PT142.S2.Q20

PrepTest 142 - Section 2 - Question 20

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When people show signs of having a heart attack an electrocardiograph (EKG) is often used to diagnose their condition. ██ █ ██████ █ ████████ ███████ ███ ███ █████████ ██ █████ ███████ ███ ██████ ███████ █ ████ ████████████ ██████ ███████ █████████████ ███ ███████ █████████ █████████ █ █████████████ ██████ ██████████ ██ ███ █████ ████ ████ █████ █████████ ██ ██ █████ ███████ ████ ███ ███ █████████████ ████████████ ███ █████ ██████████ ██████ ██ ████ ██ ████████ █████████

Summarize Argument

The author concludes that computers, rather than cardiologists, should interpret EKG data. This is because, in one study, a computer predicted a higher proportion of heart attacks based on EKG data than an expert cardiologist did.

Notable Assumptions

The author believes that this one study, which just focuses interpreting EKG data for diagnosing heart attacks, justifies replacing cardiologists with computers for EKG data interpretation in general. But we don't know if EKG data is used for other purposes where computers might not be as accurate. The author also assumes that the results of the study weren't just due to the computer generally being biased to diagnosing cases as heart attacks. We only know how the computer performed in cases that turned out to be actual heart attacks--we don't know how it performed in cases that turned out not to be heart attacks. If the computer identified nearly every EKG reading as a heart attack, this would explain why it guessed a higher proportion of actual heart attacks than the cardiologist did, but it would also cast doubt on its usefulness, since it would have misdiagnosed a number of cases that turned out not to be heart attacks.

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20.

Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████ ███████ ███ █████████

a

Experts agreed that ███ ████████████ ████ ███ ███████ ████████ ██ ███████ ███ ████████████ ███ ███ █████

b

The practice of ████████ ██ ██ ████ ██ ███ ██ █ ████████ ███ ████████ ████████ ███ ███ ██████ ███████ ██ ██████ ██████████ ██████████

c

The cardiologist correctly █████████ █ █████████████ ██████ ██████████ ██ ███ █████ ██ █████ ██ █████ ██████ ████████ ████ ███ ███ ████████ ████████

d

In a considerable ██████████ ██ ██████ ███ ████ █████ ███ ████████████ ██ ██████ ██████ ████████ ████████ ██ █████████████ ██ ████ ████████ ██████████

e

The cardiologist in ███ █████ ███ ████████████████ ██ █████████████ ██ ███████ ████ ███████ ██ █████ ███ ███████████

Confirm action

Are you sure?