V36-26

Question

It is hypothesized that children with a special condition called Colourshift syndrome have different perceptions of color than ordinary children - these special children perceive the ordinarily perceived red as green and the ordinarily perceived green as yellow. A particular child was given a real red rose with green leaves and was asked to draw it using coloring pencils. The child drew a green rose with yellow leaves. From this drawing, it was concluded that the child must be one of those special ones with Colourshift syndrome.
 
If the hypothesis about Colourshift syndrome mentioned in the above passage is true, then which one of the following, if also true, indicates the flaw in the above conclusion?

A. When asked to draw a red rose with green leaves, some children drew a green rose with red leaves.
B. The children with Colourshift syndrome see the colors of the paints or pencils they use to draw the same way they see the colors of other real-life objects.
C. Colourshift syndrome is acquired only by birth.
D. The child had color blindness and could not distinguish blue from green.
E. In some children's storybooks, the colors of some objects portrayed are different from the colors of those objects in real life.

Bunuel · Answer

Official Solution:

It is hypothesized that children with a special condition called Colourshift syndrome have different perceptions of color than ordinary children - these special children perceive the ordinarily perceived red as green and the ordinarily perceived green as yellow. A particular child was given a real red rose with green leaves and was asked to draw it using coloring pencils. The child drew a green rose with yellow leaves. From this drawing, it was concluded that the child must be one of those special ones with Colourshift syndrome.
 
If the hypothesis about Colourshift syndrome mentioned in the above passage is true, then which one of the following, if also true, indicates the flaw in the above conclusion?

A. When asked to draw a red rose with green leaves, some children drew a green rose with red leaves.
B. The children with Colourshift syndrome see the colors of the paints or pencils they use to draw the same way they see the colors of other real-life objects.
C. Colourshift syndrome is acquired only by birth.
D. The child had color blindness and could not distinguish blue from green.
E. In some children's storybooks, the colors of some objects portrayed are different from the colors of those objects in real life.

A. This option is not relevant to the flaw in the conclusion. It just provides an example of what some other children drew, without addressing whether the child in question has Colourshift syndrome or not.
 
 B CORRECT.  This option is correct. If this is true, then the child would perceive the RED Rose as Green. Similarly, the same child would perceive a Red coloring pencil as a green. They would perceive both the Rose and the Pencil as Green. Thus, the child would reach out for what they think is a Green Pencil to draw the Rose that they perceive as Green. If this is the case, then the child reaching to what they perceive is a Green Pencil, will actually reach for the Red pencil (which they perceive as Green). The resulting drawing would still depict a red rose with green leaves, not a green rose with yellow leaves. This option explains the flaw in the conclusion since a child who would see both the Red Rose and the Red Pencil as Green and their drawing would not be using the Green color pencil (esp since the Child perceives Green as Yellow).
 
C. This option is not relevant to the flaw in the conclusion. It simply provides information about how Colourshift syndrome is acquired, without addressing the validity of the conclusion itself.
 
D. This option is irrelevant to the Colourshift syndrome and the specific colors involved in the hypothesis. The hypothesis discusses the perception of red as green and green as yellow. If the child had color blindness and was unable to distinguish blue from green, he would have mistaken green for blue, not yellow. Therefore, this option does not address the flaw in the conclusion related to Colourshift syndrome.
 
E. This option does not reflect a flaw in the argument as such. The child was not asked to draw something from a storybook, but he was given a real red rose with green leaves to draw.

Answer: B

yohanmarkose · Answer

I think this is a  poor-quality  question and I don't agree with the explanation. I may not have realized something. But since it is only mentioned that the child perceives red as green and green as yellow, and not vice versa, I could not see how it could be assumed that way. So I marked E, finding it better compared to the rest. Am I right in thinking this way?

RahVern · Answer

I think this is a  high-quality  question and I agree with explanation.

aishwaryakakkar · Answer

I think this is a  poor-quality  question and the explanation isn't clear enough, please elaborate.

bb · Answer

Sorry about that. However, I believe this is a great and enginus question. It makes a lot of sense to me (at least).

If you are given an object of Red color and you see it as green. 
Then when you pick a pencil, paint, crayon to draw it,  you would pick up a red crayon and draw it in Red , not green color. So it would not be possible to diagnose a person with this condition by asking them to draw.

bb · Answer

Sorry for missing your question back in December. 
I don't think there is any vice versa involved. Option B says that the experiment would not work because if someone sees Green instead of a Red object, when they see a red rose as green, they would also see red crayon as green, so they would pick up a red crayon and draw the color correctly. Pointing out a massive flaw in the passage.

sleEZy · Answer

The passage clearly states that the child drew a green rose with yellow leaves. So how come we can say that the child must have drawn a red rose with green leaves and select option B as the correct answer?

phmahi1997 · Answer

Yes, you're correct the child did draw a green rose with yellow leaves, but Look at the question stem states choose an answer choice that indicates flaw. By selecting that answer, you're questioning the conclusion you wrote in your first sentence. So, if a colourshift syndrome child did see colours like a normal child, then the question is, did they make the right assumption, putting that child must be one of those with colourshift syndrome.

I hope I was able to explain this scenario. Happy to have your thought here.

bb · Answer

I will try to improve this explanation a bit. I see folks struggling with the question. It really comes down to this:

If one has the syndrome, they see a red rose as green.... But they would NOT be actually drawing a green rose. Ok? if I see red rose as green, I would also see the red crayon as green. Both the red rose and red crayon would both look green to me. As the result, the child with this syndrome would still draw a rose which to them looks green but to everyone else, it would look red - because both the crayon and the rose look the same color to them. So they will always match those colors.

It is not like they see the red rose as green and then grab a green crayon, which by the way, they perceive as yellow. They would grab the crayon that matches the color of the rose (whatever color it is).

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