Logical ReasoningDifficulty: Hard

PT1 S3 Q23 Explanation

A medical journal used a questionnaire

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Stimulus

A medical journal used a questionnaire survey to determine whether a particular change in its format would increase its readership. Sixty-two percent of those who returned the questionnaire supported that change. On the basis made to introduce the new format.

What this question is testing

Strengthen

Conclusion

The journal's decision (introduce the new format) will increase readership.

Evidence

62% of returners supported the change.

Evaluate

This is a sampling issue. The decision was made based on a self-selected group — people who bothered to return the questionnaire. To trust the result, we need that group to actually represent the entire potential readership. Otherwise, the journal might have reshaped the magazine for the people who like writing back, but lost everyone else.

Goal

The right answer will tell us the responders' preferences mirror the preferences of the larger population the journal is trying to reach.

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The question
23.

Which one of the following, if it were determined to be true, would provide the best evidence that the journal’s decision will

Answer choices

  1. No Impact28% picked this

    Of the readers who received questionnaires, 90 percent

    A 90% return rate is high, but a high response rate alone doesn't guarantee the responders are representative — even with high response, the responding subset could still be biased toward one preference. This addresses participation, not representativeness.

  2. No Impact1% picked this

    Other journals have based format changes on

    What other journals have done with survey results doesn't bear on whether this journal's decision will work. The track record of survey-based decisions elsewhere isn't evidence about the representativeness of this particular survey.

  3. Correct60% picked this

    The percentage of surveyed readers who like the format change was almost the same as the percentage of the entire potential readership

    Why this is right

    This is the missing piece. If the percentage of surveyed readers who like the change is almost the same as the percentage of the entire potential readership who would like it, then the survey accurately reflects the potential readership's preferences. The decision based on the survey will then tend to track the actual preferences of the wider audience — which is exactly what would justify expecting an increase in readership.

    Skill tested: Strengthen · how this choice captures the argument's function is the move to repeat next time.

  4. No Impact2% picked this

    It was determined that the new format would be less costly than

    Cost reduction is irrelevant to readership. The conclusion is about whether readership will increase, not whether costs go down.

  5. Opposite9% picked this

    Ninety percent of the readers who were dissatisfied with the old format and only 50 percent of the readers who liked the

    This actually undermines the survey's reliability. If 90% of dissatisfied readers but only 50% of satisfied readers returned the survey, the responding sample is heavily skewed toward dissatisfied readers — meaning the 62% pro-change figure overrepresents the dissatisfied side. The survey results would not accurately reflect the broader readership, and the conclusion is weakened, not strengthened.

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