Logical ReasoningDifficulty: Medium

PT10 S1 Q23 Explanation

No one knows what purposes

A free, expert breakdown of this official LSAT Logical Reasoning question.

TopicsPrinciple-Conform

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Stimulus

No one knows what purposes, if any, dreams serve, although there are a number of hypotheses. According to one hypothesis, dreams are produced when the brain is erasing “parasitic connections” (meaningless, accidental associations between ideas), which accumulate during the day and which would otherwise clog up our memories. Interestingly, the only mammal to have an effective memory that animal would need extra memory space for the parasitic connections.

What this question is testing

Principle-Conform

Your task

Break the argument into its conclusion and evidence, then do exactly what the question stem asks with that structure.

Common trap

Answers that sound relevant to the topic but don't connect to the argument's actual reasoning.

Winning move

Predict what a right answer must do, then test each choice against the conclusion-evidence gap.

Reading along? Open the full official question in LawHub — we show a fragment here and keep the reasoning in our own words.

The question
23.

The reasoning in the argument most closely conforms to which one of

Answer choices

  1. Trap16% picked this

    Facts about one species of animal can provide confirmation for hypotheses about all species that are similar in all relevant respects to

  2. Trap1% picked this

    A hypothesis from which several predictions can be drawn as logical conclusions is confirmed only when the majority of these predictions

  3. Trap12% picked this

    A hypothesis about the purpose of an action or object is confirmed when it is shown that the hypothesized purpose is achieved with the

  4. Correct72% picked this

    A hypothesis is partially confirmed whenever a prediction derived from that hypothesis provides an explanation for an otherwise

    Why this is right

    Answer D is correct.

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

  5. Trap0% picked this

    When several competing hypotheses exist, one of them is confirmed only when it makes a correct prediction that

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