Logical reasoning PrepTest 154 · Section 1 · Question 18

Incorrect. While attention may be a necessary feature of learning, without connecting extra attention to faster or easier learning, this answer is out of scope.

Incorrect. The argument states that children exposed to the different levels of language learn grammar at the same rate, so this answer about one set of babies having their learning impaired doesn't align with the argument.

Correct. Argument or Facts:
Argument

Valid or Flawed:
Flawed

Question Type:
Strengthen with Necessary Premise

Stimulus Summary:
Some families repeat simple phrases to babies; others don't. Babies from both types of homes learn grammar at the same speed, so that baby talk doesn't help kids to learn to speak.

Answer Anticipation:
The argument compares babies from two types of households—one that uses baby talk, and another that doesn't. They both learn grammatical structures of language at an equal rate, and from that, it's concluded that the baby talk doesn't provide an advantage in learning language.

There are two big issues there. First, as with any argument relying on a comparison, the argument assumes that other factors are close enough to not throw the comparison off. If, for example, the families that use baby talk also, on average, spend money on education for their children to learn to speak, then the argument looks worse, as the kids learn the language at the same speed as those who have less education on speaking. Answers that deal with relevant comparisons between these families could be correct.

Second, the stimulus is about grammatical structures of language, but the conclusion is about learning the language itself. While grammatical structures are certainly a part of learning a language, they're not the whole thing (vocab, for instance, is pretty important). Any answer that connects these ideas could also be correct.

Answer Explanation:
This answer choice connects what we know about the learning of these children (no better at grammatical structures) to the conclusion (no better at learning the language). If mastering grammatical structure doesn't establish a child has learned language, then there's a gap in this argument that can't be overcome.

Key Takeaway:
LSAT questions will sometimes use fancy language to try to distract you from what's being said. Here, the question used the phrase "grammatical structure of their language" to try to get you to think about it just as language instead of a part of it. When you see a complicated term, be sure that you don't lose distinctions when you paraphrase!

Incorrect. It's not necessarily for linguists to believe something for it to be true.

Incorrect. This answer choice hurts the argument as written, so it's the opposite of what we're looking for.