Self-study
Conclusion Reducing stress lessens a person's sensitivity to pain. ████ ██ ███ ██████████ ███████ ██ ███████████ ███ ██████ ████████ ██████████ ██ ████████ ██████ ████ █████████ ███████ ███ █████████ █████ ████ ████ ███████████ ███ ████ █████████ ██ █████████████ ███ █████ █████████ ██ ██████ █████ ███ ████████ ████ ██ ███ ██████ ████ ████████ ████ ██████████ ██████ ███████ ███ █████ ███████████ █████████ ████ █████ ███ ████████ ████ ██ ███ ██████ █████
Summary
Based on a study in which patients either listened to music or conversation before and after surgery, researchers conclude that reducing stress makes people less sensitive to pain. They support their conclusion by pointing out that those who listened to music needed fewer painkillers than those who listened to conversation.
Notable Assumptions
The researchers assume that requiring less anesthesia and fewer painkillers is a sign of a lowered sensitivity to pain.
The researchers also assume that music reduces stress more than conversation. The premises are entirely unconnected to the idea of stress reduction, so this assumption bridges that gap.
9.
Which one of the following ██ ██ ██████████ ██ █████ ███ ████████████ █████████ ████████
a
All of the ████████ ██ ███ █████ ████████ ██ ███ ████ ████ ██████ ███████ ██ ████ ████████ ██ █████ ████████
Even if a patient listened to two different recordings of music before and after surgery, say a Mozart Symphony and a Beethoven Sonata, each piece could still lower their stress and thus their pain sensitivity. This negation does not undermine our argument, so (A) is not necessary.
b
Anticipating surgery is ██ ████ █████████ ████ ██████████ ████ ████████
We don’t care about which part of the surgery process is more stressful. All we care about is whether patients were less sensitive to pain after listening to music, and whether music can be linked to reductions in stress.
c
Listening to music ███████ ███████
If we negate (C)—music does not reduce stress—then the patients’ pain sensitivity was reduced through some other means, and the conclusion makes no sense.
d
The psychological effects ██ █████ ███ ███ ███████ ██ ██████████ ██ ████████████
Even if anesthesia and painkillers do change the effects of music, what changes do they make? Do they make music reduce more stress, less stress, or some other effect entirely? The stimulus doesn’t provide answers to these questions, so (D) is not necessary.
e
Both anesthesia and ███████████ ████ ██ ██████ ███████
We are trying to link music to stress reduction, not anesthesia and painkillers. Regardless of whether these reduce stress, it could still be the case that music reduces stress and thus reduces pain sensitivity, so (E) is not necessary.