LR Stimulus Logic
29 LR Stimulus Logic tags
Analogy (LR)
Stimuli that feature arguments by analogy, where the success or failure of that analogy informs the answer choices.
Correct answer criteria
- To support a judgment in one situation, the author presents information about another, distinct situation that is purportedly similar in all relevant respects
Key tactics
- Arguments by analogy are common in every LR question type, in both sections of the LSAT, and also in the broader world of legal argument
- Learn to recognize them by name when they appear, and ask whether the analogy is well crafted or vulnerable to criticism
- The two things being compared in an analogy are always similar in some ways and different in others. What matters is if there are RELEVANT differences that affect the author's specific conclusion
Answer choice tips
- In "Flaw" or "Method of reasoning" questions, correct answers will often use the words "analogy" or "analogous" directly
- In other question types (WSE, NA, SA, etc.), information that bolsters or challenges the analogy is likely to appear in the correct answer choice
- For example, if the author argues for a certain tax policy in one country because it was successful in another country, look for information about relevant economic differences between the two countries
Causal chain
Stimuli that feature a chain of causal claims (e.g. A causes B, B causes C, so A causes C).
Key tactics
- Causal chains often appear as support for causal conclusions. For example, if the conclusion is "A causes C," the premises could say "A causes B" and "B causes C." Evidence like this does lend some support for the conclusion by fleshing out the causal mechanism.
- That said, causal chains do not provide ironclad support. Most commonly, causal chains can be broken by introducing additional factors that outweigh those mentioned in the chain (see the "Weighing factors" tag).
- For example, let's say smoking cigarettes causes an elevated mood, and an elevated mood leads to improvements in physical health. While it's true that ONE element of cigarette smoking has a positive, indirect impact on physical health, OTHER elements of cigarette smoking directly damage physical health, undercutting the claim that "smoking cigarettes leads to improvements in physical health."
Answer choice tips
- If in a WSE question (most common), look for additional causal factors that could weigh against the chain's purported effects.
- Look also for link assumptions between the concepts in the causal chain, or between those concepts and the conclusion. Link assumptions are subtle shifts in terminology that mean the concepts being linked up change from one claim to the next.
- If in a MSS question, look for weakly-worded conclusions that merely assert that A can have some effect on C, as opposed to conclusions asserting a definite, overall causal relationship when other factors could be present.
Causal reasoning
Stimuli that feature the logic of causation (i.e., phenomenon-hypothesis, causal chain, experiments, net effect, or multiple causes and effect).
Key tactics
- When evaluating arguments featuring causal reasoning, keep the following questions in mind:
- Is the reasoning designed to explain a certain phenomenon? If so, are there potential alternative explanations for that phenomenon?
- Is there a causal mechanism being proposed? If not, then introducing a plausible mechanism would strengthen the reasoning.
- If the conclusion asserts that A causes B, could B plausibly cause A? Or could there be some additional phenomenon C that causes both A and B?
Circular reasoning
Arguments for which accepting one of the premises involves having already accepted the conclusion.
Key tactics
- In arguments featuring circular reasoning, either 1) a premise, or 2) an assumption required by the argument will simply be a restatement of the conclusion using different phrasing. Consider the following argument:
- Every claim in Scientology's holy text is true. I know this because the text itself states plainly that it includes nothing but the truth.
- In the above argument, the only person who would be persuaded by the premise (who, in other words, is willing to trust the Scientology text's claims unquestioningly), is someone who already believes the conclusion (that every claim in the text is true). The argument assumes the truth of its conclusion.
- Circular reasoning more often shows up as a wrong answer choice in flaw questions (accusing the argument of circular reasoning when in fact the flaw is something else). Perhaps the primary value in learning to recognize this flaw when it happens is to build your confidence in saying it HASN'T happened in a given stimulus. In the history of the LSAT, circular reasoning has been the correct answer on fewer than 20 questions.
Answer choice tips
- Example answer choices that point to this flaw:
- assumes what it seeks to establish.
- precludes the possibility of disconfirming evidence.
- presupposes what it sets out to conclude.
- contains a premise that presupposes the truth of the conclusion.
Conditional reasoning
Stimuli that feature conditional and set logic (e.g. A → B, A is true, therefore B is true).
Key tactics
- The Conditional reasoning tag applies to any stimulus that features conditional claims (e.g. if ___, then ____), or claims about sets (e.g. all cats are mammals).
- Flawed conditional reasoning is one of the most tested concepts on the LSAT, but many stimuli feature valid conditional reasoning patterns as well.
