Self-study
Support Researchers gave 100 first-graders after-school lessons in handwriting. ████ █████ ████ █████ █████ ███████████ ██████ ███ ████████ ███ ████ ███ ███████ ██ █████ ███████ ███ ████ ██████████████ ████ ████████ ████ █████████ ██████████ ████ █████████████ █████ ██ ██████ █████████ ███ █████ ███████████
Summarize Argument: Phenomenon-Hypothesis
The author concludes that producing characters more automatically frees up mental resources for other activities. This is based on a study of 100 first-graders who received after-school lessons in handwriting, which showed that those whose composition skills had improved the most had learned to write letters the most automatically.
Notable Assumptions
The author assumes that in the study, the improvement in how automatically students could write letters contributed to improved composition skills. The author also assumes that the mechanism underlying this relationship was that writing letters more automatically freed up mental resources that could be used for composition. Another assumption is that the correlation observed among the students who composition skills had improved the most also existed for other students who had improved their composition skills.
26.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████ ███████████ ███ █████████
a
Among the first-graders ███ ████████ ███ ████████████ ███████ ██ ████████████ █████ ███ █████████ ███ ████ ███████ ██ █████ ███████ ███ ████ ██████████████
(A) tells us why the students who learned to write letters most automatically were able to do so. But this doesn’t help connect writing letters automatically to improved composition skills.
b
The first-graders who █████ ███████ ███ ████ █████████████ ██████ █████████ ███ ████████████ ███████ ██ ███████████ ██████ ███ ████████ ███████████ ██ █████ ███████████ ██████ ████ ███ ██████ ██ ███ ████████
We already know there’s a correlation in the study between the most improved composition skills and learning to write letters the most automatically. (B) doesn’t reveal any new information that suggests a causal connection.
c
Over the course ██ ███ ████████ ███ █████████████ ███ ██████ ███████ ███████████ ██ █████ ███████ ██ █████ ███████ █████████████ ████ █████████ ██████ ███████ ███████████ ██ █████ ███████████ ███████
This strengthens by showing that the correlation observed among the ones who had learned to write letters the most automatically was also observed among the broader group.
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
Before receiving the ████████████ ███████ ██ ████████████ ███ ███ █████████████ ███ ████████ ███ ███████ ████ ██████████████ ██ █████████████ ████ ██████████ ████ ███████ ██ █████ ██████ ██ ████ ███████████ ███ ████████████
Representativeness wasn’t an issue because the author’ didn’t assert that every first-grader could achieve the same results observed in the experiment. The conclusion was simply that there’s a causal relationship between writing letters more automatically and freeing mental resources.
e
Among the first-graders ███ ████████ ███ ███████ ██ ████████████ █████ ███ ███████ ███ ████ ██████ ███████████ ██████ ██████ ███████████ ███████████ ██ ███ █████████████ ████ █████ █████ ████████
We already know there’s a correlation in the study between the most improved composition skills and learning to write letters the most automatically. (E) doesn’t reveal any new information that suggests a causal connection.