Self-study
Sleep research has demonstrated that sleep is characterized by periods of different levels of brain activity. ██████ ██████████ ██████ ██████ ████ ███ ██ █████ ████████ █████ ██ ███ ██████ ███ █████████ ██████ ████ ████████ ███ ███ ███████████ ████████ ██ ███ █████ ██████ █████████ ██████ ██████ █████ ████ █████ ████ ███ █████ ████████ ███ ████████ ██ ██████ █████
Summarize Argument: Phenomenon-Hypothesis
The author hypothesizes that REM sleep relieves stress. This is based on the phenomenon that people who don’t get REM sleep become grumpy.
Notable Assumptions
The author assumes causation from correlation. In other words, the author assumes that a lack of REM sleep makes REM sleep-deprived individuals cranky, and there isn’t some other factor that causes the crankiness.
2.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████ ███████████ ███ █████████
a
Test subjects who ███ ███████████ ████████ ██ ███████ █████ ████ ██████ █████████ ██████ ██████ █████
This weakens the argument. It attacks the author’s assumption that a lack of REM sleep makes REM sleep-deprived individuals cranky, as people deprived of non-REM sleep also become cranky. This weakens the causal relationship between a lack of REM sleep and crankiness.
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).
b
Chronically having bad ██████ ███ █████ ███████ ███ ██ ███ ███████████ ██████ ████████ ███ ████████ ███████
This does not affect the argument. The nature of the dreams one has in REM sleep does not affect the phenomenon the author seeks to explain, which is that a lack of REM sleep makes people more irritable.
c
During times of █████████ ███████ █████ ███ █████ ██ █████████ ██ █ ███ ████ ████████ ███ ████ █████████
This does not affect the argument. While we know that dreams only occur during REM sleep, we don't know how, or whether, a lack of dreams impacts the stress relief process the author claims occurs during REM sleep.
d
Only some people ████████ ██████ ███ █████ ███ ██████ ███ ██████ ████ ████ ██████ ████ ██████ █████ █████████
This does not affect the argument. We don't know how, or whether, remembering the dreams that occur during REM sleep affects the stress relief process the author claims occurs during REM sleep.
e
Other factors being ██████ ██████ ███ ████████ ████ ███████ ███████ ██ ███ █████ ████ ██ ██████████ ████ ███████
This strengthens the argument. It offers more evidence to support the causal relationship the author assumes exists. In other words, it supports the author’s assumption that a lack of REM sleep (as opposed to some other factor) makes REM sleep-deprived individuals cranky.
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.