- Fluency in formal logic diagramming (we call our language "Lawgic") is immensely helpful, both in the learning process and on the test itself.
- Diagramming takes time to learn, and it's normal for it to feel slow or confusing at first. For most students, it's worth the investment because it builds a deeper understanding of conditional logic that pays off on test day.
Answer choice tips
- THE important thing to note about conditional claims is not to confuse a sufficient condition for a necessary condition. For example, consider the claim "All my friends are nerds":
- That claim does NOT mean "All nerds are my friends" nor does it mean "Anyone who is not my friend is not a nerd." Both of these claims confuse a sufficient condition for a necessary condition.
- Wrong answer will often try to tempt you to confuse a sufficient condition for a necessary condition.
Confusing sufficiency and necessity
The "oldest mistake in the book." Arguments that confuse a sufficient condition for a necessary condition. For example, the claim A → B is confused for B → A or /A → /B.
Key tactics
- We call this flaw the "oldest mistake in the book" because you are guaranteed see this multiple times in every PrepTest.
Answer choice tips
- Example answer choices that point to this flaw:
- assumes without warrant that just because satisfying a given condition is enough to ensure an announcement’s importance, satisfying that condition is necessary for its importance.
- (In response to a stimulus that presents a premise saying "A -> B" but concludes "B -> A"): ignores the possibility that B may sometimes happen while A does not happen.
- mistakenly interprets P to be claiming that a factor assures, rather than is necessary for, a legislator’s effectiveness.
Correlation
Stimuli that involve two phenomena that are correlated with one another.
Key tactics
- Learn to recognize the crucial difference between correlative and causal claims - correlation tells us two things change together, but does not tell us WHY they do so.
- When you see a correlative claim, it is very likely you're in a phenomenon-hypothesis situation, and should therefore adopt the mindset and approach associated with that common pattern of reasoning.
Diagram?
Diagramming the logic is likely helpful (but not necessary) to solve the problem.
Key tactics
- Because conditional reasoning is so common on the LSAT (and critical to the competent practice of law, by the way), questions testing these skills are often aggressively unintuitive when thinking about them in English.
- In these situations, diagramming is an excellent method of abstracting away from the claims' substance to focus only on their structure. This will help enormously when combating wrong answer choices that are perfectly reasonable statements are their own, yet reflect a confusion of sufficiency and necessity.
- Everyone must strike their own balance with respect to when to diagram and when to think in English.
Most similar LR type
Eliminating options
Stimuli that reason by laying out a set of options, ruling some of those options out, then concluding we must choose the remaining option(s).
Key tactics
- The argument reaches its conclusion by asserting (or assuming) that the conclusion is the only remaining option from a set of possibilities.
- Arguments that reason by eliminating options appear in both valid and invalid forms on the test.
- Questions that feature this argument form will very likely turn on your understanding of what makes it succeed or fail.
Answer choice tips
- In a MSS or MBT question, for example, if the stimulus lays out 5 options and eliminates 3 of them, it's very likely the correct answer will say something like "either [one of the remaining options] or [the other] must be true."
- In a Flaw or WSE question, it's likely that the author has forgotten a possible option, or has assumed the options stated are mutually exclusive. See the "False dichotomy" tag.
Most similar LR type
Equivocation
Arguments that use a single term to mean two substantially different things, resulting in misleading or invalid reasoning.
Key tactics
- Equivocation often reads like a pun. Like maybe a billboard says “Looking for a sign? This is it!” Get it? Because sign can mean omen but also the billboard is a literal sign! Get it?
- Although it can be confusing at first, once you get accustomed to the patterns, equivocation on specific terms will jump out at you automatically.
- Like the circular reasoning flaw, this flaw more often shows up as a wrong rather than a right answer. Hence, learning to recognize equivocation when it happens allows you to quickly say "No, no, I would have noticed if the argument did that" to answer choices.
Answer choice tips
- Example answer choices that point to this flaw:
- responds to a claim in which “available” is used in the sense of “affordable” by using “available” in the sense of “not occupied.”
- improperly exploits an ambiguity in the phrase “public interest”
- unreasonably extends the application of a key term.
- ignores a difference in how the idea of forced work applies to the two cases.
- fails to distinguish two distinct senses of a key term.
False dichotomy
Arguments that attempt to split the world up into two (or more) mutually exclusive, jointly exhaustive options, when in fact there may be additional available options, or the options given do not actually exclude one another.
Key tactics
- Example of a dichotomy that's false because the options aren't jointly exhaustive (there's a secret third option): "You don't support our righteous cause; therefore, you are against our cause."
