LSAT 53 - Section 3 - Question 05

We start with the question stem: Which of the following most accurately expresses the main conclusion of the argument? This is a Main Conclusion question.

The stimulus begins with Contextual Information, and says “Brain scanning technology provides information about processes occurring in the brain.” We can tell this is Contextual Information because the proceeding sentence has the Context Indicator “however.”

The next sentence contains the Referential Phrase “this information.” You know the drill at this point. WHAT information? The information from brain scanning. So the sentence translates into “However, for the brain scanning information to help researchers to understand how the brain enables us to think, researchers must be able to rely on the accuracy of verbal reports given by subjects while their brains are being scanned.” Essentially, in order for brain scanning information to be helpful (paraphrased), researchers need to rely on the accuracy of verbal reports of subjects during the scanning (paraphrased). So let’s use that brain of yours to paint a mental picture. A subject's brain is being scanned, and the researchers can see the scans but not the actual thoughts the subject is thinking. So the subject needs to verbally explain to the researchers that they are thinking of a “tree”. The author wants to say in order for this to be useful, the researchers need to be confident that the verbal reports are accurate. The Context Indicator paired with the Referential Phrase means that this is likely the Main Conclusion (many times the main conclusion of an argument will use both). If it is the Main Conclusion, the author will provide support with a Premise. Perhaps the author will provide support in the following sentence. “Otherwise - PAUSE.

What is “otherwise” referring to? It basically means “If the researchers can’t rely on the accuracy of the verbal reports.” Ok, let's try that again. “If they (the researchers) could not rely on the accuracy of the verbal reports, then brain scan data might not contain information about what the subject reports thinking about at that moment, but instead about some different set of thoughts.” Again, wordy, so let's paraphrase. Essentially, the author is saying “what if we couldn't rely on the verbal reports?” The subject might verbally say they are thinking of a tree, but they are actually thinking of a rock. Well, then, the brain scan that we thought was of tree-thoughts would, unbeknownst to the researchers, be a brain scan of rock-thoughts. Seems like a problem. Since this supports the previous sentence, our Main Conclusion is that researchers need to be able to rely on the accuracy of verbal reports in order for the brain scan information to be helpful. Now all we need to do is find an answer choice that expresses the same idea.

Answer Choice (A) is incorrect. The author never says that the researchers cannot rely on the accuracy of verbal reports. She simply is saying that in order for the brain scan information to be helpful, the researchers need to be able to rely on the accuracy of the reports. If you are picking (A), you likely made the assumption that people’s verbal reports are unreliable. That will get you far in life but not on the LSAT.

Answer Choice (B) says that researchers can’t know for certain that subjects are accurately reporting their thoughts. (B) is definitely not the Main Conclusion. Clearly a wrong answer choice, but worth exploring that you can rely on something without knowing it for certain. I might not be absolutely, positively certain that a nuclear holocaust won’t occur tomorrow, but I can generally rely on the fact that a nuclear holocaust won’t occur tomorrow. Similarly, the researchers might not be certain the subject's verbal reports are accurate, but they can still rely on them.

Answer Choice (C) says because the verbal reports might not be reliable, then brain scan research should be regarded with “great skepticism.” Heuristically, the fact that we do not see the term “great skepticism” or any analogous phrase means we should regard (C) with great skepticism. The author never takes a position on how brain scan research should be regarded; she only claims that for it to be helpful, the verbal reports must be accurate. (C) is wrong because C isn’t expressing the same idea as our Main Conclusion.

Answer Choice (D) is not the Main Conclusion, so it is incorrect. The author's argument doesn't actually depend on if the subject's verbal reports are reliable or not. She only wishes to say that the reliability will influence the helpfulness of the brain scan information.

This brings us to the Correct Answer Choice (E). In (E), the “only if” indicates that it is necessary that “the verbal reports of those whose brains are scanned are accurate” for the “information from brain scans to help researchers understand how the brain enables us to think.” Since (E) expresses the same idea as our Main Conclusion, (E) is correct.