@KevinLin Ohh, that makes total sense now.

"as long as we can prove they sometimes DON'T use visual cues" this in particular was super helpful— thanks so much!

@LunaSegura I think I can see how one could lean towards A even if one isn't sure if they rely on visual clues at all. We know that they recognize their kin through nipping which I suppose is enough to tip the scales towards A— but truthfully this is still not enough information for me to comfortably select A

I really struggled with this question, I could immediately recognize that B-E were unsupported and I (wrongly) assumed the same for AC A.

I understand that Spadefoot tadpoles recognize their kin by nipping at each other but I just don't understand how we could possibly come to the conclusion that they also use visual cues since the passage at no point mentioned visual cues and Spadefoot Tadpoles. Tbh, when I encountered this question in this PT I was hesitant to even assume that tadpoles could see at all.

Is there simply a gap in my knowledge about tadpoles?

#help

I personally found it helpful to focus on the degree of strength of the answer choices. It seems to me like the reality is that, when thinking solely of the stimulus, we cannot conclude that a correlation exists but we also cannot conclude that a correlation doesn't exist. Therefore, if our answer choice mentions a correlation (or lack thereof) our answer choice should use language that allows for a bit of wiggle room-- that is, it shouldn't use words like "proves" or in this case "indicates"

A. The use of the word "Indicate" is already a red flag to me, additionally we cannot conclude that the weather affects some arthritis sufferers more quickly than others because we cannot conclude that it affects arthritis sufferers at all.

B. Again, the use of the word "Indicates." Furthermore, this seemed to me like it was a comparative claim, this AC talks about the believers in the correlation, since we know nothing about the nonbelievers of this correlation we cannot know if their assessment capabilities are affected.

C. D. and E. all begin with the words "suggests" which leans AC towards the direction of a conclusion but it doesn't allow for the AC to make a definitive claim which is perfect since that is the only type of conclusion we can really make.

D. Like AC A, we don't know that a correlation exists so we cannot conclude that some are more susceptible than others.

E. We have no reason to believe that just because this study found no link no such study is possible.

C. (Finally) The evidence that we have points to the absence of a correlation, which is what this AC makes explicit, and its use of the word "suggest" leaves enough room for doubt. We cannot conclude that no correlation exists but we can conclude that the evidence suggests that no correlation exists.