PSAT Reading Question 34: Answer and Explanation

Question: 34

It can reasonably be inferred that Professor Watanabe showed the paintings to the mice prior to the conditioning experiments in order to

• A. prove that the staying times increased by 80%.
• B. familiarize them with the artists.
• C. heighten their sense of anticipation for rewards.
• D. establish a lack of preference without training.

Correct Answer: D

Explanation:

D

The question asks for an inference that explains why Professor Watanabe showed the paintings to the mice prior to the conditioning experiments. Since there is no line reference, use lead words and the order of the questions to find the window for the question. Q23 asks about line 46, so the window for Q24 most likely begins after that line. Scan the fourth paragraph, looking for the lead word conditioning. The paragraph says that the conditioning in Experiment 1 was the injection of morphine into the mice when they viewed certain paintings, encouraging them to associate pleasure with a specific painting. Prior to this, the paragraph discusses the first experiment without morphine, in which mice that were shown paintings from multiple artists did not show a preference for a particular painting or artist. Therefore, mice were shown paintings without any pleasure reward first to make sure they did not have a preference for a particular painting or artist before beginning the experiment with the morphine. Eliminate answers that don't match this prediction. Eliminate (A) because it is a Right Words, Wrong Meaning trap answer: Professor Watanabe did not show paintings to the mice first in order to prove that the staying times increased by 80%. Eliminate (B) because the passage does not say that the mice were shown paintings first to familiarize them with the artists. Eliminate (C) because the passage does not discuss the mice's sense of anticipation for rewards. Keep (D) because it matches the prediction. The correct answer is (D).