Q4 - For newborns of age four

[geverett]

This is a most strongly supported question. We are given a series of assertions regarding newborn's and the comfort they receive from their mothers that goes something like this:

1. When newborns are crying due to discomfort, merely hearing the mothers voice will lead to a temporary halt in crying.
2. Hearing the voices of others does not have this effect.

(A) "more easily learn to recognize . . ." We are not told about the comparative ease with which they learn their mother's voice vs. other people's voices. We are only told that the mother's voice brings comfort where other voices fail to do so. Unsupported. Get rid of it.
(B) ". . . is the first thing a baby learns to recognize." Once again we are only told that hearing the mother's voice brings comfort where other voices do not. We are not told that their voice is the first thing they learn to recognize. They could learn to hear daffy ducks voice first, yet daffy duck could still neglect to bring them comfort when they are experiencing discomfort. Unsupported. Get rid of it.
(C) This is the best answer. Another way to look at this question would be to rephrase the question stem to "What conclusion would most follow from the facts given?" Read the two assertions I listed up top then say "therefore" like it's the conclusion and read this answer choice. It should perfectly line up. The one thing that gave me a hard time selecting this at first was that it said "babies" instead of "newborns 4 to 6 weeks" which is what is listed in the stimulus. If you keep a sharp eye, but maintain flexibility on a question like this then you will know that these 2 terms are interchangeable. Also the rest of the answer choices really suck.
(D) This is a tricky answer choice, but if you look at the first two lines of the stimulus you will see that the stimulus limits the scope to "newborns . . . whose mothers have been the primary caregivers . . ." Whereas the answer choice says "primary caregivers" which in some newborns could or could not be the mother. Perhaps the primary caregiver in the case of some newborns is someone other then the mother, and the voice of the primary caregiver in that situation does not bring comfort but someone else's voice does. We just don't know have enough information to make that judgement. This answer choice is too broad to be supported so we can get rid of it.
(E) This was another tempting answer choice, but is ultimately not supported. We know that in cases where the mother is the primary caregiver that their voice relieves discomfort. This does not mean, however, that discomfort in newborns is best relieved by hearing the mother's voice. Perhaps there is a toy that relieves the newborns discomfort better than the mother's voice. The toy doesn't have a voice, but relieves the discomfort better than the mother's voice. We just don't know, and so this answer choice is unsupported by the information in the stimulus. Get rid of it.

[aileenann]

Well done!

The only thing I would add is that another problem with (D) is the "only" right at the beginning. Even if this weren't out of scope, it's much too strong in degree.

[bigtree65]

I'm sorry I'm having a problem following the logic here. Geverett, you're saying that we can rule out D because it uses the term primary caregiver instead of mother and this leaves open too many possibilities. But C also uses the term primary caregiver so wouldn't it therefore be making the same mistake as D? I chose D on this one but in retrospect think D was wrong because of the word "often", because we don't know the frequency with which this event occurs, just that it has to do with newborns ages four to six weeks whose mothers have been the primary caregivers. Does that make sense?

I'd greatly appreciate any feedback as this question is really confusing me.

[maryadkins]

Good point about "primary caregiver" in (C). The word "often" isn't really a problem here, though. Often on the LSAT just means sometimes. We don't actually know how "often" (it's like "many").

But (D) is two extreme. As Aileen pointed out, we don't know that "only" primary caregivers can provide comfort generally. In fact, we don't know anything about providing comfort GENERALLY. We just know that the voice-association comfort only happens with primary caregivers (who are mothers).

(C) is still the best answer...

Hopes this helps!

[Yourchoice]

I have read the above posts, but this question still is irking the heck out of me. (I initially chose (C) under timed conditions, but after reviewing it afterwards, changed it to (D)...)

I interpreted (D) as: sometimes only a primary CG can provide comfort... ("often" being the same thing as "sometimes")

And from the premises, we have this support: mothers (which some are primary CG's), sometimes are the only ones that can provide comfort. (Taking for granted that "comfort" is the cessation of crying). And from the premise, we do know that mothers are the only ones who can do this.

For (C), we have a different problem:
(C): babes associate the voice of the primary CG... stop right there! We only know that some MOTHERS who also need to be CG's can do this. (C) is claiming that ALL primary CGs' voice can release discomfort after the association with the voice. (This answer, like (D) also takes for granted that the terms "release from discomfort" is the halt in crying... when in fact they could still be discomforted and may have just been distracted by the mothers voice) In order for (C) to be correct, we must assume that ALL mothers are primary CGs... which imo is a big assumption for a soft-MBT question.

