LSAT 134 – Section 1 – Question 04

LSAT 134 - Section 1 - Question 04

October 2011

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Question
QuickView		 Type Tags Answer
Choices		 Curve Question
Difficulty		 Psg/Game/S
Difficulty		 Explanation
PT134 S1 Q04
+LR
Weaken +Weak
Causal Reasoning +CausR
Sampling +Smpl
A
95%
165
B
1%
152
C
1%
152
D
0%
156
E
4%
158
124
134
144
 +Easiest 147.067 +SubsectionMedium

Physician: In an experiment, 50 patients with chronic back pain were divided into two groups. Small magnets were applied to the backs of one group; the other group received no treatment. Most of the patients in the first group, but very few in the second group, reported a significant reduction in pain. This shows that magnetic fields are probably effective at relieving some back pain.

Summarize Argument
The physician concludes that magnetic fields likely help alleviate some back pain. She bases this on a study where the group of patients who had magnets placed on their backs reported greater pain reduction than those that didn’t.

Notable Assumptions
Given that one group didn’t receive any treatment at all, the author must believe that the mere act of receiving treatment doesn’t cause pain relief. She therefore assumes that the magnets aren’t a placebo. She also assumes that the relief patients receive from the magnets isn’t offset by a spike in pain once the effects of the magnets wear off.

A
A patient’s merely knowing that a treatment has been applied can lead to improvement in his or her condition.
The magnets are a placebo. Had the other group had virtually anything vaguely “medicinal” applied to their backs, they too would’ve seen an improvement in their condition.
B
Most physicians believe that medication relieves chronic back pain more effectively than magnets do.
We don’t care about magnets compared to more effective medications. We only care about whether magnets are themselves effective in alleviating back pain.
C
No other experiments have been done showing that magnetic fields reduce pain in any area other than the back.
We only care about back pain.
D
Some of the scientists who helped design the experiment believed even before the experiment that magnetic fields relieve back pain, but they were not directly involved in conducting the experiment.
If those scientists weren’t involved in conducting the experiment, then they couldn’t have compromised the study.
E
There was wide variation in the specific causes of the chronic back pain suffered by the patients in the experiment.
We don’t care what caused the pain in the first place. We care how well, if at all, the magnets relieved it.

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LSAT PrepTest 134 Explanations

Section 1 - Logical Reasoning

Section 2 - Logical Reasoning

Section 3 - Logical Reasoning

Section 4 - Reading Comprehension

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