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655-705 Level|   Long Passage|   Science|      
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pk6969
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The brain contributes to the adaptive success of animals through the c 24 Jun 2021, 03:37
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Need help in Question 3, was totally blown by the question. Any help?
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The brain contributes to the adaptive success of animals through the c 24 Jun 2021, 10:29
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pk6969
Need help in Question 3, was totally blown by the question. Any help?
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Please read the OE in the post in the link below.

https://gmatclub.com/forum/the-brain-co ... l#p2561873

Thank you
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The brain contributes to the adaptive success of animals through the c 13 Jul 2021, 09:59
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pk6969
Need help in Question 3, was totally blown by the question. Any help?
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Trying to attempt Question 3 here(which I got wrong initially as well) after not finding a satisfactory solution.(closest I
understood was the one by @mKSR )

Refer to this snippet:
"Because humans are capable of self-reflection, we feel that our sensory perception and muscle activity are guided by apparent purposiveness. However, both our sense of purpose and complex consciousness may well be genetically engineered. Our genes have created our brains, muscles, and sensory organs to help us and may also have created a kind of “conscious-purpose machine”

This statement has a causal relationship.
Cause: humans are capable of self-reflection
Effect: The author states that one may think the effect is that "sensory perception and muscle activity" are guided by "apparent purposiveness" BUT they are/may be in fact genetically engineered. And the fact that they are genetically engineered is what results into humans being conscious.

Note that the cause is not doubted here but the effect of it is. This is why I, and possibly you found it hard to believe that humans being capable of self-reflection is the main cause and hence the answer.

Option D while very close is incorrect. Consider below relationship:
genetically engineered creates consciousness(conscious-purpose machine) which further directs us to utilize survival drives.
Now what Option D states is that "A genetically determined set of survival drives in humans" is the source of consciousness- which is the opposite of what author states.

I do doubt if I would get this correct real-time :P Hope this helps!
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The brain contributes to the adaptive success of animals through the c 09 Jun 2022, 17:59
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For Q2, I knew the primary purpose of the passage is to highlight genes and their control but didn't pick (A) because the 1st paragraph didn't mention anything about genes. My rule of thumb for primary purpose questions was to pick an answer that is applicable to every single paragraph of the passage. Any insights?
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The brain contributes to the adaptive success of animals through the c 21 Oct 2023, 22:20
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Which of the following does the author mention as the source for an individual’s awareness of his or her own consciousness?

A) Information the sensory organs send to the brain
B) The human brain’s power to bring about purposiveness in behavior
C) The ability of human beings to be self-reflective
D) A genetically determined set of survival drives in humans
E) Skill in recognizing perceptual patterns

KarishmaB GMATNinja - your inputs on the Question 3?

I am confused with what is the exact reason for the correct answer C. Is the question asking what does the individual thinks and not the author?
If the former is true then choice C makes sense:

Because humans are capable of self-reflection, we feel that our sensory perception and muscle activity are guided by apparent purposiveness. --- Matches with C.

Please clarify.
Thank you :)
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The brain contributes to the adaptive success of animals through the c 23 Oct 2023, 03:48
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Asp23
Which of the following does the author mention as the source for an individual’s awareness of his or her own consciousness?

A) Information the sensory organs send to the brain
B) The human brain’s power to bring about purposiveness in behavior
C) The ability of human beings to be self-reflective
D) A genetically determined set of survival drives in humans
E) Skill in recognizing perceptual patterns

KarishmaB GMATNinja - your inputs on the Question 3?


I am confused with what is the exact reason for the correct answer C. Is the question asking what does the individual thinks and not the author?
If the former is true then choice C makes sense:

Because humans are capable of self-reflection, we feel that our sensory perception and muscle activity are guided by apparent purposiveness. --- Matches with C.

Please clarify.
Thank you :)
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The question is: As per the author, what is the source of our awareness of our consciousness? (Not source of our consciousness, but source of our awareness of consciousness)

From the passage:
Because humans are capable of self-reflection, we feel that our sensory perception and muscle activity are guided by apparent purposiveness. However, both our sense of purpose and complex consciousness may well be genetically engineered.

Because we are able to self-reflect, we feel that purpose guides our senses and muscle activity (e.g. when we see a harmful substance, we avoid it by walking away from it for the purpose of self preservation).
But, the author says that sense of purpose and complex consciousness may have been created by genes.

...Our genes have created our brains, muscles, and sensory organs to help us and may also have created a kind of “conscious-purpose machine” to direct us to live and reproduce by means of innate drives

The genes have created a 'conscious - purpose machine' which creates 'drives' that are responsible to direct us to live and reproduce.