- Example of a dichotomy that's false because the options aren't mutually exclusive (you can choose both): "You are going to law school; therefore, you will not go to business school."
- LSAT arguments (and arguments in the legal world) often reason by eliminating options -- some successfully, some unsuccessfully. You should aspire to recognize this argument form, then think critically about whether the choices presented to you truly account for all the options, and about whether you must choose between those options rather than picking them both.
Answer choice tips
- Example answer choices that point to this flaw:
- assumes without warrant that a situation allows only two possibilities.
- does not take into account that there may be other ways to stop the decrease in profits.
- treats two things, neither one of which can plausibly be seen as excluding the other, as though they were mutually exclusive.
- fails to consider that innate dispositions and social conditioning could jointly affect the popularity of a type of music.
Most similar LR type
Internal contradiction
Arguments that feature two or more statements that are logically inconsistent with one another (e.g. "bread is delicious" and "bread is not delicious"), or set forth a rule and then come to a judgment that contradicts the rule.
Key tactics
- Sometimes the author states or assumes both X and not X. That's an internal contradiction.
- Sometimes the author unwittingly undermines their own argument, bringing up evidence that actually suggests their conclusion should cut the other way.
Answer choice tips
- Example answer choices that point to this flaw:
- the results of the analysis are interpreted as indicating that the use of titanium as an ingredient in fifteenth-century ink both was, and was not, extremely restricted.
- draws a conclusion that cannot be true if all the data advanced in its support are true.
- makes incompatible assumptions.
- its conclusion contradicts an implicit principle on which an earlier part of the argument is based.
Kick it up
Stimuli that are made significantly easier to understand by kicking some concepts up into the argument's domain.
Key tactics
- When a concept is repeated in the premises of a conditional argument, you can kick that concept up into the domain to avoid redundancy in your thinking.
- For example, if the premises read...
- 1: Every senior at Palo Alto High School is bound to become a tech bro if they enroll in AP Comp. Sci.
- 2: Brockleton is a senior at Palo Alto High School and enrolled in AP Comp. Sci.
- ... rather than diagramming premise 1 "Senior + PAHS + AP Comp. Sci. → Tech Bro", we can simply treat "seniors at PAHS" as the domain, and think about the argument as follows:
- Domain: Seniors at Palo Alto High School
- 1: AP Comp. Sci. → Tech Bro
- 2: Brockleton → AP Comp. Sci
Lack of support v. false conclusion
Stimuli that reason from premises saying "X has not been proven" to a conclusion saying "X must be false."
Key tactics
- Here's an example of a flawed argument of this type:
- Gladis thinks the website we are on right now is called 7sage.com. She claims to know this because she cast her soul into the astral plane and communed with a goatman on Ganymede, who told her this website is called 7sage.com. Obviously Gladis is a crazy person, so this website must not be 7sage.com
- Just because the evidence offered FOR a claim does not hold up, that absence or weakness of evidence does NOT count as evidence AGAINST the claim.
Answer choice tips
- Example answer choices that point to this flaw:
- rejects the possibility that what has not been proven is nevertheless true.
- infers that there is no extraterrestrial intelligence in neighboring star systems from the lack of proof that there is.
- reasons that since Smith never disproved the claim that he threatened Lopez, he did in fact threaten her.
Link assumption
Arguments that feature an unjustified shift from one concept to another, which don't fit neatly into other common flaw categories (e.g. moving from premises about "buildings" to a conclusion about "houses").
Key tactics
- A huge part of why the LSAT has a reputation as a persnickety, pedantic test is because it constantly asks us to notice tiny changes in wording that lead to substantive differences.
- Most of the common flawed reasoning patterns can be described in Link assumption terms - jumping from correlation to causation, from sufficiency to necessity, from pecentages to amounts, etc.
- "Link assumption" is the catch-all tag for conceptual jumps that don't fall into common categories (e.g. from "hiking" to "outdoor recreation").
- Whenever an author uses two different phrasings to refer to (supposedly) the same concept, ask yourself whether those two concepts are ACTUALLY the same.
- Sometimes the two concepts are the same. For example, "ways to hide" and "methods of concealment" are functionally the same despite their different wording.
- Sometimes the two concepts are different. For example, "hiking" and "outdoor recreation" are different because hiking is a specific kind of outdoor recreation, and there are other kinds too (like playing tennis).
Math
Stimuli that require certain math skills for full comprehension. Most often "% v. amount" or "averages v. individual data points."
Key tactics
- Encountering math questions on the LSAT can be an unwelcome surprise for many, and at first blush many of these questions seem incomprehensible. Fortunately, the list of math concepts commonly tested is pretty short, and with a bit of dedicated practice (see the linked lessons) these questions will become reliably solvable.
