Resolve reconcile explain questions

Silver_37

Hey everyone, I’m having trouble with RRE questions.
Does anyone know what the relationship between weaken and RRE questions is?
I never got to hear JY’s explanation in the CC.
Thank you in advance.

JustDoIt

Hi!

So I think you may be thinking about the relationship between weaken and evaluate. With those, if you answer one way it should strengthen and the other way should weaken. There really isn't a weakening relationship between RRE questions and weaken questions. However, there is a relationship between RRE and strengthen questions because the right answer will solve resolve the discrepancy, necessarily strengthening the stimulus.

CurlyQQQ

This is what someone told me:

Weakening ------ RRE
This one is a little harder to see so I'll use an example.
There are 100 people on a cruise ship and half take Dramamine, a pill that's supposed to help with sea sickness. Despite this, of the 50 people who took Dramamine, 13 reported symptoms of sea sickness. Of the 50 people who didn't take Dramamine, only 2 reported symptoms of sea sickness.
That's a classic setup (stimulus) for a RRE question. What's the resolution? You have to think about who would take Dramamine in the first place. Likely those people who anticipated getting sea sick. No one pops pills for fun... wait, never mind. Anyway, the resolution here is that people who are more inclined to get sea sick are more inclined to take Dramamine in the first place. If those 50 people instead did NOT take Dramamine, then likely all 50 would have gotten sea sick. That's the classic reconcile answer choice.
It's very easy to make this into a Weakening question. We just have to add a silly conclusion. For example: Therefore, Dramamine is ineffective in preventing sea sickness.
Previously, we didn't have a conclusion so there was no argument. Now we have a conclusion so we have an argument. How do we weaken this argument? We say the same thing. People who are more inclined to get sea sick are more inclined to take Dramamine in the first place.

Silver_37

@JustDoIt JY said in the CC that there is a deep relationship between RRE and weaken questions. He said he would mention it later, but I wasn’t able to find the video. But anyways thank you very much.

Silver_37

@CurlyQQQ thank you for the explanation! It was very helpful.(: I get it now. Thank you again!!!