In an experiment, ten people

Answer choices

1. A

   Mildly Strengthens5% picked this

   The ten people were randomly assigned to either the group that tasted only coffee or the group that was also given chocolate, although some

   If these people were randomly assigned, it makes the data a little bit more credible. Random assignment helps to rule out certain alternate explanations that result from self-selecting.

   5%
2. B

   Strengthens1% picked this

   Similar results were achieved when the experiment was repeated with a different, larger

   This corroborates the results of the study, which strengthens the evidence, which strengthens the argument.

   1%
3. C

   No Impact2% picked this

   Chocolate is normally consumed as a solid, whereas coffee is normally consumed

   How each substance is typically consumed has no bearing on solving the causal mystery of why the chocolate group thought all the coffees tasted similar while the no-chocolate group was able to detect differences.

   2%
4. D

   Correct87% picked this

   The five people who were originally given chocolate were asked a week later to taste coffee samples without chocolate, and they still detected

   Why this is right

   This attacks the plausibility of the author's interpretation of this experiment. He thinks that the five people in the chocolate group were unable to taste differences between the different coffees because they ate chocolate right beforehand, which interfered with their ability to taste coffee. If that were true, then we would think that if they came back a week later and didn't have chocolate, they would be able to tell the difference. Since these people, even when they had no chocolate, could not differentiate the coffee samples, then clearly chocolate wasn't the causal difference-maker preventing them from tasting differences. We still don't know what the real reason is for why they can't taste the difference, but it clearly wasn't chocolate's doing.

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

   87%
5. E

   No Impact6% picked this

   Some subjects who tasted just coffee reported only subtle differences between the coffee samples, while others thought

   This is trying to weaken by blurring the lines a little between the chocolate group (they all taste pretty much the same) and the non-chocolate group (they could detect differences). Learning that there was variation within the group that noticed differences (some noticed small, some noticed big) doesn't do anything for this argument. It doesn't provide an alternate explanation for why the chocolate group tasted no differences, and it doesn't attack the plausibility that chocolate interfered with that group's taste buds.

   6%