Conservationists in a tropical nature reserve deployed an array of automated bioacoustic monitoring units designed to record the distinct vocalizations of the endangered giant pangolin. Over a six-month period, the monitoring units registered zero pangolin vocalizations in the reserve's northern quadrant, prompting researchers to conclude that giant pangolins no longer inhabit that area of the reserve.
Which of the following is an assumption upon which the researchers' conclusion depends?
- Giant pangolins inhabiting the reserve's northern quadrant produce vocalizations that the bioacoustic monitoring units are capable of detecting.Cevap
- BThe bioacoustic monitoring units deployed in the northern quadrant are more sensitive than those used in previous wildlife surveys.
- CGiant pangolins do not inhabit any of the reserve's other three quadrants.
- DRecent human encroachment into adjacent territories is the primary cause of the pangolins' departure from the northern quadrant.
- EThe total population of giant pangolins in the region has experienced a sharp decline over the past decade.
Cevap
The argument depends on the assumption that giant pangolins inhabiting the northern quadrant produce vocalizations that the deployed bioacoustic units are capable of detecting.
The conclusion relies on a missing link between detecting zero vocalizations and concluding the animals are absent. For zero recorded vocalizations to serve as evidence of absence, the animals must actually produce vocalizations that the monitoring equipment can detect. If the animals are silent or vocalize outside the frequency/volume range of the equipment, zero recorded vocalizations would tell us nothing about their presence. Thus, negating this assumption defeats the argument.
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Identifying Necessary Assumptions using the Negation Test