Q26

[zcxlwj]

Hello - can someone please help me understand why (E) is incorrect?

Additionally, I didn't like (C) because I didn't see how "most metabolically active" is defined in the passage. If it's defined in terms of amount of oxygen use then I can see why it is correct. However, if it were defined as active oxygen use as a multiple of its baseline use, then I don't think (C) is necessarily right. Any thoughts?

[ohthatpatrick]

On a first pass through an open-ended "inferred / implies / suggests / most likely to agree", I'm looking to screen out unlikely answers on my first pass:
- extreme/specific wording
- wrong side of the scale / author's main point
- unknown comparisons
- totally new, out of scope concepts

A) "most" cognition? This also goes against the author by saying that the modular theory is MOSTLY correct.

B) "close to zero"? This goes against the author's main point: those parts of the brain ARE still active!

C) "most active" / "higher"? Sounds like the concept of the subtractive method, but I'd need to verify some wording.

D) "at ALL times"? That's an unlikely idea, and it's easy to look up where they defined the subtractive method and see that they never told us about any areas that are ALWAYS turned on.

E) Opposite of the passage. since the author COMPLAINED about the modular theory of the brain in the first paragraph by saying that anger SHOULD be localized in more than one place.

Meanwhile, brain scans are used to SUPPORT the modular theory.

So, (E) has a tool that's used to SUPPORT modular expressing an idea that would be used to OPPOSE modular.

Most importantly, we have no line reference(s) to support it, so we can't pick it.

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We would justify (C) with the wording in lines 37-43.

The concept of the subtractive method is that we get a baseline measurement for all the regions of the brain. Let's pretend that all five regions of the brain (A, B, C, D, E) have a baseline value of 50.

When we're thinking about music, ACD are still at 50, but BE are at 70 and 80.

The fMRI would show
A: 0 B: +20 C: 0 D: 0 E: +30

So what (C) is saying seems accurate:

The metabolic rate of BE is around +25, while the rate of the rest of the brain is 0.

Even in absolute terms, the rate of BE is around 75, while rest of the brain is at 50.

[MariaP172]

with respect to answer choice C, with subtractive method I don't see how this choice is justified. Lets say the base line for some areas are like R1 = 50 R2 = 50 R3 = 25. Then thats the baseline. Then the differentials are R1 = 0, R2 = 0, and R3 = +10 (from baseline). Now, overall, R1 = 50, R2 = 50, and R3 = 35, but the image would show the differential of R3 = +10, so the image would look like it was the most active but in fact it was not, it was just the largest differential? Is that not what the passage was about?

[andrewgong01]

On a first pass through an open-ended "inferred / implies / suggests / most likely to
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We would justify (C) with the wording in lines 37-43.

The concept of the subtractive method is that we get a baseline measurement for all the regions of the brain. Let's pretend that all five regions of the brain (A, B, C, D, E) have a baseline value of 50.

When we're thinking about music, ACD are still at 50, but BE are at 70 and 80.

The fMRI would show
A: 0 B: +20 C: 0 D: 0 E: +30

So what (C) is saying seems accurate:

The metabolic rate of BE is around +25, while the rate of the rest of the brain is 0.

Even in absolute terms, the rate of BE is around 75, while rest of the brain is at 50.

Here's why I didn't pick "C" and still not quite getting it. From your above example, what if say Region A started at 100 but records 0 growth still. Then we can not say that the active parts that grew , B and E, have a higher rate than the rest of the brain. They have the highest change in oxygen rate (the differential) but on a level basis they do not because A is higher. Maybe "A" is a very fundamental part of the brain that must always be super active. I would agree with "C" had it said the change in rate of oxygen because a few lines down the passage then said what we are observing is a differential/ change; not an aboslute level of measurement. Hence, it could be the case that some parts of the brain are always in overdrive.

For example, on an airplane, the electronics for the auto-pilot might always need to be on in the background operating at a very high level but during a flight other things could record a greater change in electronic activity such as turning on and off cabin lights. When the lights are switched on we record a sudden increase in energy use but that doesn't mean at that particular time they are using the most energy because the auto-pilot is using more in the background even though it never increased energy output but is still using a lot.


I thought the support from "E" could have come from the fact that other people (not the author) use that as a basis to prove the modular theory. Moreover line 30 says there are well defined areas that light up upon a task. So anger should lead to certain areas being lit up. I also do know, sadly (cause I chose this choice), however, that the author said this is a misintepration of what is happening later on but I never understood why this was "wrong" in the passage.

[ohthatpatrick]

I agree with you and the previous poster that there are ways to construe baselines/differentials that would NOT align with (C).

However, (C), is not claiming that during ANY/ALL cognitive tasks, the active sites are using more energy than the rest of the brain.

It's only saying "for CERTAIN tasks", which could be as little as 1.

This is also a "most supported" question stem, so our answer doesn't have to be perfectly provable.

There's no way to prove (C) with the passage, but it seems very plausible that if we combine the ideas that "the entire brain is active" (line 49) with the description of the subtractive method, it is likely that during some tasks, the "specialized areas" are running at a higher level than the (average) of the rest of the brain.

