Self-study
Support The interstitial nucleus, a subregion of the brain's hypothalamus, is typically smaller for male cats than for female cats. █ ██████████████ █████████ █████████ ██ ████ ████ ███ ████ ████ ███████ ██ █ ███████ █████████ ██ ████ ████ ███ ███████ ██ ████ █████ ███ █████ ████ █████ ████ ████ ███ ████████████ ██████ ████ ████ ██ █████ ██ █████ █████████ █████ ██ ██████ █████ █████ ███ ████ ██ ███ ████████████ ███████ ██████████ ███████ ██ ███ ████ ████ ███ ████████ ███████ ██
Summarize Argument: Phenomenon-Hypothesis
The author hypothesizes that the size of the interstitial nucleas determine whether a male cat can contract disease X. This is based on data showing that male cats who died from disease X have larger interstitial nuclei than those male cats that didn’t die from disease X.
Notable Assumptions
The author assumes that the correlation observed between the size of the interstitial nucleus in male cats and death from disease X must be explained by the size of the interstitial nucleus having a causal impact on the presence of disease X.
25.
Which one of the following ███████████ ██ █████ ████ █████████ ███████ ███ █████████
a
No female cats ████ ████ █████ ██ ████████ ███████ ██ █████ ██ █ ███████ ██ ███████ ██
The conclusion is just about male cats’ susceptibility to disease X based on their interstitial nucleus size. Whether female cats can get disease X doesn’t impact the author’s reasoning, which was limited only to what we observed in male cats.
b
Many male cats ███ ████████ ███████ █ ████ ████████ ███████ ██ ███ █████ ██ █████ ██ ████████
This establishes that many cats that get X also get Z. But this doesn’t provide any insight into the cause of disease X in male cats.
c
The interstitial nuclei ██ ██████ ████ ███ ████████ ███████ █ ███ ██████ ████ █████ ██ ██████ ████ ███ ██ ███ ████████ ███████ ██
This is additional data suggesting a correlation between a larger interstitial nucleus and contracting disease X. This is consistent with the author’s reasoning.
Directionally wrong
Directionally wrong
Answers that, if they have any effect, do the opposite of what we want (weaken when we're trying to strengthen, or strengthen when we're trying to weaken).
d
Of 1,000 autopsies ██ ████ ████ ███ ███ ███ ████████ ███████ ██ █ ████████ ████████████ ██████ ██████ ████ █████ ██ ███ ███████ ████ ████
This shows that a tiny percent of male cats without disease X had a larger interstitial nucleus. But we already know that all the male cats with disease X had this larger feature. So, (D) shows that there is a correlation between disease X and a larger interstitial nucleus.
Illusory inconsistency
Illusory inconsistency
Answer is attractive because it seems to (but doesn't actually) contradict the premises or conclusion.
e
The hypothalamus is █████ ███ ██ ██ ████████ ██████ ██ ███████ ██ ███ ███████ █ ██ █ ███████ ██ ███████ ██
The first sentence told us that the interstitial nucleus is a part of the hypothalamus. If the hypothalamus isn’t known to be a cause of Y, which includes subtype disease X, this suggests the interstitial nucleus isn’t a cause of disease X.
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.