Shed some light ye LSAT-Gods!

[timmydoeslsat]

Good post. This is a most strongly supported question stem.

The very beginning of the stimulus is important. The statements we are reading are in regard to the primary caregiver being the mother.

We know that the just the voice of the mother will halt the crying of the baby.

We also know that just the voice of others will not halt the crying of the baby.

So, we know that a possible difference may exist between the voice of the mother and the voices of others.

This is what (C) is suggesting.

As for D, it is too much of a stretch. We know that just using voices will not provide comfort to the baby from others. However, those other people may do other things to comfort the baby. If we knew that other people and the mom only used their voices, then this would be well-supported. However, we do not know that only their voices are being used.

[maryadkins]

Great question, yes. As to this point:

And from the premises, we have this support: mothers (which some are primary CG's), sometimes are the only ones that can provide comfort. (Taking for granted that "comfort" is the cessation of crying). And from the premise, we do know that mothers are the only ones who can do this.

Timmydoeslsat noted, correctly, that what's missing is the VOICE. We know from the stimulus that mothers are the only ones who can comfort babies with their voices.

This is less of a stretch than the jump in (C) from "mothers who are primary caregivers" to simply "primary caregivers." You're right that this is a leap. But it's less dramatic than the leap from the stimulus to "only a primary caregiver" with no mention of voices in (D). (Think about it this way: (D) makes all the same leaps (C) does, plus another big one.)

[griffin.811]

I've seen a few good reasons why D is wrong, just wanted to add one more quickly.

Our entire stimulus revolves around a specific case, and we only know our conclusion to be true for that particular case.

The case we are given is "When a mother is the primary caregiver of her newborn"

One of (D)'s flaws is that is says often. But we are told nothing about the frequency with which our case is actually true.

Let's for just a second imagine nothing else is incorrect about (D). Isn't it possible based on our stimulus that only 1 in 10,000 mothers is the primary caregiver of the newborn? Of course, and given that this to most, would not be "often" we cannot claim that D is true.

[wgutx08]

I agree that A, B, D, E all suck but does anybody also think that C sucks as well? We were only told about the situation when the mother is the primary caregiver, so how do we know if the behavior of the babies is a reaction to the primary caregiver or rather to their mother? Isn't it very likely that the babies are simply reacting to the voice that they have heard the most before they were born? --- Answers A B E, although obviously wrong, even hinted to this possibility.

We would have to be given additional facts as to how the babies react to
1) Mothers that are not primary caregivers
and/or
2)Primary caregivers that are not mothers
to draw any conclusion, no?

Imagine a modified answer E:
Babies associate the voice of the mother with release from discomfort.
Wouldn't this be as viable as the current C?

This is only Q4, but I wasted so much time because I couldn't pick any good answer

[rickytucker]

After mulling for some minutes I think I now understand better why C is superior to D.

Ok bear with me here, say I'm waterboarding some guy, he's gagging and choking and stuff and then I immediately pause the waterboarding temporarily.

Would you describe my pause in waterboarding as "providing comfort" or "releasing from discomfort"?

I know the example is a bit extreme, obviously the mother/primary caregiver in this case isn't waterboarding her baby. I only pick the extreme example to illustrate that what was once two contenders becomes one obvious winner and one obvious loser after correctly analyzing the argument core.

That is to say, what the argument is really saying with respect to the "comfort" aspect, is that we're not inserting comfort so much as we are removing discomfort.

[HGranger]

I'm in the same boat that wgutx08 was in a couple years ago, and it makes me sad that no one since has been able to explain why C is the best answer despite the discrepancy between the wording of the answer choice and information given in the stimulus. (I personally had no trouble eliminating D both times I did this problem, and it's because it talks about "primary caregivers" and not specifically mothers who are primary caregivers. But that was also why I ruled out C both times.)

All past posts on this question do a great job with why the other answers are incorrect. I just wanted to add in an idea I had as to why C is correct (or the best answer) despite the discrepancy mentioned above.

We are told specifically about mothers who have been the primary caregivers in the stimulus. We know nothing about primary caregivers who are not mothers. THEREFORE it is POSSIBLE that what the stimulus says about mothers who are PCG is also true about just plain PCG whether or not they are mothers. Because that possibility about all PCG has not been ruled out by the stimulus, that makes C a viable answer choice, and the best option out of the five.

