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GRE - Reading Comprehension - Test 17

in Reading Comprehension
Read the passage and choose the option that best answer each question.
 
Intuitively, intellectual skills and perceptual-motor skills seem very different because perceptual-motor skills appear more primitive. Ontogenetically, perceptual-motor skills develop before intellectual skills, or at least before most intellectual skills are manifested. Phylogenetically , creatures "high on the evolutionary ladder" are more obviously capable of intellectual skills than are creatures "lower down ". Perceptual-motor skills also seem more closely tied to specific forms of expression. Being a chess player does not mean one can only play with pieces of a certain size, that one can only move pieces with one's right hand, and so on. By contrast, being a violinist means one can play an instrument whose size occupies a fairly narrow range and that one must play with a rather rigid assignment of functions to effectors (bowing with the right hand, and fingering with the left). The seeming narrowness of this perceptual-motor skill expression, contrasted with the seeming openness of intellectual skill expression, seems to follow from intellectual skills having symbolic outcomes and perceptual-motor skills having non-symbolic outcomes. Symbolic outcomes need not be realized in specific ways and can rely on abstract rules. Non- symbolic outcomes, by contrast, need more specific forms of realization and seem to depend on restricted associations between stimuli and responses . Another difference between intellectual and perceptual-motor skills is that the two kinds of skill seem to be represented in different parts of the brain. For example, structures homologous to the optic tectum , a nucleus located on the dorsal surface of the midbrain, have a common function in all vertebrates--coordinating visual, auditory, and somatosensory information relevant to the control of orienting movements of the eyes, ears, and head. Similarities in structure and function between these and other brain areas associated with perceptual-motor behavior suggest that mechanisms for control of perceptual-motor skills are both highly specialized and conserved across species. In contrast, what distinguishes the human brain from the brains of other species -- even closely related ones -- is the differential growth of brain regions most strongly associated with intellectual skills, such as the association areas of the cerebral cortex. The contention that these areas serve intellectual functions is supported by a large body of clinical and experimental literature. Together, these diverse sources of information suggest that perceptual-motor and intellectual skills depend on distinct brain circuits .

1. The passage is chiefly concerned with

A. Presenting a new theory and describing a new method to test that theory
B. Suggesting an alternative to an outdated research method
C. Demonstrating that perceptual-motor skills are closely tied to specific forms of
D. expression
E. Arguing that two seemingly dissimilar skills are more alike than was previously assumed Presenting evidence on two dissimilar skills that resolves a contradiction

2. The author mentions the game of chess in paragraph two primarily in order to

A. Present an example of an intellectual skill the mastery of which is not closely tied to
B. specific forms of expression.
C. Present an example of an intellectual skill the mastery of which is closely tied to
D. specific forms of expression.
E. Present an example of a skill that is both an intellectual skill and a perceptual-motor skill, the mastery of which is closely tied to specific forms of expression. Present an example of a perceptual-motor skill the mastery of which is not closely tied to specific forms of expression. Present an example of a perceptual-motor skill the mastery of which is closely tied to specific forms of expression.

3. It can be inferred from the passage that the optic tectum

A. Functions similarly in animal and in plants
B. Functions similarly in vertebrates and invertebrates
C. Is located in a comparable area of the brains of humans and giraffes
D. Coordinates somatosensory moment in snakes
E. Has a much more sophisticated structure than the cerebral cortex

4. The passage provides support for which of the following statements

A. Creatures "high on the evolutionary ladder" are not less capable of perceptual-motor
B. skills than are creatures "lower down ".
C. Playing a violin is a perceptual-motor skill.
D. The shape and size of the cerebral cortex is what distinguishes the human brain from
E. the brains of other species Literature is an intellectual activity that is understood using the cerebral cortex of area of the brain. Perceptual-motor and intellectual skills exploit the same brain circuits.