SAT Reading & Writing · Rhetorical Synthesis
A student has researched the peak-end rule in psychology and compiled the following notes: - People's retrospective evaluations of an…
A student has researched the peak-end rule in psychology and compiled the following notes:
- People's retrospective evaluations of an experience can be disproportionately influenced by its most intense moment and by how it ended.
- The overall duration of an experience often receives less weight in these evaluations than researchers initially expected.
- This effect has been demonstrated in studies of both painful medical procedures and pleasant experiences.
- The effect is not universal and does not apply the same way to every kind of memory.
- A person's expectations going into an experience, and how the experience is structured, can modify how strongly the effect appears.
- How someone retrospectively evaluates an experience can differ from how they actually felt moment-to-moment during it.
The student wants to caution readers against treating the peak-end rule as a universal law that applies to all memories equally. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?
- People's retrospective evaluations of an experience can be disproportionately influenced by its most intense moment and by how it ended.
- The overall duration of an experience often receives less weight in these evaluations than researchers initially expected.
- This effect has been demonstrated in studies of both painful medical procedures and pleasant experiences.
- The effect is not universal and does not apply the same way to every kind of memory.
- A person's expectations going into an experience, and how the experience is structured, can modify how strongly the effect appears.
- How someone retrospectively evaluates an experience can differ from how they actually felt moment-to-moment during it.
The student wants to caution readers against treating the peak-end rule as a universal law that applies to all memories equally. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?
Answer and explanation
Answer: C: Although demonstrated across multiple types of experiences, the effect is not universal, and factors such as a person's expectations and how an experience is structured can modify how strongly it…
The goal specifically requires cautioning against treating the effect as a universal law, and C is the only choice that directly states the effect "is not universal" while naming factors that modify its strength. A and D each describe a true finding without addressing universality. B names a specific counterintuitive detail about duration without speaking to the broader question of whether the effect applies equally everywhere.
More Rhetorical Synthesis questions
- Question 13A student has researched fast radio bursts and compiled the following notes: - Fast radio bursts…
- Question 14A student has researched the Atacama Desert and compiled the following notes: - Parts of the…
- Question 15A student has researched public libraries and compiled the following notes: - Public libraries…
- Question 40A student has researched tuned mass dampers and compiled the following notes: - A tuned mass…
- Question 41A student has researched community gardens and compiled the following notes: - Community gardens…
- Question 64A student has researched Helicobacter pylori and compiled the following notes: - H. pylori is a…
Learn the method behind questions like this one
The SAT Reading & Writing course teaches each tested skill through lessons, step-by-step solutions to sample problems, the complete study guide and full-length practice tests.