Self-study
Psychologist: We measured the "cognitive plasticity," or the willingness to accept new ideas, of a group of people of both genders and of all ages. ███ ██████████ ████████ ██ ███ █████ ████████████ █████████ ████ █████████ ██████████ ████ ███ █████ █████████ ██ ██ ██████████ ██ █████ ████ █████ ███ ███ ████ ██ ███ █████ ████ ██ ███████████ ██ █████ █████ ██████ ███ █████ ████████ ████ ████████ ██ ██████████ ████████ ████ ████ ██ ██ ████ ███████████ ████ ████ ███ ████████████
Summarize Argument: Phenomenon-Hypothesis
The psychologist hypothesizes that siblings of first-born children are usually more adventurous than the first-born children themselves. He supports this by citing a study that found that siblings of first-born children were more open to new ideas than were first-born children. He also claims that people open to new ideas are likely to be more adventurous in other ways.
Notable Assumptions
The psychologist assumes that measuring cognitive plasticity is an accurate way to determine how adventurous someone is, without considering that adventurousness might also involve other qualities or factors not captured by the study.
15.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████ ███████████ ███ ██████████████ █████████
a
Some of the █████ ████████ ████████ ██ ███████ ████ ██████████ █████████
Irrelevant— the psychologist’s hypothesis is about the general population, not about creative geniuses. Also, we don’t know how adventurousness relates to being a creative genius, so we can't determine if creative geniuses are more or less adventurous than others.
b
In most cases, ███ ████ ███████ ████████ ███ ████ ███ ███████ █████ █████████ ███████████
Irrelevant—the psychologist compares the cognitive plasticity of siblings in the same family, finding that first-borns have less cognitive plasticity than their younger siblings. But (B) compares first-born children to other first-borns in different families.
c
Other studies have █████ █ ███████████ ███████ █████████ ██████████ ███ ███ ███████████ ██ ████ ██████
If cognitive plasticity correlates with risk-taking, it becomes more plausible that birth order correlates with adventurousness. This is because birth order now correlates with risk-taking, which causes one to be adventurous.
d
A study of ████████ ██████████ █████ ████ ███████ ████████ ███████ ████ █████ █████████
Irrelevant— like (A), a study on business executives can’t be used to draw inferences about the general population. Also, we don’t know how adventurousness relates to being a business executive, so we can't determine if business executives are more adventurous than others.
e
Most of the ████████████ ██ ███ █████ ███ █████████████ ██████████ ██ ████ █████████ ████ █████ ███████
Irrelevant— we don’t know how adaptability is connected to cognitive plasticity or adventurousness. But even if they are connected, it’s unclear how (E) would strengthen the argument.