- As with many common LSAT tricks, mastering the Math tag is mostly about recognizing that various concepts are distinct from one another. For example...
- ...just because there are a large number of flat earthers in the world (call it 10,000?), that does not mean a large percentage of people are flat earthers.
- ...just because the average NBA player is 6'7" tall (true fact, btw), that does not mean any given NBA player is 6'7" tall (Steph Curry, for example, is 6'2").
Answer choice tips
- Example answer choices that point to math flaws:
- assumes that an increase in the proportion of knee injuries rules out a decrease in the number of knee injuries.
- confuses the percentage of the budget spent on a program with the overall amount spent on that program.
- overlooks the possibility that a generalization true of the entire group of volunteers was not true of each of the five smaller groups.
Mental state v. reality
Stimuli that feature a jump from a claim about a mental state to a claim about reality (or vice versa).
Key tactics
- The argument turns on the distinction between things that are true inside people's heads (mental state) and things that are true in the outside world (reality).
- Examples:
- Just because Shana believes the store opens at 9am doesn't mean that the store actually opens at 9am.
- We read in the stimulus that a recipe calls for 4tbsp of salt and we erroneously project that knowledge by assuming that a chef also knows that the recipe calls for 4tbsp of salt.
- Just because someone hits a bicyclist with a car doesn't mean that he did it intentionally.
Answer choice tips
- Example answer choices that point to this flaw:
- asserting something without justification is not the same as asserting something one knows to be false
- a claim is inferred to be false merely because a majority of people believe it to be false
- assumes that an action has an effect only if it was performed in order to bring about that effect.
Misdirected response
Counterarguments that either mischaracterize their opponent's position, or fail to address key elements of their reasoning.
Key tactics
- The most salient version of a misdirected response is the "strawman" argument. In short, rather than addressing your opponent's argument in its full force, you instead construct a meaningfully weaker (strawman) version and argue against that instead.
- We usually reserve the term "strawmanning" to describe willful, aggressive misinterpretations of opponent's positions for the sake of winning an argument. But the LSAT also commonly presents misdirected responses that are better understood as simple misunderstandings - George's response makes it seem like Melinda said [this], but really she said [that].
Answer choice tips
- Example answer choices that point to this flaw:
- misdescribes the student representative’s position, thereby making it easier to challenge
- responds to a claim in which “available” is used in the sense of “affordable” by using “available” in the sense of “not occupied.”
- argues against a point that is not one that Marianna was making.
- misses the point at issue.
Part v. whole
Stimuli that assume characteristics that apply to something as a whole must also apply to all its parts, or vice versa.
Key tactics
- "Parts of a thing" and "the whole thing" are DIFFERENT CONCEPTS. Sometimes characteristics that apply to one apply to the other, and sometimes they don't.
- "Being a cat," for example, is a characteristic that does not transfer whole-to-part. If my pet Scratchy (whole) is a cat, that does not mean all the hairs on its body (parts) are also cats.
- "Being made of pure gold," on the other hand, does transwer whole-to-part. If my gold bar (whole) is made of pure gold, then all the atoms inside it (parts) are made of pure gold.
- The key is to recognize parts and wholes when they appear in arguments, and THINK CRITICALLY about whether the characteristics mentioned validly transfer from one to the other.
Answer choice tips
- When an argument is flawed because it goes "whole-to-part," the LSAT treats that differently from an argument that goes "part-to-whole." In a parallel question, for example, it is possible for an answer choice to be incorrect because it goes the wrong direction, despite matching the general flaw.
- Example answer choices that point to this flaw:
- - takes for granted that a whole story will have a given characteristic if each of its parts has that characteristic.
- - assumes that because something is true of each of the parts of a whole it is true of the whole itself
- - concludes that someone is not a member of a group on the grounds that that person does not have a characteristic that the group as a whole has
Phenomenon-hypothesis (LR)
Stimuli that describe a state of affairs: the phenomenon, then offer a hypothesis that attempts to explain the phenomenon. A sub-type of causal reasoning.
Key tactics
- Aspire to recognize phenomenon-hypothesis reasoning by name when it appears, and to associate it immediately with the following concepts and strategies:
- introducing and eliminating alternate hypotheses
- bolstering or challenging the plausibility of the causal mechanism / causal chain
- distinguishing between correlative and causal language
- evaluating whether scientific experiments have been conducted appropriately
Quantifier
Stimuli that feature the logic of intersecting sets (e.g. some, most, all).
