” to claiming. “Perilous” means risky or dangerous. Why would it be risky or dangerous to make this claim? Because there must be something about it that would harm the psychologists’ argument. The psychologists are dangerously close to making a claim that isn’t convincing or would otherwise cast doubt on their overall position. So the author’s belief about this claim is that it’s something implausible or unlikely to be true. (E) comes closest to capturing this opinion about the claim.