Visual recognition involves storing and retrieving memories. Neural ac

It's a bit tricky here. But containing extreme words doesn't necessarily make the argument wrong, if so the same rule should apply to statement III as well - "...occurs ONLY in one step".

In order to answer this detail question correctly, we need to revisit the mentioned part in passage quickly:

"Psychologists of the Gestalt school maintain that objects are recognized as wholes in a parallel procedure: the internal representation is matched with the retinal image in a single operation."

Pay attention to the bold part - it highlights the objects are (present participle, meaning all are) recognized as wholes (meaning no splitting is presented) in parallel procedure, so it is recognized without any need for further breakdowns.

You can refer to my reply above for question 3, while for question 4 I got it wrong too. When I reviewed it I realized mistakes are made due to lack of understanding of the precise meaning of those words.

The entire passage is based on facts, and without Author's own opinion. So the tone should be subjective, and I easily rule out A, D and E but hesitate between B and C. Afterwards I realized by googling that "speculative" refers to "based on conjecture rather than knowledge" while "dispassionate" refers to "not influenced by strong emotion, and so able to be rational and impartial". So clearly it should be C.

(A) a biased exposition - it is anything but biased
(B) a speculative study
(C) a dispassionate presentation
(D) an indignant denial - it doesn't deny any side rather imply that parallel and serial apply to different stage
(E) a dogmatic explanation - dogmatic goes against "subjective", I didn't see that in the passage

1. The author is primarily concerned with

(A) explaining how the brain receives images While this is mentioned, most of the passage does not talk about this. Eliminate.

(B) synthesizing hypotheses of visual recognition Synthesize = form by joining various components. The passage does not form/create any hypothesis - it merely discusses existing hypotheses of visual recognition. Eliminate.

(C) examining the evidence supporting the serial recognition hypothesis While serial recognition hypothesis is discussed, the specific evidence supporting this is not mentioned. Eliminate.

(D) discussing visual recognition and some hypotheses proposed to explain it Correct. The passage begins by discussing visual recognition and goes on to discuss the parallel and serial recognition hypotheses.

(E) reporting on recent experiments dealing with memory systems and their relationship to neural activity The passage does not report any details of any experiments but only mentions the results of some experiments. Eliminate.

2. According to the passage, Gestalt psychologists make which of the following suppositions about visual recognition?

The following is stated about Gestalt psychologists in the passage:

"Psychologists of the Gestalt school maintain that objects are recognized as wholes in a parallel procedure: the internal representation is matched with the retinal image in a single operation."

I. A retinal image is in exactly the same form as its internal representation. We cannot be sure about this. The passage only talks about the matching and not the images themselves.

II. An object is recognized as a whole without any need for analysis into component parts. Correct. "Psychologists of the Gestalt school maintain that objects are recognized as wholes..."

III. The matching of an object with its internal representation occurs in only one step. Correct. "...the internal representation is matched with the retinal image in a single operation."

(A) II only
(B) III only
(C) I and III only
(D) II and III only Correct option.
(E) I, II, and III

3. It can be inferred from the passage that the matching process in visual recognition is

(A) not a neural activity Nothing in the passage to support this. Eliminate.

(B) not possible when an object is viewed for the very first time Correct. The passage states "Neural activity, triggered by the eye, forms an image in the brain's memory system that constitutes an internal representation of the viewed object. When an object is encountered again, it is matched with its internal representation and thereby recognized." When an object is encountered for the very first time, there will be no internal representation to match with.

(C) not possible if a feature of a familiar object is changed in some way Nothing in the passage to support this. Eliminate.

(D) only possible when a retinal image is received in the brain as a unitary whole Nothing in the passage to support this. Eliminate.

(E) now fully understood as a combination of the serial and parallel processes Incorrect. The passage states "Controversy surrounds the question of whether recognition is a parallel, one-step process or a serial, step-by-step one." Therefore this is not fully understood. Eliminate.

4. In terms of its tone and form, the passage can best be characterized as

(A) a biased exposition The passage discusses both view points in a fair manner - cannot be considered biased. Eliminate.

(B) a speculative study It discusses scientific hypotheses, evidence and experiments - cannot be considered speculative. Eliminate.

(C) a dispassionate presentation Appears to be the best option.

(D) an indignant denial Nothing is being denied and the author does not sound indignant (angry). Eliminate.

(E) a dogmatic explanation The author does not appear to be sticking to established rules (dogma). Eliminate.

Hope this helps.

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