The problem with (E) is that it's specifically about brain scans. When the 2nd paragraph talks about 'anger', there is nothing there about brain scans. It's a psychologist discussing his suspicion.

And then the pivot into the 3rd paragraph is saying that brain scans seem to go AGAINST "this critique".

So the passage sort of provides negative support against (E).

I agree that this correct answer is frustrating. Welcome to modern RC, where a handful of correct answers on every test don't achieve the level of 'sufficient' support, they're just 'more supportable' than other answers.

[seychelles1718]

B) "close to zero"? This goes against the author's main point: those parts of the brain ARE still active!

.

I think B is incorrect not because it's against the author's point but rather because it's simply unsupported. Since the modular theory is against the author's point, I think (B) being against the author's position is actually fine. Instead, there is no support for "close to zero" in the passage.

[ZaftigG65]

This is a tough question because on an initial pass, one might think Choice C is talking about a brain scan using the subtraction method which makes this choice incorrect. Assuming a bounded range of 0 to 100, if in the baseline scan, a particular region of the brain is using 99 and in the subsequent scan it is still 99, it will show up as dark or not "lit up". Hence, it will not show a (differential) rate of oxygen use at all even if it is the most metabolically active. However, upon closer examination, we see that the choice never mentions the subtraction method at all. So, it is definitely safe to assume it will show the highest rate of oxygen use (perhaps with some other type of scan or maybe even the baseline scan itself) because in lines 36-37 the author explicitly states that metabolic activity and oxygen rates are parallel.

[muriella]

Hi - this is a more general question on how to approach these open-ended Most strongly supported question types. I was able to rule out the other answer choices, based on the advice below:

"On a first pass through an open-ended "inferred / implies / suggests / most likely to agree", I'm looking to screen out unlikely answers on my first pass:
- extreme/specific wording
- wrong side of the scale / *****author's main point******
- unknown comparisons
- totally new, out of scope concepts"

I ended up picking (C) but was extremely unsure about it because it seemed to be talking about the subtraction method, which the author ultimately argued was misleading. And so while going thru the first round, I thought to myself, "hmmm, against author view point, likely to be wrong..."

For Q26, then, instead of having the author's viewpoint at the forefront of my mind, should I have just looked for something that was supported by the passage, regardless of which side of the scale it was on?????

Thank you!!!!!

On a first pass through an open-ended "inferred / implies / suggests / most likely to agree", I'm looking to screen out unlikely answers on my first pass:
- extreme/specific wording
- wrong side of the scale / author's main point
- unknown comparisons
- totally new, out of scope concepts

A) "most" cognition? This also goes against the author by saying that the modular theory is MOSTLY correct.

B) "close to zero"? This goes against the author's main point: those parts of the brain ARE still active!

C) "most active" / "higher"? Sounds like the concept of the subtractive method, but I'd need to verify some wording.

D) "at ALL times"? That's an unlikely idea, and it's easy to look up where they defined the subtractive method and see that they never told us about any areas that are ALWAYS turned on.

E) Opposite of the passage. since the author COMPLAINED about the modular theory of the brain in the first paragraph by saying that anger SHOULD be localized in more than one place.

Meanwhile, brain scans are used to SUPPORT the modular theory.

So, (E) has a tool that's used to SUPPORT modular expressing an idea that would be used to OPPOSE modular.

Most importantly, we have no line reference(s) to support it, so we can't pick it.

--------------------------

We would justify (C) with the wording in lines 37-43.

The concept of the subtractive method is that we get a baseline measurement for all the regions of the brain. Let's pretend that all five regions of the brain (A, B, C, D, E) have a baseline value of 50.

When we're thinking about music, ACD are still at 50, but BE are at 70 and 80.

The fMRI would show
A: 0 B: +20 C: 0 D: 0 E: +30

So what (C) is saying seems accurate:

The metabolic rate of BE is around +25, while the rate of the rest of the brain is 0.

Even in absolute terms, the rate of BE is around 75, while rest of the brain is at 50.

[ohthatpatrick]

On one hand,
YES ... the correct answer is just whichever answer choice is most provable from the passage.

On the other hand,
NO ... if there were an idea that was thought to be true by some but which the passage spent some time debunking, I don't think they'd provide us with a correct answer that essentially says that the passage strongly supports the original misconception.

i.e. in rare cases where they're talking about a disputed idea, the author's version of that idea is the one supported by the passage.

(C), however, is not a disputed idea. The author and the people who more enthusiastically use brain scans all agree that in the subtractive method, there are areas that are more metabolically active than others.

The author doesn't object to the idea that during certain tasks some areas are more active than others.

The author objects to making the modular inference that "this sort of task ... takes place in THOSE more active brain areas". He's saying, "the less active brain areas are still involved, so it's a misnomer to say Task 1 takes place in area X . Task 2 takes place in area Y." He'd prefer we say "Task 1 involves elevated activity in area X. Task 2 involves elevated activity in area Y."

Hope this helps.