Self-study
Support Studies show that the most creative engineers get their best and most useful ideas only after doodling and jotting down what turn out to be outlandish ideas. ███ ████ ████ █████████ ██ █████ ████ ████ █████████ ███████ ██ ██ ██████ ████████ ████████ ██ ████████ ████ ████ ███████ ███ ████ ███████ ████ ████ ███ ██████ ████ ██ █████ ████████ ███ ██████ ███████████ ██████ █████ ███████ █████ ████ ████ ███████████ ███████████ █████ ██ ███████ ██ ████████ ████████ ███ ███████████ ████ ████████ █████████ ████████ ████ █████ █████ █████████ ██ ███████ █████ █████████ ████ ██ ███ █████████ ████ ██ ██████████ ██████ ███ ████ ███████ ██████ ██ █████ ████████ █████
Argument Summary
The stimulus starts by pointing out that studies show that "the most creative engineers" get their most useful ideas only after they doodle "outlandish ideas." We're then told that doodling is less common now that many engineers work on computers instead of paper, and "some experts" are worried that this will lead to a decline in useful engineering ideas. These experts suggest a way to counteract this decline would be to provide simulated notepads within computer programs that would let engineers type up their outlandish ideas.
Notable Assumptions
Notice how specific the claim in the first sentence is: it's about "the most creative" engineers, and their "best and most useful" ideas. We don't know how many such ideas there are, and we certainly don't know that doodling is a necessary condition for most engineers to generate ideas that are simply "useful," not "the most useful." So the experts' concern that the decline in doodling will lead to fewer useful engineering ideas assumes that doodling is at least helpful, if not necessary, for most engineers to come up with simply "useful" ideas in general — and not just necessary for "the most creative" engineers to come up with their "best" ideas.
Notice also that, even though the decline in doodling is linked to the switch to computers from paper, the experts' proposed solution still involves typing on a computer. So the experts also assume that it's not some factor specifically linked to doodling on paper that allows useful ideas to be generated, since they believe comparable effects can be provided by typing ideas on a computer.
17.
Which one of the following ██ ██ ██████████ ██ █████ ███ ████████ █████████ ████████
a
Most creative engineers ███ ████ ████ █████ ███ ██████ █████ █████ ██ ████ ████ ████████ ██ ████ █████ ██ ████ ████ ████████ ███████ █████
This isn't a necessary assumption for the experts' argument. If anything, this claim weakens the experts' argument, since they are proposing a solution that allows engineers to "quickly return" to their work after typing up outlandish ideas, implying that typing those ideas is not meant to take too much time. Meanwhile, this answer choice suggests that creative engineers actually spend about the same amount of time on doodling as on "serious work."
b
Simulated notepads would ███ ██ ████ ██ █████████ ███ ███ ███████ █████ ████ ██████ ██ ██████████ ██████
This isn't a necessary assumption. Even if we negate this claim to state that engineers would sometimes use the notepad for other purposes, as long as they were still typing up outlandish ideas, they would be fulfilling the purpose the experts envision for the program. So the experts' argument wouldn't be any weaker if this claim were negated.
c
No engineers who ████ ████ █████████ ████ █████ ███ ███████ ████ █████ █████████ ██ █████ ██ ██████ ███ ███ ████ ██████
This isn't a necessary assumption. It doesn't need to be true that no engineers working on computers also doodle with paper and pencils. Even if some engineers did so (the negation of this answer choice), it could still be true that most engineers did not, and thus there would still be an overall decrease in useful ideas that could be counteracted by the experts' suggestion.
d
The physical act ██ ███████ ██ █████ ██ ███ █████████ ██ █████████ █████████ ████ ███ ████████ ████ ███ ██ ██████ ██ █████████
This is correct. If this claim were false — i.e., if the physical act of working on paper were essential to providing the benefits of doodling — then the experts' suggested program, which is still on a computer, would not effectively counteract the effects caused by a decline in doodling.
e
Most of the ██████████ █████ █████████ ███ ████ █████ ████████ ███ █████ ████████████ ████ ████████ ████ ████ █████████ █████████████
This isn't a necessary assumption. Even if only a few of these ideas were incorporated into later projects (the negation of this answer choice), the experts' argument that less doodling would lead to fewer such ideas, and that their program would counteract this decline, could still be true.