Cognitive Abilities Test (CAT4) Practice Exam

The principle of late closure suggests that when parsing a sentence, the brain tends to attach new information to the most recent phrase that was added. In the given context of a sentence about jogging, the first part of the phrase "Because he always jogs a mile" introduces information about the subject's jogging habit. This establishes a context for the subsequent details.

Choosing this phrase reflects the tendency to connect new clauses or phrases to the already established parts of the sentence, as it implies the subject's ongoing action and builds up the sentence's overall meaning. Thus, parsing begins with this phrase before moving on to others, ensuring that each segment of the sentence flows logically from its antecedents, which is a key aspect of how the principle of late closure functions in sentence comprehension.

Other phrases do not initiate the same causal or explanatory relationship in the sentence structure and instead would follow the initial clause, making them less likely to be the first parsed under this principle.