Hence neither 'genes' nor 'drives' make us aware of our consciousness. Hence (D) doesn't work.

The passage just mentions "because we are capable of self-reflection,..."
It is an indirect implication that because we are capable of self-reflection, we are aware of our consciousness and we think that purpose guides us etc.

But I was certainly a bit baffled so I looked at the official solution and saw that it mentions: "Our own introspection tells us that we are indeed conscious, and we know we behave as if we are motivated by purposes."
But this is not mentioned in the passage as given above. Perhaps it was missed by the OP? Had this sentence been there, then the answer (C) would make complete sense.
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The brain contributes to the adaptive success of animals through the c 01 Aug 2024, 08:39
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Hi @GMATNinja can you please explain Q3?
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The brain contributes to the adaptive success of animals through the c 01 Aug 2024, 08:41
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coreyander

The brain contributes to the adaptive success of animals through the control and coordination of muscle contractions. The brain is connected to the muscles by means of motor nerves. This leads to the survival of an animal only if the timing of muscle contractions bears some relation to purpose. An animal must contract its jaw muscles when its jaw contains something worth biting and contract its leg muscles when there is something worth running to or away from. Animals that have survived are those equipped with sense organs—the eyes, ears, taste buds, skin, and nose—that translate patterns of physical events into nerve impulses in the brain. The brain is connected to the sense organs by sensory nerves. The workings of the sensory system are extremely complex; human senses can achieve more sophisticated feats of pattern recognition than computers; if this were not the case, many tasks now done by people could be done by computers. However, it will be decades before the functions of human sense organs can be duplicated by machines.

Because humans are capable of self-reflection, we feel that our sensory perception and muscle activity are guided by apparent purposiveness. However, both our sense of purpose and complex consciousness may well be genetically engineered. Our genes have created our brains, muscles, and sensory organs to help us and may also have created a kind of “conscious-purpose machine” to direct us to live and reproduce by means of innate drives—hunger, sexuality, communication, fear, and aggression. This machine may also direct higher-level interpretations of these drives. That direction of consciousness is the ultimate genetic control.


1) The passage supplies information to answer which of the following questions?

A) By what means do the sensory nerves interpret what an individual sees?
B) How will computers be able to simulate the functions of the human brain?
C) What are the major differences between human and animal sense organs?
D) What connects the brain to the motor and sensory nerves?
E) Of what value is the sensorimotor system to the adaptive success of animals?

2) The primary purpose of the passage is to

A) argue that genes may control complex as well as basic brain functions
B) explain the relationship between sensory and motor operations of the brain
C) refute a theory about human perception and consciousness
D) explain the principal elements of the adaptive behavior of motor action
E) outline the difference between human and nonhuman information processing

Which of the following does the author mention as the source for an individual’s awareness of his or her own consciousness?

A) Information the sensory organs send to the brain
B) The human brain’s power to bring about purposiveness in behavior
C) The ability of human beings to be self-reflective
D) A genetically determined set of survival drives in humans
E) Skill in recognizing perceptual patterns


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­Hi GMATNinja and KarishmaB can you please explain 3rd Question?
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The brain contributes to the adaptive success of animals through the c 07 Aug 2024, 13:54
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Leo_1511
Hi @‌GMATNinja can you please explain Q3?
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­Did you see this post by the always-amazing KarishmaB? (Hi, Karishma!) Also, it appears that a chunk of the passage is missing, so I wouldn't lose too much sleep over this one.­
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The brain contributes to the adaptive success of animals through the c 10 Aug 2024, 02:36
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Leo_1511
Hi @‌GMATNinja can you please explain Q3?
­Did you see this post by the always-amazing KarishmaB? (Hi, Karishma!) Also, it appears that a chunk of the passage is missing, so I wouldn't lose too much sleep over this one.­
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­Thank you! Yes I read it and now i do understand.
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The brain contributes to the adaptive success of animals through the c 14 Oct 2024, 07:05
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Hey did you give the test? How much was the score?
richirish
Good passage, 4 mins all correct, will be happy to help if required, 700+ questions for sure
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The brain contributes to the adaptive success of animals through the c 12 May 2025, 03:26
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For Q3
C is correct
The author is saying that because we can think about our own thoughts and actions (self-reflection), we naturally feel like our senses (seeing, touching, etc.) and our movements have a goal or a reason behind them. It makes us feel like we're not just reacting to the world, but actively engaging with it with intention.

In short, self-reflection is like having a "why" button in your brain that makes you feel like there's a purpose to what you see and what you do, and that's a big part of what makes us aware of our own consciousness.
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