Logical reasoning PrepTest 120 · Section 1 · Question 23

Incorrect. The hippocampus was just one of "many" regions of the brain where theta waves happen. The causal assumption relates the theta waves themselves and creativity.

Incorrect. The argument concludes that listening to music can cause you to enter a state of profound creativity, not that it's necessary to do so, so this answer is incorrect.

Incorrect. Similar to (B), the conclusion states only that one method will work, not that other methods can't work.

Correct. Argument or Facts:
Argument

Valid or Flawed:
Flawed

Question Type:
Errors in Reasoning

Stimulus Summary:
Creativity and an increased level of theta waves are correlated, and music causes your theta levels to increase, so music can make you more creative.

Answer Anticipation:
This argument has a few interesting variations on a standard flaw, so let's dig in and see what's going on here!

The argument concludes that listening to music will help you "attain" a state of creativity—in other words, listening to music will make you more creative. While it doesn't have traditionally causal language, it is a causal statement. And whenever an argument has a causal conclusion or assumption, there's a good chance it's committing a correlation/causation flaw.

For that to be the case, the premises would have to be correlative. Interestingly here, there is a correlation as a premise (between theta waves and periods of creativity), but there's also a causal premise (listening to music "increases" theta waves). Causal premises can support causal conclusion validly. So do we have a correlation/causation flaw?

We do—the causal premise connects music to theta waves, but the conclusion has music as the cause of profound creativity. So the causal premise is only half the story—the other half is the correlation between theta waves and creativity. Since one part of the "causal" chain is merely a correlation, the argument has a correlation/causation flaw.

Specifically, it assumes that a correlation between theta waves and creativity shows that theta waves cause creativity. Let's find an answer reflecting this assumption.

Answer Explanation:
This answer brings up a common reason that a correlation doesn't equal a causation. While periods of profound creativity may be accompanied by elevated theta waves, this answer states that there are times when increased theta waves are present without periods of creativity. In bringing up a counterexample—a time when the supposed cause is present without the effect—the argument weakens the causal relationship, so this answer is something that the argument "ignores."

Key Takeaway:
Causal premises can support causal conclusions, but each "step" of the causal chain has to be backed up by a causal premise in order to be valid. If any step is supported by a correlation, you have a correlation/causation flaw.

Incorrect. The stimulus discusses an "increase" in theta waves, not high/low theta waves. As such, this answer about "low levels" of theta waves is out of scope. Be careful with shifts between relative and absolute language!