PSAT Reading Practice Test 4

Questions 1-10 refer to the following information.

This passage is adapted from "The Ability to Discriminate Paintings Found in Mice," a 2013 press release by Keio University

Keio University Professor Emeritus Shigeru
Watanabe has reported the ability to discriminate
paintings in pigeons and Java Sparrows in the past,
but his latest experiments have identified that this same
05ability exists in mice. He began by examining if the mice
stayed longer in front of paintings by Kandinsky or
Mondrian. He found that most mice did not display any
discrepancy in staying time (painting preference). They
did not show a preference for paintings when shown
10Renoir vs. Picasso, either. However, when mice were
injected with morphine while viewing one painting and
injected with saline solution when viewing the other,
the mice clearly began to stay for longer periods near
the paintings associated with morphine injection. In
15the second experiment, mice were able to discriminate
between pictures after training them to touch one of
the pictures displayed on a touch screen in order to
receive milk. Mice have been generally considered non-
visual animals, but this research indicates that mice are
20capable of higher-order visual perception.
Two types of apparatuses were used for the
experiments. The first was an apparatus with three
compartments. An iPod was installed on either side of
the apparatus, and slide shows of pictures of paintings
25were shown in sequence. Sensors recorded the staying
time of mice in the compartments with their respective
paintings. Next, mice were confined in one of the
compartments with a painting immediately after
receiving an injection of morphine (3mg/kg). During
30this confinement, paintings were displayed on the
iPod. The next day, mice received saline injections and
were confined in another compartment and shown
different paintings. After this procedure repeating
three times, mice were allowed to walk freely around
35the apparatus without any injection. As mice know
that morphine causes pleasure, they should stay
longer near the painting associated with the morphine
injection if able to discriminate between paintings
(Experiment 1).
40The second apparatus was a touch screen on which
a pair of paintings was displayed. If the mice touched
one of the paintings—one of Kandinsky's paintings, for
example—the mice would be rewarded with milk. If
they touched the other painting (Mondrian's painting,
45in this case), they would not receive milk. If mice
are capable of discrimination, they should touch the
painting associated with the milk reward (Experiment
2).
The first experiment, in which a slide show program
50on the iPod displayed 10 paintings each of Kandinsky
and Mondrian to the mice, did not indicate a longer
staying time for either artist's paintings. Analysis of
individual mice revealed only one mouse out of the
twenty stayed longer near Kandinsky's paintings. The
55mice did not indicate a preference for Picasso or Renoir
either, although one mouse out of the twelve stayed
longer near Renoir's painting. In the experiment which
used morphine (conditioning in Experiment 1), mice
stayed longer at the painting shown to them after the
60morphine injection for both the Kandinsky/Mondrian
and Picasso/Renoir pairs. In short, they were able to
discriminate between the paintings. When mice were
shown a number of the 10 paintings after the morphine
injection (e.g. five Kandinsky paintings), they recorded
65a longer staying time with the remaining paintings of
the same artist, even when those paintings had not
previously been shown to them (e.g. the five remaining
Kandinsky paintings). This is a phenomenon called
generalization and indicates that the mice were able
70to categorize a certain style of painting into a group. In
the touch screen experiment (Experiment 2), once mice
could correctly discriminate the pairs of Kandinsky and
Mondrian paintings, they were trained with different
pairs. After repeating this four times, mice were able
75to correctly choose the artist's painting in pairs of
paintings never shown to them around 80% of the
time. However, when the paintings were switched to
Picasso-Renoir pairs, the mice were unable to choose
correctly. This means that the mice were discriminating
80or categorizing a painting style as a single group.
Among mammals, humans place importance
on their sense of sight. Birds generally have excellent
vision. Mice have excellent senses of smell and hearing,
but it has been thought that they are non-visual
85animals. This is understandable considering the fact
that mice are nocturnal and burrowing creatures. This
experiment demonstrates that mice have much better
visual perception abilities than previously thought.
Additionally, it means that perception of complex visual
90stimuli like paintings extend to non-human animals.

10 questions    13 minutesAll test questions


1. Which choice best reflects the overall structure of the passage?

2. As used in line 12, "solution" most nearly means

3. Which choice is an underlying assumption Professor Watanabe makes regarding "staying time?"

4. Which choice provides the best evidence for the answer to the previous question?

5. As used in line 46, "discrimination" most nearly means

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

7. Which choice best supports the claim that mice are more visually adept than they were conventionally believed to be?

8. The primary purpose of the final paragraph (lines 81–90) is to

9. What main purpose does the figure serve in relation to the passage as a whole?

10. Based on information in the passage and in the figure, the mice, in general,

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