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Difficulty: MediumLogical Inferences

In cognitive psychology, researchers investigated how auditory distractions affect visual-spatial processing. Participants performed a spatial navigation task while exposed to either steady low-frequency hums or irregular, high-frequency clicks. The researchers found that while low-frequency hums did not decrease performance, the irregular high-frequency clicks significantly reduced spatial accuracy. However, when participants performed the same spatial task while concurrently completing a verbal memory task, the addition of the high-frequency clicks caused no further decline in spatial accuracy beyond the reduction caused by the verbal task itself. This suggests that ______

Which choice most logically completes the text?

  1. A
    verbal memory tasks and spatial navigation tasks rely on entirely separate cognitive resource pools that do not overlap.
  2. the cognitive resources susceptible to disruption by high-frequency clicks are also engaged during the performance of verbal tasks.Answer
  3. C
    low-frequency hums would cause a significant decline in spatial accuracy if the verbal memory task were made more difficult.
  4. D
    the auditory processing of high-frequency clicks is completely suppressed when a person is performing any non-auditory task.

Answer

the cognitive resources susceptible to disruption by high-frequency clicks are also engaged during the performance of verbal tasks.
The correct answer is the option stating that the cognitive resources susceptible to disruption by high-frequency clicks are also engaged during the performance of verbal tasks. If the clicks and the verbal task did not share resources, adding clicks to the verbal task condition would have caused an additional, cumulative decline in spatial navigation accuracy. Because there was no additional decline, it is logical to infer that the verbal task already occupied the shared resources, leaving no room for the clicks to cause further disruption.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the experimental conditions and their individual effects.
Low-frequency hums have no effect on spatial accuracy. High-frequency clicks significantly reduce spatial accuracy. The verbal task also reduces spatial accuracy.
Understanding the individual baseline effects of the distractions and concurrent tasks is necessary to evaluate their combined effects.
2
Examine the combined condition where both the verbal task and high-frequency clicks are present.
Adding high-frequency clicks to the verbal task does not cause any additional decline in spatial performance beyond the decline already caused by the verbal task alone.
This non-additive relationship is the key piece of evidence showing how the resources required for each task overlap.
3
Draw a logical inference based on the non-additive effect.
Since the clicks do not cause additional disruption when the verbal task is active, the resources that the clicks would disrupt must already be occupied or disrupted by the verbal task. Therefore, the clicks and the verbal task share cognitive resources.
This identifies the correct option that logically completes the explanation of the study's findings.

Key Concept

Logical Inferences
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Logical Inferences

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