SAT Reading & Writing · Rhetorical Synthesis
A student has researched inattentional blindness and compiled the following notes: - People focused intently on one task can fail to…
A student has researched inattentional blindness and compiled the following notes:
- People focused intently on one task can fail to notice an unexpected, fully visible event happening in front of them.
- A famous experiment involving a person in a gorilla costume walking through a scene demonstrated this effect clearly.
- Whether an unexpected event is detected depends partly on how similar it is to the features people are already paying attention to.
- What a person expects to see can influence whether they notice something unexpected.
- Heavy mental workload during a task can increase the likelihood of missing an unexpected event.
- Once people are told what to expect and look for, the effect changes significantly.
The student wants to clarify that inattentional blindness reflects a limit on attention instead of a limit on basic eyesight. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?
- People focused intently on one task can fail to notice an unexpected, fully visible event happening in front of them.
- A famous experiment involving a person in a gorilla costume walking through a scene demonstrated this effect clearly.
- Whether an unexpected event is detected depends partly on how similar it is to the features people are already paying attention to.
- What a person expects to see can influence whether they notice something unexpected.
- Heavy mental workload during a task can increase the likelihood of missing an unexpected event.
- Once people are told what to expect and look for, the effect changes significantly.
The student wants to clarify that inattentional blindness reflects a limit on attention instead of a limit on basic eyesight. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?
Answer and explanation
Answer: B: Whether an unexpected event is detected depends partly on how similar it is to the features people are already paying attention to, indicating the failure to notice reflects where attention is…
The goal specifically requires distinguishing an attention-based limit from a vision-based limit, and B is the only choice that draws that exact distinction, connecting the detection pattern to where attention is directed instead of to visual capability itself. A names the famous demonstration without explaining what it reveals about the underlying mechanism. C and D each describe a real contributing factor without explicitly framing the effect as attentional instead of visual.
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.