Logical Reasoning

PT104 · S1 · Q4 In Yasukawa's month-long study

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

  • Save & drill this skill — build targeted practice sets from questions like this one

  • Video walkthroughs — watch every question solved step by step

  • 81 official LSATs — as questions, timed sections & full-length tests

Start practicing free

In Yasukawa's month-long study of blackbirds, the percentage of smaller birds that survived the duration of the study exceeded the percentage of larger birds that survived.

Yasukawa's Research

A higher % of smaller birds than larger birds survived the month-long study.

This must mean that size is a determinant of a blackbird's chances of survival.

The Criticism

You're ignoring an alternate explanation for why the smaller birds were more likely to survive. It's not because of their small size. It's because of their young age.

Evaluate / Goal

This unusual question task wants us to pick an answer that will say,

Let's find something that would potentially respond to the criticism that the data really might just be telling us that the age is the determinant of a blackbird's chances of survival.

Maybe Yasukawa controlled for age and found that even within the same age group, smaller ones were more likely to survive.

Maybe the answer will help us say that .

4.

Which one of the following, if true, indicates that the criticism of Yasukawa's research is based on a misunderstanding of it?

  1. Correct

    Yasukawa compared the survival chances

    Why this is right

    This allows us to say, "Critic, your objection isn't (necessarily) valid." You're worried that the smaller birds were just the younger birds and that's why they were more likely to survive. But Yasukawa wasn't looking at just one population of blackbirds. He was comparing a group of Carolina Blackbirds to a group of Australian Blackbirds. Carolina blackbirds are a bigger species of bird than Australian blackbirds are. We can't say that the smaller birds were better able to survive because they're smaller. After all, a young Carolina blackbird is still bigger than a older Australian blackbird. So shorter ≠ younger for this data set.

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

    84% picked this

  2. Yasukawa examined blackbirds in their

    No Impact

    In order for the critic to say, "The real reason the shorter ones were more likely to survive was their age, not their size", does she need to think that this experiment took place in captivity? No, she could make that objection whether the data was collected in a lab or in the field.

    2% picked this

  3. Yasukawa did not compare the

    Helps Critic, if anything

    If Yasukawa found that there was a correlation between shorter / more likely to survive in other kinds of birds in addition to blackbirds, that would hurt the critic. That would bolster the idea that size does impact survival. The fact that Yasukawa only saw this correlation within blackbirds would help the critic argue that this was just a symptom of age, not size.

    4% picked this

  4. Yasukawa noted that the larger

    Helps Critic

    The critic wants to say, "The real reason the shorter ones were more likely to survive was their age, not their small size". If the larger birds had more success in fights, that would help the critic argue that "small size is not the reason for higher survival rates." Yasukawa was arguing that being smaller helps your survival chances.

    7% picked this

  5. Yasukawa noted that the larger

    No Impact

    The fact that larger birds have more firmly established social hierarchies doesn't have any common sense link to likelihood of surviving. It doesn't help us assess whether the smaller ones were more likely to survive because they were younger or because they were smaller.

    3% picked this

Continue the review in LSAT Lab

Save this question, watch the video walkthrough, and drill similar questions in your LSAT Lab account.

Save and practice this skill
LSAT Lab

Turn this review into a targeted study plan.

Save this question, drill more like it, watch the video walkthrough, and track your progress in your LSAT Lab account.

Start practicing free