Logical Reasoning

PT127 · S1 · Q9 In a recent study, each

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In a recent study, each member of two groups of people, Group A (composed of persons sixty-five to seventy-five years old) and Group B (composed of college students), was required to make a telephone call to a certain number at a specified time.

Conclusion (clearly)

At least one type of memory does not suffer as a person ages.

Evidence

In a study, participants had to remember to make a telephone call to a certain number at a specified time. The time when the participants called was recorded electronically.

In the group of 65-75 year olds, only one person failed to make the call at the right time. In the group of college students, 14 of them failed to make the call at the right time.

Evaluate

The author is using this experiment in which all but 1 person from the 65-75 year old group remembered to make a phone call at a certain time as a way to support the idea that this "type of memory" is just as strong in these 65-75 year olds as it was when they were younger.

How could we accept that they almost all remembered to make this call but still argue that their memory for phone numbers and appointment times has gotten worse as they've aged?

Maybe when they were 50, they could have just memorized this number and call-time but nowadays, knowing that their memories are on the decline, the 65-75 year olds went to great lengths to write down reminders for themselves.

Goal

Since this is an EXCEPT question, we're looking for four answers that could strengthen, that could be helpful in establishing the conclusion.

They will either strengthen by ruling out a possible objection to the existing argument, or they will strengthen by providing more plausibility to the author's claim that memory for numbers / appointments is a type of memory that does not suffer as we age.

9.

Which one of the following, if all of them are true, is LEAST helpful in establishing that the conclusion above is properly drawn?

  1. There was the same number

    Strengthens - Rules Out Objection

    This does almost nothing, but because the correct answer does even less. Does it matter to the author whether the numbers in the two groups are even or uneven? Honestly, not really. But what LSAC seemed to be thinking was, "What if there were only 5 people in Group A but 100 people in Group B"? If 1 out of 5 people in Group A failed to make the phone call, then 20% of the 65-75 year olds failed. Meanwhile if 14 out of 100 people in Group B failed to make the phone call, then 14% of college students failed. With these numbers, it would seem like the older group actually is struggling more with this memory task. Only 14% of college students forgot but 20% of seniors forgot. This answer choice is shutting down the possibility of that kind of objection.

    4% picked this

  2. Correct

    The same group of researchers

    Why this is right

    It makes zero difference to any of this study who answered the call on the other end. The time of the call was recorded electronically, and all we care about was whether the people remembered to make the call. It doesn't matter who picks up the phone: it could be a recorded message, the same researchers both times, different researchers each time. Once they've made or not made the call, we stop caring for the purposes of this argument. Since learning about what entity answered the call on the other end is totally irrelevant, this answer has no power to strengthen or weaken.

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

    78% picked this

  3. Among the college students there

    Strengthens - Rules Out Objection

    The author's argument is intended to lean on this comparison between an older group A, who seemingly did better when it comes to remembering to make this call, and a younger group B. But we're never told that group B is younger, just that they are college students. Well, college students can potentially be any age. What if Group B had a bunch of college students, 14 of which were in their seventies (they decided in retirement to go get that degree they had never gotten)? In this sort of scenario, we could say that the 14 people in Group B who forgot to make the phone call were all super old college students whose memories had suffered from aging. This answer removes the possibility of making such an objection.

    14% picked this

  4. Both groups had unrestricted access

    Strengthens - Rules Out Objection

    The author's argument is intended to lean on this comparison between an older group A, who seemingly did better when it comes to remembering to make this call, and a younger group B. The author wants us to interpret this experiment by thinking that Group A did better at this "Call X at time Y" task because the older folks in Group A had at least as easy a time remembering to make the call as did the younger folks in Group B. But we could potentially object with an alternate explanation for why Group B failed to make the call in 14 cases. "It wasn't because the college students couldn't remember to make the call. They all remembered perfectly. 14 of them failed to make the call simply because they had no access to a telephone. This answer rules out that sort of objection by affirming that everyone had access to a phone.

    4% picked this

  5. The members of the two

    Strengthens - Rules Out Objection

    The author's argument is intended to lean on the idea that the people in Group A did "a better job remembering" than did those in Group B. But what if the people in Group A were told to make this call like an hour in advance, whereas the people in Group B were told to make this call like three days in advance. It's must easier to remember one hour later that you're supposed to Call X and Time Y, whereas it's much harder to remember that days later. This answer rules out that sort of objection. It levels the playing field in terms of how much lead-time they had on this instructed call. (A), (D), and (E) are all equalizing the two groups so that we can compare their "lapse rate" and feel like Group A did a better job remembering. (A) same size groups (D) they all have access to a phone (E) they all had similar warning

    1% picked this

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