Logical Reasoning

PT116 · S2 · Q10 When students receive negative criticism

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When students receive negative criticism generated by computer programs, they are less likely to respond positively than when the critic is a human.

Conclusion

Students are more likely to learn from criticism by humans than from criticism by computers.

Evidence (since)

Accepting criticism requires that one respond positively to it.

Students are less likely to respond positively to computer criticism than to human criticism.

Evaluate

The two premises have an overlapping concept, "responding positively". When we're doing Inference questions (e.g. Must Be True, Most Supported), we look for these overlapping concepts as a way to synthesize two claims.

If we say, "Responding positively is required for accepting criticism" and we say, , then what can we infer by combining?

We can infer .

Any time the premises can be synthesized, they should be. LSAC is testing our ability to connect related thoughts and understand the implication of combining them.

So, from our two premises, it's been established that: students are more likely to accept human criticism than to accept computer criticism.

Now the conclusion comes, and it has a New Concept in it: students are more likely to learn from human criticism than from computer criticism.

What is being assumed in going from the Premise to the Conclusion?

Goal

, or maybe something more conditional like, "Learning from criticism requires accepting it".

10.

Which one of the following is an assumption on which the argument depends?

  1. Correct

    Students are more likely to

    Why this is right

    This is essentially what we predicted. If we wanted to look at this formally we could imagine the Conclusion as an extended logic path the author is trying to build: Criticism More from --------------------------> likely humans to learn Criticism More likely More from ? to respond ? likely humans positively to accept More More likely ? likely to accept to learn

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

    78% picked this

  2. Unlike human critics, computers are

    Out of Scope

    Out of Scope: compassion Too Strong: incapable This pulls in an out of scope concept and talks about it with extreme language, so it has both hallmarks of a wrong answer. It wouldn't hurt the argument to negate this, since even if computers are capable of showing compassion, the premise still remains that students are less likely to respond positively to computer criticism. This type of trap answer is trying to "explain a premise". We were told that humans respond less positively to computer criticism, so this answer is speculating some backstory to that premise.

    1% picked this

  3. Students always know whether their

    Too Strong: always

    The author doesn't have to assume that students know in 100% of cases. If there was one time where a students wasn't totally sure whether their critic was a computer or a human, would that derail this argument? Of course not.

    7% picked this

  4. Criticism generated by computers is

    Out of Scope: favorable

    Nothing in the argument addresses the substance of the criticism, whether it's more/less favorable from one source or the other, whether the grammar is better, whether there's more likely to be humor, etc. This answer is also trying to speculate a backstory to the opening premise. Huh, why do humans respond less positively to computer criticism? (A) it must be because computers can't show compassion (D) it must be because computers give more unfavorable reviews

    10% picked this

  5. Criticism generated by computers is

    Too Strong: same favorability

    The author hasn't committed to any extreme idea that for any given work, computer criticism is likely to be equally favorable to human criticism.

    4% picked this

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