Self-study
When several of a dermatologist's patients complained of a rash on just one side of their faces, the dermatologist suspected that the cause was some kind of external contact. ██ ████ ████ ██ ██████ ███ ████ ███ ████ ████████ ██ ███ ████ ██ ███ ████ ██ █████ ███ █████████ ███ █████ ███ █████████████ █████████ ████ ███ ████ ███ ██████ ██ █████████ ███████ ████ ███████████
Summarize Argument: Phenomenon-Hypothesis
The dermatologist hypothesizes that the rash was caused by prolonged contact with telephones. This is because, for each of these patients, the rash appeared on the side of the face to which they held the telephone.
Notable Assumptions
The dermatologist assumes that there is a possible way for telephones to cause rashes, that the patients were actually experiencing "prolonged contact" with telephones, and that they didn't all have exposure to some other cause of rashes to that side of the face, like a genetic disorder or an allergic reaction.
13.
Each of the following, if █████ ████████ ██████████ ███████ ███ ███ ███████████████ █████████ ███████
a
Many telephones are ███ ████████████ █████ █ ████ ██ ███████ ██ █████ ████ ██████ ███ ██████ █████████
This clarifies how a telephone could cause a rash. Perhaps all these patients were allergic to the plastic telephones are made from.
Causal mechanism
Causal mechanism
Answers that undermine, or help establish, the practical story of how an alleged cause could produce the alleged effect.
b
Contact between other ███████ ███ ███ █████████ █████ ████████ ███████ ██ ████ █████ ██ █████ ██████
This helps rule out the possibility that some other device was causing the rash. Since the patients held other devices to both sides of their faces, if one of these other devices caused the rash, we'd expect the rash to appear on both sides of the face. But since the rash is only on one side of the face, and telephones are the one device held to only that side of the face, the dermatologist's diagnosis seems more likely.
Alternate explanation
Alternate explanation
Weaken: Introduce or support an alternate explanation for a phenomenon.
Strengthen: Helps to eliminate an alternate explanation for a phenomenon.
c
Most of the ████████ ███ ███████████ ████ ████████ ████ ██ ███ █████ ██████████ ████████████
This supports the dermatologist's hypothesis by establishing that these patients were in fact experiencing “prolonged contact” with telephones.
Plausibility
Plausibility
Presenting evidence that corroborates (in Strengthen) or conflicts (in Weaken) with the author's hypothesized explanation or the predictions that follow from that explanation.
d
Telephones are used ██ ████ ██████ ██ ███ ██████████████ ██████
We're only interested in this set of patients, whom we already know used the telephone. It doesn't matter how many other people use the telephone. This answer choice doesn't support the diagnosis.
e
The complaints occurred █████ ██ ████████ ██ ███ █████████ ███ ██ ███ ██████████
If patients began to experience the rash once they increased their telephone use, this supports the idea of a causal link between using the telephone and experiencing the rash.
Plausibility
Plausibility
Presenting evidence that corroborates (in Strengthen) or conflicts (in Weaken) with the author's hypothesized explanation or the predictions that follow from that explanation.