[Experiment]: Just answer one reading comprehension qn pls.

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Note: Since I have already returned this book to the library long ago, I can't recall its title.

I remembered reading in a book that researchers once asked two groups of middle school students to complete a reading comprehension exercise to determine how autistic and non-autistic people interpret and use language differently. For one particular question, there was only one acceptable answer. Majority of the non-autistic students gave the acceptable answer (one sentence long) but majority of autistic students gave another answer (also one sentence long) that was marked as wrong. Now, its your turn to answer this question.

Quote: "The king lost the will to rule after his son's death."
Question: Why did the king lose the will to rule?
What's your answer?

Because his son died?

Because, due to the death of his son, he had no available successor.

Two possibilities.
1: He was too grief-stricken over this son's death to rule properly.
2: With his son dead, he no longer had an heir to take his throne.

Because his son died?

Because he was distracted by his grief?

(Context is very important to determine how someone answers a question like that. Since you've made a thread about it and made it seem significant, I thought about the answer too long. Who knows how I would have answered if it had been one of many questions in a reading comprehension test?)

The correct answer is probably because he was sad?

I think it is because of his grief.

This is partially because I know a few people who have all experienced losses (two lost their husbands, one lost a very close friend) and their grief seemed to have a profound impact on their motivation. I have also been interested in this because I do not experience grief this way and cannot properly explain why.

You really can't answer the question because it could mean different things.

1,. It could mean that he's lost the will to rule after (in the chronological sense) the death but for some other reason.

or

2. You could read it as implying that he lost the will to rule because of the death.

Either way there is no way to determine whether the cause was the death. The only thing certain is that he lost the will to rule some time after the death. I could be 40 years after the death, you just don't know based on the available data.

The answer cannot be determined from the information given.

We don't know why, there is not enough information to go on. If we start guessing the reason surely it is straying beyond english comprehension and into amateur psychology. And for there to be only one acceptable answer, is that a case of NTs saying the "right thing"?

1 - He was too grief stricken to carry on.
2 - He was scared, his son was the latest in a long string of royal murders.
3 - He murdered his own son and was filled with remorse and self loathing.

Whatever the reason, he was a crappy king, surely rulers of nations need to rise above personal feelings and circumstances.

Keep in mind that the people who were asked this question were kids in middle school. If the intent of the test was to see if there is a difference in implied meaning and empathy the autistic kids might have developed slower than the NT kids in that regard. But all people learn from constant exposure, some just slower than others. For people answering on this thread the real question is, "what would your answer have been at middle school age?"

good grief! its simple-why have a will if theres noone to inherit it? this is how i read it, but am aware the normie would go so far as to say the king gave up wanting to rule. or am i reading this too far? dern asperg!

Because he recognized the fierce determination and potential of his daughter whom had challenged the prince for his status as heir in a fierce duel to the death. Thus bowing to his daughter, the new queen.

My answer was "because his son died."

Interesting to see other people reading more into it than is written.

So, what's the "correct" answer icyfire4w5?