The only place that the passage refers to "judges" is in the last paragraph.
Lines 51-54 tell us that a part of a judge's duties is to "minimize jury inferential error through explanation and clarification." However, the author continues to state that a majority of judges only use a limited and "primitive concept" of jury inferential error. The author specifies that she believes it is limited because it fails to recognize the potential for error outside certain traditional situations, primitive because it ignores the research and conclusions of psychologists in favor of notions about human cognition held by lawyers.
So, as you can see, the last paragraph directly states that the author believes that judges are PRIMITIVE because they IGNORE the RESEARCH and CONCLUSIONS OF PSYCHOLOGISTS, (lines 58-61).
Therefore, answer choice (C) best characterizes the author's attitude about the majority of judges: "critical of their failure to take into account potentially helpful research."
Hope that helps! Please let us know if you have any other questions.
stormbeelerSeptember 15, 2015
Got this right but debated with C . Is it wrong because it doesn't directly state anything about them making changes. I got hung up because I assumed that making changes meant taking into account the research. Thanks
