PT.51 S1 Q8

rockytoral

How is is C the correct answer... I'm not seeing the connection. Someone please help!

The conclusion is "we can now dismiss the widely held suspicion that sugar consumption often exacerbates hyperactivity in children with attention deficit disorder". The supporting premises are the results of the study and it concludes that there was no significant difference between the experimental groups (received a type of sugar) and control (sugar substitute).

How does (C) weaken the support of anything I assumed it would strengthen the conclusion. (C) states that the consumption of some sugar substitutes exacerbates the symptoms of hyperactivity. I immediately thought this was irrelevant because a sugar substitute is not sugar... I don't see how this would weaken the support.

Accounts Playable

I'll take a stab at this one.

This is a weaken question.

The argument starts with its conclusion: the conventional wisdom that sugar makes hyperactivity worse in kids with ADD is wrong. Why? We have this study about the effects 3 types of sugars (S, F, and G) on kids with ADD. The difference between the experimental group (the ones that got the sugars) and the control (those who got a sugar substitute) was zero.

What I am looking for: I am always cautious of studies: were they representative, unbiased, etc. Also, do kids with ADD even eat sugars S, F, and G? What if these are never in the kids' diets? The study wouldn't be really testing anything important. However, most glaringly is the problem with the control group: it isn't a control group. A true control group would have them eating no sugar/no substitute. In other words, it isn't all that surprising that those given sugar and those given a sugar substitute come back with the same results. That's what a sugar substitute is supposed to do: replicate sugar!

Answer A: So what? We don't care about what was suspected/believed. We care about its actual effect.

Answer B: Some kids? We only care about kids with ADD, not all kids in general. Plus, this doesn't have anything to do with attacking the study.

Answer C: Perfect. If this is true, then this severely weakens the argument. What if both groups became super hyperactive? This supports the conventional wisdom idea; it doesn't destroy it. If the kids taking the real sugars had very high hyperactivity, and the sugar substitute does this as well, then sugars probably do cause hyperactivity!

Answer This is a lot like B. We don't care about anything involving kids in general.

Answer E: This is like A. We don't care about beliefs, we care about what actually happens.