LSAT 137 – Section 3 – Question 02

LSAT 137 - Section 3 - Question 02

October 2012

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Question
QuickView		 Type Tags Answer
Choices		 Curve Question
Difficulty		 Psg/Game/S
Difficulty		 Explanation
PT137 S3 Q02
+LR
+Exp
Strengthen +Streng
Eliminating Options +ElimOpt
A
3%
158
B
92%
164
C
2%
156
D
0%
154
E
2%
162
120
125
141
 +Easiest 146.416 +SubsectionMedium

A study found that consumers reaching supermarket checkout lines within 40 minutes after the airing of an advertisement for a given product over the store’s audio system were significantly more likely to purchase the product advertised than were consumers who checked out prior to the airing. Apparently, these advertisements are effective.

Summarize Argument: Phenomenon-Hypothesis
The author concludes that ads aired at supermarkets are effective. He supports this with a study showing that consumers who checked out within 40 minutes of hearing an ad were more likely to buy the product than those who checked out before the ad aired.

Notable Assumptions
The author assumes that there are no alternative hypotheses that explain the correlation between customers hearing the ad and purchasing the advertised product. He assumes customers weren't already planning to buy the product and that the increase in purchases isn’t just a coincidence. He also assumes that the study reflects the effectiveness of all supermarket ads.

A
During the study, for most of the advertisements more people went through the checkout lines after they were aired than before they were aired.
Irrelevant. The argument addresses whether people were more likely to buy the product, not how many people bought the product. So it doesn’t matter when more people checked out.
B
A large proportion of the consumers who bought a product shortly after the airing of an advertisement for it reported that they had not gone to the store intending to buy that product.
This rules out the alternative hypothesis that most customers who bought an advertised product were already planning to buy it that day. This makes it more likely that the ad influenced their purchase.
C
Many of the consumers reported that they typically bought at least one of the advertised products every time they shopped at the store.
This doesn’t help to establish that the advertisement itself caused people to buy the product. Also, (C) doesn’t say which consumers reported buying an advertised product every time they shop— maybe the consumers in (C) didn’t even hear the ad.
D
Many of the consumers who bought an advertised product and who reached the checkout line within 40 minutes of the advertisement’s airing reported that they could not remember hearing the advertisement.
Irrelevant. Whether people remember hearing the ad doesn’t tell us whether they actually heard it. If they didn’t hear it, this would weaken the conclusion that the ad influenced their purchase.
E
Many of the consumers who bought an advertised product reported that they buy that product only occasionally.
Irrelevant. The fact that people only buy the product occasionally doesn’t explain whether the ad influenced their purchase on this occasion. They might have already planned to buy it that day.

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LSAT PrepTest 137 Explanations

Section 1 - Reading Comprehension

Section 2 - Logical Reasoning

Section 3 - Logical Reasoning

Section 4 - Logical Reasoning

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