Logical reasoning PrepTest 127 · Section 1 · Question 9

Question prompt

In a recent study, Remaining source text redacted.
Why the credited answer is right

Credited answer: B

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

Bizarro / Strengthen Questions

Stimulus Summary

Study - 2 groups were asked to call a number at a given time
Group 1 - Ages 65-75, only 1 lapse
Group 2 - College students, 14 lapses
Group 1 was better than Group 2, so this type of memory doesn’t fade with age

Answer Anticipation

Bizarro Strengthen questions that feature studies tend to have varied answers that circle around 2 things - the samples, and the experimental design.
For the samples, one glaring issue is that the conclusion is about age, but the age of only one of the groups is noted. It would need to be shown that the college students weren’t people going back to college after retirement! Additionally, the size of the samples isn’t mentioned, so a correct answer might establish comparable sizes, which is relevant since the conclusion is based on the number of lapses, not the percentage of people who forgot to call.
For the experimental design, this argument very much relies on the two groups being treated the same - if there are differences between how they were treated in the experiment, then that could explain the different number of lapses instead of memory. Any answer that makes these groups more similar in how the experiment treated them will strengthen it.

Answer choices

  1. A
    There was the same Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A is not credited
    This answer eliminates one potential problem with the study. If there were only 1 or 2 people in Group 1, then 1 lapse is pretty bad. If, however, the group sizes were comparable, then the comparison of number of lapses is directly related to which group remembered to call better.
  2. B
    The same group of Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B matches the stem
    Who answered the calls doesn’t matter - that happened after the group members had made the call, so it can’t affect the determination of memory.
  3. C
    Among the college students Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C is not credited
    This answer establishes that the college group was, in fact, younger than the members of Group 1, which is necessary to reach a conclusion comparing across age groups. It thus strengthens the argument.
  4. D
    Both groups had unrestricted Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D is not credited
    If Group 2’s access to phones was more restricted than Group 1’s, then that might explain why they had more lapses, not memory issues. In ruling that possibility out, this answer strengthens the argument.
  5. E
    The members of the Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E is not credited
    If the groups received the instructions at different times - say, the college group was given the instructions 2 months before the study started, but Group 1 received it the same day - then that would throw the data about memory off. This answer eliminates that potential flaw in the study/explanation for the data, strengthening this argument.

What this tests

Question analytics

Based on historical answer selection rates for this question.

Answer choice distribution

  1. A 7%
  2. B Credited 77%
  3. C 11%
  4. D 4%
  5. E 1%

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