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
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.
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
Single position
12.
According to the passage, one's ███████ ███████ █████████ ██ █ █████ ███████ ██ ██████ ██
Question Type
Stated
In P2, the author tells us what greater expertise results in: “Greater expertise appears to change not only our knowledge of the area as a whole, but our very perception of entities in that area. It appears to us that we become able to see and to grasp these entities and their relations directly, whereas before we could only make inferences about them.”
a
an altered way ██ ██████████ █████ █████████ █████ ██████ ██ ████ █████
Not described as a result of greater expertise. Ways of expressing judgments have no connection to the discussion of expertise in P2.
b
a more detail-oriented ████████ ██ █████████ ██ ████ █████
Not described as a result of greater expertise. “Detail-oriented” has no connection to the discussion of expertise in P2.
Not described as a result of greater expertise. The author doesn’t suggest expertise causes people to ignore errors. Errors aren’t discussed in connection with expertise in P2.
d
a substantively different ███ ██ █████████████ █████████ ██████ ████ █████
Stated. “Substantively” in this context means something like “important” or “meaningful.” Greater expertise results in what appears to be a different way of understanding how things relate in the field. We think we see relations directly, rather than indirectly. This difference is substantive — it’s an actual, meaningful difference.
Not described as a result of greater expertise. Nothing about the explanation of expertise in P2 refers to emotions.
Difficulty
57% of people who answer get this correct
This is a difficult question.
It is similar in difficulty to other questions in this passage.
CURVE
Score of students with a 50% chance of getting this right
25%143
158
75%172
Analysis
Stated
Phenomenon-hypothesis
Science
Single position
Answer Popularity
PopularityAvg. score
a
6%
161
b
1%
150
c
28%
160
d
57%
164
e
8%
157
Question history
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