Self-study
Many scientific studies have suggested that taking melatonin tablets can induce sleep. ███ ████ ████ ███ ████ ████ █████████ ██ ███████ ██ ████████ █████████ ████ ██ ███ ███████ ████████ ████ ██████ ███████ █████████ ███ ██ ████ ██ ███ ████████ ████ █ ███ ██ ███ ████████ █████ █████████ ████████ ██ ██ █████████████ ████████ ██ ███
Summarize Argument
The author concludes that studies don’t necessarily indicate that melatonin helps people with insomnia. This is because few of these studies have dealt with people with insomnia, and very few people in the studies overall were significantly affected by melatonin.
Notable Assumptions
The author assumes that people with insomnia are categorically different than other people when it comes to falling asleep. In other words, the author assumes that the way melatonin induces sleep in people without insomnia isn't necessarily applicable to people with insomnia. The author also assumes that melatonin has to have a “significant effect” to be relevant to people with insomnia.
23.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████ ███████████ ███ █████████
a
A weaker correlation ███████ ██████ █████████ ███ ███ ██████████ ██ █████ ███ █████ ██ ███ ███████ ████ ████████ ██████ ████ ████████ ████ ██ ███ ███████ ████ ███ ████
This doesn't necessarily strengthen the argument. We don't know how much weaker the correlation was. The difference could be negligible, or it could have been caused by some other factor. For instance, if the studies including insomniacs were comparing them to people who for some reason were very resistant to melatonin, then the correlation between melatonin and inducing sleep might naturally be weaker, even if melatonin significantly helped the insomniacs.
b
None of the ███████ ████ █████████ ████ ██████ █████████ ███████ ███ ██████ █████ ████████ █ █████ ██████████████ ██████ ██ ███ █████ ███████████
Irrelevant. We don't need the sample to be representative of the entire human population, just of the subsection of that population who have insomnia.
c
In the studies ████ ████████ ████████ ████ █████████ ████ ████████ ███████ ████████ ████ █████████████ ████████ ██ █████ ██ ██████████
This strengthens the author's conclusion. This tells us directly that when people with insomnia were studied, they derived no significant benefit from melatonin. This sugggests that melatonin isn’t very helpful for people with insomnia, which strengthens the author’s claim.
d
Several people who ████ ██ ███████ ██████ ███ ████ █████ ████████ ███████ ████ ███ ███████ ███████ ██████
Irrelevant. Knowing about certain people in the control groups doesn't tell us anything about whether or not people with insomnia would benefit from melatonin.
e
If melatonin were ███████ ██ ████████ █████████ ████ █████ ██████ ████ ████████ ███ ████ █████ ██ █████████ █████ ██████ ██ ██ █████████████ ████████ ██ ███
We don’t know if anyone who has insomnia was actually given doses of melatonin in these studies. Thus, without further information, we can’t say whether this statement even applies to the argument.