Test 9 · ★★★ · How scientists test animal minds: the mirror test, puzzle…

«put a sticker on a cat's paw, it pulls it off, so cats pass the mirror test» What is wrong?

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 4 · right ✓ · Who acts: sticker, cats · What happens: put, pull off, pass, be · To what, where: sticker, paw, mirror test

This is test 9 · ★★★ of lesson 389 «How scientists test animal minds: the mirror test, puzzle boxes and Clever Hans» of the biology course of Mova's primary school. The page gives the question's syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause, then the 4 options as the student saw them, each with its tree and pragmatics. Every text is parsed by Mova itself. How the student answered it, with the score of every option and why: the test at school.

The question

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	«	«	PUNCT	_	2 put	punct
2	put	put	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	12 pulls	advcl
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 sticker	det
4	sticker	sticker	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 put	obj
5	on	on	ADP	_	9 paw	case
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 cat	det
7	cat	cat	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 paw	nmod:poss
8	's	's	PART	_	7 cat	case
9	paw	paw	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 put	obl
10	,	,	PUNCT	_	2 put	punct
11	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	12 pulls	nsubj
12	pulls	pull	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
13	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	12 pulls	obj
14	off	off	ADP	_	12 pulls	compound:prt
15	,	,	PUNCT	_	18 pass	punct
16	so	so	ADV	_	18 pass	advmod
17	cats	cat	NOUN	Number=Plur	18 pass	nsubj
18	pass	pass	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	12 pulls	conj
19	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	21 test	det
20	mirror	mirror	NOUN	Number=Sing	21 test	compound
21	test	test	NOUN	Number=Sing	18 pass	obj
22	»	»	PUNCT	_	18 pass	punct
23	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	25 wrong	nsubj
24	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	25 wrong	cop
25	wrong	wrong	ADJ	Degree=Pos	18 pass	conj
26	?	?	PUNCT	_	12 pulls	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	put in a quote	infinitive	sticker not said here	a sticker	a cat's paw		vn put-9.1-2 «NP V PP.destination NP»: agent=Agent sticker=Theme on paw=Destination
2	pull off in a quote	present	sticker	paw			vn complete-55.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Eventuality
3	pass in a quote	present	cats	the mirror test			vn escape-51.1-1-3 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme test=Trajectory
4	is	present				wrong property	tree rules

One row per clause the reader finds. «not said here»: a role filled from the clause above. «roles by»: a VerbNet class and frame when one fits the verb, else the reader's rules on the tree.

The options

Option 1

The paw is too small for a sticker

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 paw	det
2	paw	paw	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 small	nsubj
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 small	cop
4	too	too	ADV	_	5 small	advmod
5	small	small	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
6	for	for	ADP	_	8 sticker	case
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 sticker	det
8	sticker	sticker	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 small	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	the paw					for a sticker; small property	tree rules

Option 2

Nothing is wrong, cats pass

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Nothing	nothing	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	3 wrong	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 wrong	cop
3	wrong	wrong	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	6 pass	punct
5	cats	cat	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 pass	nsubj
6	pass	pass	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 wrong	parataxis

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	Nothing					wrong property	tree rules
2	pass	present	cats						vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 3

Cats have no paws

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Cats	cat	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 have	nsubj
2	have	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	4 paws	det
4	paws	paw	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 have	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	have	present	Cats	no paws					vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent paw=Patient

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

It could see the paw without a mirror, so the test means nothing

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 see	nsubj
2	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 see	aux
3	see	see	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 paw	det
5	paw	paw	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 see	obj
6	without	without	ADP	_	8 mirror	case
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 mirror	det
8	mirror	mirror	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 see	obl
9	,	,	PUNCT	_	13 means	punct
10	so	so	ADV	_	13 means	advmod
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 test	det
12	test	test	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 means	nsubj
13	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 see	parataxis
14	nothing	nothing	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	13 means	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	see	could	It	the paw				without a mirror	vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer paw=Stimulus
2	mean	present	the test	nothing					vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent nothing=Topic

Text: the tests of Mova's primary school, written for Mova (world/data/school/), as the course runner gave them to the student. Trees: Mova's own parse — the en model on the CPU, when the site is built — not checked by a teacher; they may be wrong. Frames: Mova's frames reader (prag), each text read on its own. Elamur Cosmic License.

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/389-how-scientists-test-animal-minds-the-mirror-test-puzzle-boxes-and-clever-hans/t9/