Question 138·200 Super-Hard SAT Reading Questions·Information and Ideas
A psychology student is researching how sensitivity to peer presence changes across development. In one experiment, participants completed the same computerized decision-making task either alone or while believing that same-age peers were watching them. Higher scores on the task indicate greater risk-taking.
The student claims that the peer effect on risk-taking is strongest in mid-adolescence, rather than increasing steadily with age.
Examine the graph "Risk-Taking Index by Age and Social Context" and answer the following question:
Which choice best describes data from the graph that support the student’s claim?
For command-of-evidence questions with graphs, restate the claim as a measurable feature (here, the peer effect is the difference between the peer and alone bars). Then check which option describes that same feature across the relevant groups; prefer choices that make the full comparison the claim requires, not just a partial comparison or a single-bar high point.
Hints
Focus on what “peer effect” means in the graph
The claim is not just about high risk-taking; it’s about how much the score changes when peers are present.
Compare pairs, not single bars
For each age group, look at the peer bar and the alone bar together and note the size of the gap.
Look for the age with the biggest gap
Find the age where the peer bar rises the most above the alone bar, compared with the other age groups.
Step-by-step Explanation
Identify what evidence the claim requires
The claim concerns how strongly peers affect behavior, so the relevant evidence is the difference between the peer condition and the alone condition at each age.
Compare the peer-minus-alone differences across ages
Read each pair of bars and compute the visual gap:
- Age 10: peers vs alone (gap )
- Age 13: peers vs alone (gap )
- Age 16: peers vs alone (gap )
- Age 19: peers vs alone (gap )
- Age 22: peers vs alone (gap )
Select the choice that most directly supports the claim
Because the peer-minus-alone gap is greatest at age 16, the best-supported choice is:
At age 16, the increase from the alone condition (34) to the peer condition (62) is larger than the corresponding increases at ages 10, 13, 19, and 22.