If you, like me, ruled out D for the same reason I initially did (because the stimulus only talked about mothers who are PCG) then D is still wrong even considering my above reasoning but for other reasons. As others have pointed out, it is a stretch to say that often ONLY PCG can give comfort, because the stimulus really is describing a DISTRACTION from discomfort. That is not the same thing as providing comfort, but it is more like a release from discomfort, as it was stated in C.

Not an expert here, by any means, but if anyone has any problem with my reasoning please do correct any ideas I've offered

[roflcoptersoisoi]

A) Not supported. The fact that the mother's voice is enough to stop the baby from crying has nothing to do with the facility with which the baby can identify it's mother's voice which is not even mentioned in the stimulus. Get rid of it.

B) Not supported, inferring the juncture at which the babies recognize their mother's voice is not something that can be done with the information in the stimulus. Terrible, get out.

C) Bingo, this is what we want. This answer choice uses referential phrasing "primary caregivers" which in this context means mothers. Since the voice of the primary caregivers (mothers) is enough to stop them from crying (which was precipitated by discomfort), we can reasonably infer that they associate their voices with the cessation of discomfort.

D) This is a tempting answer choice. Initially, I thought this answer was wrong because of the word "often" because we are given no information as to the frequency the baby cries due to discomfort from hunger ect.. However often= sometimes and I quickly realized I had misidentified what was wrong with the answer choice. The operative word here is "only". We're told that the mother's voice is sufficient for the baby to stop crying but that nobody else's voice is. However to infer from this that ONLY the primary caretaker (in this case the mother) could provide comfort to the baby would be wrong. Perhaps others can stop the baby from crying in other ways. For instance, the father could stop the baby from crying by making funny faces or feeding it. There is simply not enough information in the stimulus that supports that idea that in at least one instance ONLY the caregiver (the mother in this instance) can stop the baby crying. While it is true that only her voice can stop the baby's cries, that doesn't necessarily mean others can do things by others means to achieve the same outcome.

E) This may be true, but this assertion is not supported by the stimulus. We are told is that ONLY the mother's voice can stop the baby from crying, however, whether this is the best medium to relieve the baby's discomfort is not something one could reasonably infer from this. Perhaps there are better and more effective ways to relieve the baby's discomfort.

[huskybins]

I have no issues of why A,B,D or E are all incorrect answer choices. But I believe C has another leap that is not discussed yet in previous threads: the baby temporarily halts of its crying --> his discomfort releases.

Why this is an issue I believe is the wording of "temporary" used in the stimulus -- the above leap may be simply explained by because the baby is "distracted" from the current discomfort rather than being fully cured by hearing its mother's voice and therefore the crying will be very likely to resume very soon in later time, an indication that the discomfort is not released at all.

I would say without "temporary" being used in the stimulus C would look much and much more solid correct answer choice.

[OliviaM54]

This question is driving me insane.
I chose D) because as you pointed out, I didn't like answer C) in that in generalized "newborns of age four to six weeks" as babies. One problem that was cited with answer choice D) was that it doesn't reference the mother as the primary caregiver (which the stimulus does). But I noticed that C) doesn't do this either. C) merely states that babies associate the voice of the primary caregiver with the release from discomfort (no mention of mother being the primary caregiver. Am I missing something???

[RaymondP528]

I answered D first, but ruled out C. With C, we have no idea whether the baby "associates the primary caregiver's voice with discomfort." Doesn't "association" presuppose some causal reason WHY the baby's crying halts? There is no way of knowing whether the reason why the baby stops crying is due to some association the baby makes. The causal relationship determined in C is not supported by the correlation. If choice C had said "there is an association between the voice and relief of discomfort," I think that's completely 100% fine as an inference. But it doesn't say that. It says that babies make that association. This may not literally be the case: babies may associate the voice of the mother with something else that leads to the relief of discomfort. I see why C is the best answer, but it's not a good one. That is to say, there are definitely better inferences one could make.

My reasoning behind D here.
1. We know that this crying is due to some discomfort. We have something causal.
2. We know that the mother* halts the crying for some time.
3. We know that other people do not have this same effect. There is only one difference between the mother and others: the mother is the primary caregiver.

Thus, we can correctly infer that sometimes only the voice of the mother can relieve some discomfort. The issue is scope. D does not mention her voice, and incorrectly presupposes that, say, rocking the baby to sleep requires the mother as well.