Key tactics
- Learn to recognize clear indicator words for quantity.
- "Some" means at least one.
- "Few" means some are but most are not.
- "Most" means more than half.
- "Likely" means "most."
- "All" means 100%.
Relative v. absolute
Arguments that illicitly reason from relative premises (e.g. Frank is taller than Spiro) to absolute conclusions (e.g. Frank is tall), or vice versa.
Key tactics
- Don't conflate relative claims with absolute claims.
- For example, just because X is more dangerous than Y doesn't mean that X is dangerous nor that Y is safe. In absolute terms, both could be dangerous or both could be safe.
Rule-application
Stimuli that involve the application of a general rule to specific scenarios.
Key tactics
- Rules very often come in the form of conditional statements: "If you [fall into this category], then [this judgment] applies to you."
- "Triggering" the rule involves either affirming the sufficient condition (i.e. "Garth DOES [fall into this category]!") or else negating the necessary condition (i.e. "[This judgment] does NOT apply to Mia").
Answer choice tips
- The rule's directionality (i.e. which way the "if, then" arrow points) is often crucial to separate right answers from wrong ones.
Sampling
Stimuli that exhibits sampling errors or overgeneralizes. For example, a sample could be unrepresentative of the group that the conclusion is about or the sample is too small to draw any reliable conclusions from.
Answer choice tips
- Example answer choices that point to sampling errors:
- makes a generalization based on a sample that is likely to be unrepresentative
- relies on evidence drawn from a sample that there is reason to believe is unrepresentative
- attempts to refute a general claim by reference to nonconforming cases, although the claim is consistent with the occurrence of such cases.
- draws a conclusion about apes in general on the basis of an experiment involving one chimpanzee.
Source attack
An argument that attacks the source of a view instead of the merits of that view. The argument erroneously focuses, for example, on the opponents' hypocrisy or bias or motivations, none of which are relevant for assessing the validity of the view.
Key tactics
- The stimulus features another viewpoint distinct from the author's, which the author criticizes
- The author's criticism does not respond directly to the opposing reasoning
- The author's reasoning relies on a premise about the other party directly
- Learn to recognize this common flaw by name when it appears
- When you catch it, go into "hunt mode" for the answer choices, scanning first for an answer that points to this flaw
Answer choice tips
- Example answer choices that point to this flaw:
- rejects an argument on the grounds that those making it have failed to abide by what the argument recommends
- dismisses the proposed ordinance because of its source rather than because of its content
- disputes a claim on the basis of a supposed motive for making the claim rather than by assessing the evidence relevant to the claim
- rejects a claim merely because the person making the claim stands to benefit by doing so
Time
Analogy between the past, the present, or the future. Arguments that assume past circumstances (e.g. I have always lost the baking contest) support inferences about circumstances in the present or future (e.g. I will lose tomorrow's baking contest).
Key tactics
- The Time tag is a subset of the Analogy tag. Arguments will often assume the past is analogous to the present or future, when in reality there may be relevant differences between the two periods.
- When you see a word indicating time (e.g. "recently"), there is a high chance it will be tied to the rightness or wrongness of at least one answer choice. Learn to recognize them across all question types and across both LR and RC.
- Not all analogies between different time periods are improper - different periods of time are always similar in some ways and distinct in others. What matters is if there are RELEVANT differences that affect the author's specific conclusion.
Answer choice tips
- Example answer choices that point to this flaw:
- fails to consider that a belief can be consistent with the available evidence and accepted scientific theories at one time but not with the accepted evidence and theories of a later time.
- ignores the possibility that new reasons for restricting growth have arisen in the past five years.
- presumes, without providing justification, that occurrences that have coincided in the past must continue to coincide.
- presents an appeal to tradition as the only reason for rejecting the proposal.
Most similar LR type
Value judgment
Stimuli in which a jump from descriptive claims (i.e. "is" claims) to normative claims (i.e. "ought" claims) informs our evaluation of the answer choices.
Key tactics
- When an argument uses descriptive premises (this is the case) to support a prescriptive conclusion (therefore we should do that), often a descriptive to prescriptive bridge is required. Something like "If this is the case, then we ought to do that."
Weighing factors
Reasoning that involves considering or overlooking multiple factors pulling in different directions — whether causal forces with counteracting effects or costs and benefits of a decision — and determining how they balance out overall.
Key tactics
- Stimuli with this tag tends to fall into one of two categories: net effect analysis and cost-benefit analysis.
- Net effect has to do with how different causal factors push and pull the target effect in different directions.
- Cost-benefit has to do with how the pros and cons weigh out against each other.