Self-study
A recent study proves that Conclusion at least some people possess an independent "sixth sense" that allows them to detect whether someone is watching them. ██ ███ ██████ ████████ ████ ██████ ███ ██ █ ████ ██ ███ ██████ ██ █ ████ ██████ ████ ████ █ █████ ███████ ██ ████████ ████████ ███████ █████████ ██ ███████ ██ ███ ████ ███████ ██ ███ ████ ████ █████ ███████ ███████ ███ ███████
Summarize Argument
The author concludes that some people have a “sixth sense” allowing them to know whether or not someone is watching them. The evidence provided is a study where people guessed correctly 60% of the time whether they were being watched through a window.
Notable Assumptions
The author assumes that 60% accuracy, which isn't much higher than chance, is enough to prove that a “sixth sense” exists. The author also assumes that the 60% result was caused by a sixth sense, and not by some other factor, like the participants picking up on some pattern in the study set-up that allowed them to guess more accurately.
3.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████ ████████ ███ ██████████ █████ ████ ███ █████ █████████ ██████
a
Most of the █████ ████████ ████ ████ ████ █████ ████████
We don’t care what the participants' answers were, just whether their answers were right or wrong. We're trying to explain how they were right 60% of the time. This answer choice doesn't help us do that.
b
The person recording ███ ████████████ ███████ ███ ███████ ███ ██ ████████ ████ ███ ████████ █████ ███ ██████████ ██████
What happened after the experiment ended isn't relevant to whether the participants' correct guesses were due to a “sixth sense.”
c
A similar result ███ █████ ████ ███ ████████ ████ ███████ ████ ███████ ████ ██ █ █████ ████████
This tells us that the results of the first study weren't necessarily due to some flaw in the first study's set-up. Moreover, just by replicating an experimental result and thus increasing the sample size, this choice strengthens the argument.
d
The room in █████ ███ ████████ ████ ██████ ███ ███ ███████████
If anything, this weakens the argument. It suggests a way the participants could have guessed if they were being watched without having a \"sixth sense\", perhaps by hearing the person who was watching them.
e
The subjects were ██████ ████████ ████████ ██ ██████████ ████ █ ██████ ███████████
Irrelevant. It’s not clear what effect the choice of subjects has on whether they have a \"sixth sense\" or not.