Question 132·200 Super-Hard SAT Reading Questions·Information and Ideas

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Cleaner wrasses remove parasites from client fish but prefer to bite the clients' mucus; a client that witnesses such behavior may leave and later avoid that cleaner. Wrasses take less mucus when other clients are nearby. Some researchers interpret this restraint as evidence that wrasses anticipate effects on their reputation, whereas others argue that it may be a learned response to cues that usually accompany observing clients. In a laboratory simulation, wrasses chose between a preferred morsel, representing mucus, and a less-preferred morsel, representing parasites. They chose the less-preferred morsel more often when a live client was visible than when it was hidden. A prerecorded, forward-facing client shown at the location where clients normally waited produced the same increase in restraint. However, no increase occurred when the recording showed the client turned away at the usual location or facing forward at an unfamiliar side of the tank. Because the recording could neither observe the choice nor alter its later behavior, the results suggest that _____.

Which choice most logically completes the text?

For a hard inference question, identify what each experimental comparison isolates and distinguish evidence that a factor can produce a response from evidence that it fully explains the response. Favor the choice that incorporates all conditions while avoiding claims that the study either proves a mental process or rules one out entirely.

Hints

Hint 1
Separate appearance from capacity
Consider the difference between appearing to watch the wrasse and being able to observe and respond to its behavior.
Hint 2
Use both recording comparisons
Compare the forward-facing recording at the familiar location with both the turned-away recording and the recording shown at the unfamiliar location.
Hint 3
Avoid an overgeneralization
Determine what the recorded condition demonstrates without assuming that the same mechanism fully explains every live-client encounter.

Step-by-step

Step 1
Identify the competing explanations
One explanation is that wrasses restrain themselves because they anticipate that observers will react later. The alternative is that familiar cues associated with observing clients can trigger the behavior without such anticipation.
Step 2
Compare the recorded-client conditions
A forward-facing recording increased restraint at the usual waiting location, but a turned-away recording there did not. A forward-facing recording at an unfamiliar location also had no effect, indicating that the combination of orientation and familiar context mattered.
Step 3
Use the recording's limitation
The recorded client could not actually observe the wrasse or respond later. Therefore, actual reputational consequences were not necessary to produce restraint in that condition, although the experiment does not rule out a role for such consequences in encounters with live clients.

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SAT Reading: Information and IdeasAdvancedCoreInferences about a study

Question 132·200 Super-Hard SAT Reading Questions·Information and Ideas

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