Self-study
A recent study reveals that Conclusion television advertising does not significantly affect children's preferences for breakfast cereals. ███ █████ ████████ ███ ██████ ██ █████████ ███ █████ ███ ███████ ██ ███████████ ███ ███ █████ █████ ███ ███████ ███████ ███████ ██ ██████████ ███ ███ ████████████ ████ ██████ ████████ █████████ ███ ██████ ███████ ███████ ██████████ ██ ███████████
Summarize Argument: Phenomenon-Hypothesis
The author hypothesizes that TV advertising doesn’t have a strong impact on children’s cereal preferences. This hypothesis is based on a study that compared the cereal preferences of children who had watched no television with children who had watched average amounts of television. The study showed that both groups strongly preferred sugary cereals that were heavily advertised on television.
Notable Assumptions
The argument assumes that the group of children who had watched no TV was not indirectly impacted in some way by the TV ads. Additionally, it could be the case that the children who watched TV were swayed by the TV ads, and the children who watched no TV were swayed by something else, like print ads.
13.
Which one of the following ███████████ ██ █████ ████ ███████ ███ █████████
a
The preferences of ████████ ███ ██ ███ █████ ██████████ ███████████ ███ ██████████ ██ ███ ███████████ ██ ████████ ███ █████ ███ ████████████
(A) shows that the children who hadn’t watched any television could have been indirectly influenced by the television ads. This is an alternate hypothesis that could explain the study results, so it weakens the author’s argument.
Alternate explanation
Alternate explanation
Weaken: Introduce or support an alternate explanation for a phenomenon.
Strengthen: Helps to eliminate an alternate explanation for a phenomenon.
b
The preference for ██████ ██ ███ █ █████████ █████ ██ ███████ ███ ███ ██ ██████████ ██ █████████████ ███████ ████ ██ ██████████ ████████████
The fact that it’s possible for something like television advertising to influence preferences does nothing to suggest that it did influence preferences. This does not provide any information that impacts the argument.
c
Most of the ████████ ██ ███ █████ ████ ███ ███████ ██████████ ████ ███████ ████████ ████ ███ ██████████████ ███ █████ ████████
It doesn’t matter if these children were already familiar with the advertisements, because they would have become familiar during the experiment. It doesn’t matter when they were exposed to the ads; we only care if they were influenced by these ads.
Failed alternate explanation
Failed alternate explanation
Weaken Qs: Answers that try to introduce an alternate explanation, but fall short, or try to explain a different phenomenon.
Strengthen Qs: Answers that try to eliminate an alternate explanation, but fall short, or try to eliminate an explanation for a different phenomenon.
d
Both groups rejected ███████ ███ ██ █████ ████ ████ █████ ███████ ████ ███████ ██████████ ██ ███████████
This provides further information to suggest that advertisements don’t successfully impact children’s preferences. This agrees with the argument’s conclusion and does not weaken the argument.
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).
e
Cereal preferences of ██████ ███ █████ ██████████ ███ █████ ██ ██ █████████████ █████████ ████ ███ ██████ ███████████ ██ ██████ ███ ██ ███ █████ ███████████
The argument is about children’s preferences, so this information about adults is irrelevant to the argument and does not weaken it.