Logical reasoning PrepTest 104 · Section 1 · Question 18

Question prompt

Astronauts who experience weightlessness Remaining source text redacted.
Why the credited answer is right

Credited answer: A

The notes below walk through why it fits the stem and how to eliminate the rest.

Argument or Facts

Argument

Valid or Flawed

Flawed

Question Type

Strengthen Questions

Stimulus Summary

Phenomenon - Astronauts get motion sickness
Explanation - Seeing passing objects but feeling as if you’re not moving sends conflicting info to the brain

Answer Anticipation

Hypotheses are almost always explanations for witnessed phenomena, and they’re almost always causal. That pans out here, where motion sickness is hypothesized to be caused by conflicting info being sent to the brain. That conclusion is based on a single example of these two things being correlated - astronauts have conflicting info sent to their brains, and some experience motion sickness.
When we’re attempting to strengthen a causal conclusion that’s based on correlative premises, there are a few common types of answers:
An explanation of how the causality works The elimination of an alternative cause More examples of cause and effect going together A “control” - a situation where there’s no cause and no effect
Let’s head to the answers looking for one of these.

Answer choices

  1. A
    During rough voyages ship Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A matches the stem
    This answer takes a step to get there, but it does strengthen the argument. It compares people who can see the water on a ship, versus those who can’t. Those who can see the water can see that they’re moving with the waves as they can feel it, and thus the info being sent to the brain isn’t in conflict. Those who can’t see the water feel like they’re moving, but since they can only see the room, they can’t see that they’re moving, and the info sent to their brain is in conflict. Since that latter group is receiving conflicting information and is more likely to feel motion sick, this answer strengthens the argument by bringing up a control group (no conflicting info; less likely to be motion sick) and more examples of cause and effect going together (conflicting info; more likely to be motion sick).

  2. B
    Many people who are Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B is not credited
    Passengers can see that they’re moving as they look out of a window, but there’s no indication that they don’t feel as if they’re moving, so there’s not necessarily conflicting information being sent to the brain here.

  3. C
    Some automobile passengers whose Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C is not credited
    If anything, this answer weakens the argument by showing a situation where there is no conflicting information (no cause), but there is motion sickness (effect).

  4. D
    People who have aisle Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D is not credited
    Assuming that those who are in window seats are more likely to see outside/see themselves moving than those in aisle seats, by stating that the two groups are “as likely” to get motion sickness, this answer cuts against the argument.

  5. E
    Some astronauts do not Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E is not credited
    If anything, this presents counterexamples, weakening the argument.

What this tests

Question analytics

Based on historical answer selection rates for this question.

Answer choice distribution

  1. A Credited 66%
  2. B 7%
  3. C 19%
  4. D 7%
  5. E 1%

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