Self-study
Among people who have a history of chronic trouble falling asleep, some rely only on sleeping pills to help them fall asleep, and others practice behavior modification techniques and do not take sleeping pills. █████ ███ ████ ████ ██ ████████ ████████████ ████ ██████ ████ ███████ ████ ██ █████ ███ ████ ████ ██ ████████ ██████ ██ ████████ ████████████ ██ ████ █████████ ████ ███ ████████ █████ ██ ███████ ██████ ██ ████ ███████
Summarize Argument: Phenomenon-Hypothesis
The author hypothesizes that behavior modification techniques are more effective than sleeping pills for helping people fall asleep. This is based on the observation that, among people who chronically struggle to fall asleep, people who use only behavior modification techniques fall asleep quicker than people who use only sleeping pills.
Notable Assumptions
Based on relative correlations between the techniques (behavior modifications, sleeping pills) and falling asleep, the author hypothesizes that one technique is more effective than the other. This means the author assumes that other variables—e.g. severity of insomnia, mental health, medical status—are constant between the two groups of people who chronically struggle to fall asleep. The author also assumes that simply helping people to fall asleep more quickly indicates greater "effectiveness" in helping people fall asleep overall.
9.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████ ███████ ███ █████████
a
People who do ███ ████ ████████ █████ █████ ██ █████ ██ ████ █████ █████ ██████ ████ █████ ██ ██ ███ ██████ ███ ████ ████████ ██████
Irrelevant. The argument isn't about the duration of sleep. We're interested in the two techniques' effectiveness in helping people fall asleep, not in keeping them asleep.
b
Most people who ████ ███████ ███████ ██████ ███ ███ ███ ████████ ████████████ ██████████ ████ ██████ ████ ██████ ████ ██ ████ ██████ ███ ████ ██ ███████ ███████ ███████
Irrelevant. We’re not interested in people who have no trouble falling asleep. The argument is a comparison between two groups of people who both already have trouble falling asleep.
c
Many people who ███ ████ ████████ ████████████ ██████████ ██ ████ ████ ████ ██████ ████ █████ ████ ████████ ██████
It doesn’t matter if these people have ever tried sleeping pills. We only care about the relative efficacy of the two techniques, which we have no reason to assume depends on prior use.
d
The people who ███ ███ ████ ██████ ██ ████ ████████ █████ ██████ ████ ████████ ████████ ████████████ ██████████ ███ █████ ███ ████ ██████████ ███ ███ ████ ███████ ███████ ███████
This weakens the argument. The two groups of people aren't starting from the same level of difficulty falling asleep. Since we aren't comparing two equivalent groups, we can't conclude that behavior modification will be more effective across the board. Because people who use sleeping pills have had more difficulty falling asleep, it's possible that behavioral techniques would not be very effective at all for them.
Alternate explanation
Alternate explanation
Weaken: Introduce or support an alternate explanation for a phenomenon.
Strengthen: Helps to eliminate an alternate explanation for a phenomenon.
e
The people who ███ ███ ████ ██████ ██ ████████ ████████ ████████████ ██████████ ██████ ████ ████ ████████ █████ ███ █████ ███ ██████ ███ ██ ███ █████ ██ █████ ██████████ ███ ██████████
It could be true that people who use behavioral techniques chose to do so because they want to avoid drugs, and also still true that behavioral techniques are more effective than drugs. This doesn't weaken the author's argument.