Understanding & Analysing the Passage“Memory evolved to help animals react appropriately to situations they encounter by drawing on the past experience of similar situations.”
• This statement talks about how memory has evolved in animals to help them.
• Memory helps by providing a reference, based on the past experience of similar situations; this helps animals react appropriately to certain situations.
“But this does not require that animals perfectly recall every detail of all their experiences.”
• Detailed recollection is not necessary to react appropriately to certain situations. Thus, we can infer that a general recollection of similar situations in the past is adequate to help animals react appropriately to situations they encounter.
“Instead, to function well, memory should generalize from past experiences that are similar to the current one”
• The author coveys a change in the flow of information by stating that generalizing from past experience is actually helpful for animals to function well.
• Now, from the previous sentence, we figured that detailed recollection is not required. However, in this sentence, the author mentions that memory “should” generalize, which means that to react appropriately, general recollection is adequate.
Pre - thinkingWe need to find a logical conclusion, that is 100% true, based on the argument.
Analyzing the premise, we can infer that
1. We can infer that without the evolution of memory, appropriate reactions to certain situations may not be possible.
2. It is imperative that an animal must experience a certain situation in the past to be able to use memory to react appropriately to similar situations in the future.
3. Detailed recollection is not necessary.
4. General recollection will help in functioning well.
Analyze the Answer Choices(A) At least some animals perfectly recall every detail of at least some past experiences. INCORRECT
o The passage does not talk about any animals having perfect recollection. From the given information, we cannot know for certain if any animals indeed have a perfect recollection of past experiences. This actually the opposite of what the author intends to convey.
(B) Perfectly recalling every detail of all their past experiences could help at least some animals react more appropriately than they otherwise would to new situations they encounter. INCORRECT
o The information in the passage does not support this option as we know perfect recollection is not required; In fact, generalizing helps memory function well. No information on whether perfect recollection will help some animals or not is provided in the passage.
(C) Generalizing from past experiences requires clear memories of most if not all the details of those experiences. INCORRECT
o This option is ambiguous since we have no information provided to know how much detail of a past experience is required to generalize a memory. It can be the case that only 10% of the memory is required to generalize it.
(D) Recalling every detail of all past experiences would be incompatible with any ability to generalize from those experiences. INCORRECT
o This statement has no proof in the passage. The passage does not talk about the compatibility of recalling every detail with generalizing from those experiences.
o Whether animals with perfect recollection will or will not be able to generalize past experience is not known to us. Even if the animals had the ability to recall every detail perfectly, the author specifically states that it is not required to generalize from those experiences.
(E) Animals can often react more appropriately than they otherwise would to situations they encounter if they draw on generalizations from past experiences of similar situations. CORRECT
o This option is in line with the information provided in the passage. Thus, this option is correct.
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