PrepTest 119

[lcid:3573] Prep Test 119 LSAT — Logical Reasoning — S2 Logical reasoning

Question prompt

In an experiment, researchers 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

Strengthen Questions

Stimulus Summary

Experiment - A diverse group of 6mo babies preferred certain intervals over others.
Info - Those intervals are prevalent in most musical systems.
Conclusion - Humans are biologically predisposed to liking those intervals.

Answer Anticipation

The conclusion of this deals with a very specific topic that frequently appears on the LSAT - nature vs. nurture; or upbringing vs. genes. The conclusion here says that a phenomenon can be explained by biology - or by nature/genes. That explanation is necessarily causal in nature, and we can view this argument through a correlation/causation lens, but the topic has its own trends on the LSAT which we can use to help us anticipate an answer.
When the LSAT concludes that either nature or nurture is the determining force, the correct answer usually has to do with the other one. Here, to strengthen the conclusion that biology determines musical preferences, we want to rule out upbringing/nurture as a potential cause for it.
How can we do that here? Well, the sample from the stimulus was 6mo babies - but that means they had a full 6 months (plus 9 in utero) to “learn” to prefer those intervals because of its prevalence. Any answer that rules this possibility out will therefore strengthen the argument.
As a backup, we should be prepared to find an answer that falls into one of the common correlation/causation Strengthen answer patterns - eliminate an alternative cause; find more examples of cause and effect going together; find a “control” (no cause/no effect).

Answer choices

  1. A
    Several similar experiments using Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A is not credited
    The older one gets, the more likely it is that they’d be influenced by society rather than biology. As such, these examples fall into the same flawed reasoning as the stimulus and thus don’t help the argument.
  2. B
    None of the babies Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B matches the stem
    This answer eliminates nurture as a potential alternative cause of the musical preferences. If the babies had never been exposed to music before, they couldn’t have learned to prefer the prevalent octaves, and thus an inherent preference (nature/biology) is more likely to be the explanations.
  3. C
    All of the babies Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C is not credited
    This answer provides evidence that nurture might have played a role - the babies had heard music with these octaves, and thus they may have learned to enjoy them instead of having an inherent preference for them.
  4. D
    In a second experiment, Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D is not credited
    Colors are out of scope to an argument about musical preferences.
  5. E
    Octaves, fifths, and fourths Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E is not credited
    If anything, this weakens the argument by suggesting that the babies were statistically more likely to pay attention to these sounds, or even that they grew more familiar with them as the experiment went on and thus learned to enjoy them.

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