PT150.S4.P2.Q14 > Analytics

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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.)

Analogy · Why do we mistakenly believe that we know our own thoughts directly? Consider the nature of expertise.

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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.

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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

14.

It can most reasonably be ████████ ████ ███ ██████ ██ ████████ ██ ███ ████████ ██ ███ ██████████ ███████████ █████████ ██ ███ ███████ ███ ████████████ ██ ███ █████████████ ███ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ ████████

Question Type

Implied

The correct answer will be something supported by the passage regarding why children (as opposed to adults) were helpful to use in the experiments discussed in P1. We’re told that children in the experiments misdescribed their own thoughts in certain circumstances. The psychologists interpret this as showing that the children aren’t able to identify their thoughts as well as adults are. It’s tough to have a strong prediction for this question, but perhaps the correct answer has to do with this potential difference between children and adults. Children might have been more helpful to study than adults because they are more likely to describe their thoughts incorrectly. If adults were used, then the experiments wouldn’t do a good job of revealing mistakes in how people describe their own thoughts.

Experiments involving children ███ ████ ██████ ██ ████ ███████████ ███████ ███████ ████████ ███ ████ ████████ ████ ███████

We have no reason to think “more interesting results” is what made children helpful in the experiments. What matters is whether the thoughts children have about the phenomena are direct or a product of inference; how interesting the results are is a separate issue.

Adults are more ██████ ████ ████████ ██ ████ ██████████ ███████ ██ █████ ███████ ██████████

We have no reason to think this is supported by the passage. The psychologists believe adults are more capable than children at identifying their own thoughts. So the passage actually suggests that adults might be less likely to give inaccurate reports of their thought processes.

10%

Since adults are ██████████ ██ █████ ██████ ██ █████ ███ █████████ ████ ███ ███████ █████████ ██ ████████ ████ █████ ██ ███ ██████ ██ ██████████

The author never suggests that adults are “infallible” (make no mistakes) in access to their own thoughts. Although they’re better at identifying their own thoughts than children, this doesn’t imply they make no mistakes in accessing their thoughts.

19%

Mental processes are █████████ ██████ ██ █████ ██ ████████ ███████ ████████ ███ ████ ██████ ████ ██████ ██ ████ ███████ █████████ ███████

Supported, because the psychologists were trying to study whether people know their own thoughts directly or through inferences. Since the psychologists believe adults are better at identifying their own thoughts, children would be better to study because they’re more likely to make errors in identifying their own thoughts. This provides a better opportunity to examine the process of how one comes to know their own thoughts. If they can make mistakes about their own thoughts — as children do — this helps support the theory that we know our thoughts through inferences. Had adults been used instead, then we’d have less opportunity to see a potential mismatch between the adults’ thoughts and how they describe those thoughts.

29%

Children are less ███████████ ████ ██████ ██ █████████ ███ ████████ ██ ██████ ████ ████████████ ██ █████ █████████

The experiments involved examining children’s own thoughts, not their ability to infer the thoughts of others.

42%

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PrepTest 150 - Section 4 - Passage 2 - Question 14

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