prep cr

[lindaliu9273]

Adult female rats who have never before encountered rat pups will start to show maternal behaviors after being confined with a pup for about seven days. This period can be considerably shortened by disabling the female's sense of smell or by removing the scent-producing glands of the pup.

Which of the following hypotheses best explains the contrast described above?

(A) The sense of smell in adult female rats is more acute than that in rat pups.
(B) The amount of scent produced by rat pups increases when they are in the presence of a female rat that did not bear them.
(C) Female rats that have given birth are more affected by olfactory cues than are female rats that have never given birth.
(D) A female rat that has given birth shows maternal behavior toward rat pups that she did not bear more quickly than does a female rat that has never given birth.
(E) The development of a female rat's maternal interest in a rat pup that she did not bear is inhibited by the odor of the pup.

OA: E
My confuse is: E, since female rat rely on odor to develope interest to feed a baby that is not her child, removing odor should make the female rat not feed the baby. That makes the contrast even more difficult to explain. Pls help correct my logic because I know it must be wrong.

And what's wrong with B?

Many thanks.

[divineacclivity]

My confuse is: E, since female rat rely on odor to develope interest to feed a baby that is not her child, removing odor should make the female rat not feed the baby. That makes the contrast even more difficult to explain. Pls help correct my logic because I know it must be wrong.

And what's wrong with B?

Many thanks.

"start to show maternal behaviours after being confined with a pup for about seven days" --> does NOT mean it is the odour of the rat pup that causes the female to feed the pup.

The argument doesn't state the reason why that happens over the period of seven days.
But, the argument does say that this period of seven days can be reduced if the odour is somehow cut/reduced
=> This would mean it is the odour that keeps the female rat from showing maternal behaviour (the reason(s) we could imagine be: gradually she becomes indifferent to the smell). So, E makes sense.
I hope that helps.

[RonPurewal]

(E) The development of a female rat's maternal interest in a rat pup that she did not bear is inhibited by the odor of the pup.

OA: E
My confuse is: E, since female rat rely on odor to develope interest to feed a baby that is not her child, removing odor should make the female rat not feed the baby. That makes the contrast even more difficult to explain.

The word "inhibit" means exactly the opposite of what you seem to think it means.

"Inhibit" means "hinder"/"prevent". You seem to be interpreting it as "encourage"/"facilitate"/"cause to happen" (as shown by the blue text).

Oops.

[RonPurewal]

And what's wrong with B?

The amount of scent has no bearing on this argument.

[lindaliu9273]

Thank you so much!

[RonPurewal]

No problem.