Logical reasoning PrepTest 130 · Section 3 · Question 1

Incorrect. This answer is too extreme in stating that the impressions were determined by the headlines "alone." While it does appear that the headlines had a strong influence on the impressions of the readers, the details of the article itself could still have some influence on how people interpret it.

Incorrect. There's no indication that the headline hampered people's ability to understand the articles. One of the two groups may have had a correct interpretation, showing that their comprehension wasn't hampered by the headline. Or both groups could have given correct answers to the questions, but the differences were in the details they focused on.

Incorrect. There's no discussion of other students, or even evidence that either group in the study engaged in careless reading.

Incorrect. It's unclear whether either headline was misleading, and it's also possible that only one was. And this is just one example of headlines created for a study. All reasons to believe this answer is wrong.

Correct. Argument or Facts:
Facts

Question Type:
Must Be True

Stimulus Summary:
Study:
Sample - First-year undergrad students
Details - Split into two groups and given the same newspaper article but with a different headline
Results - Students within the groups answered questions about the article similarly, but students between the two groups answered questions about the article differently

Answer Anticipation:
In a Must Be True question where the results of a study are presented, the correct answer is almost always the conclusion that would be drawn from those results. Here, the two groups provided different answers to questions about an article. The articles each group read were the same, but the headlines were different. To explain a difference, you usually need a difference, so the conclusion here is that the headline must have had some influence on how the article was interpreted. Let's find that as an answer.

Answer Explanation:
This answer matches the results of the study and is relatively weak. "Influence" just means that it has some impact, no matter how small. Since there were different answers given to questions when the only difference between the two groups were the headlines they were presented with, there's support that those headlines did have an impact on how people interpreted the articles.

Key Takeaway:
When a study makes up the entirety of a Must Be True stimulus, the correct answer will almost always be the conclusion that could be drawn from the data in the study. But be careful—studies are generally limited in scope, and so you should pick answers that create weaker rules, not absolute ones.