Self-study
Support At a large elementary school researchers studied a small group of children who successfully completed an experimental program in which they learned to play chess. ███ █████ █████ ████ ████ ██ ███ ████████ ███ █████████ ███ ███████ ████ ██████ █ ███████████ ████████ ██ ███████████ ██████ ██ ███ ██ █████ ███████████ █████ ██ ██ ██████ ████ ███ █████████ █████ ███ ███████ █████████ █████████ ██ █████████████ ████ ██████████ ██ ███████████ ██ ████ █████ █████ ██ ████████████ █████████
Summarize Argument: Phenomenon-Hypothesis
The author concludes that the reasoning power and spatial intuition exercised in chess-playing likely can cause improvement in other intellectual activities. This is based on a study of a group of children who completed a program involving learning how to play chess. Most of the children who completed the program showed a large increase in schoolwork achievement.
Notable Assumptions
The author assumes that the students’ chess-playing causally contributed to their improved schoolwork achievement. The author also assumes a particular causal mechanism — that it was the reasoning power and spatial intuition exercised by chess that improved the children’s schoolwork achievement.
21.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████ █████ ██ █████████ ███ █████████
a
Some students who ███ ███ ███████████ ██ ███ █████ ███████ ███ ███████ ██ ████ █████ ██ █████
And did these students experience an improvement in schoolwork achievement? If we don’t know this, (A) has no impact.
b
Those children who █████ ███ ███████ ███ ███ ███ ███ ████████████ ████████ ██ ███ █████ ██████████ ██████ ██ ███████████ ████ ███ █████ ███ ██████████ ███ ████████████ ████████ ███ ████████
Pre-program levels of achievement are irrelevant, since the author never compared the absolute achievement levels of the students who completed the program to those of the students who didn’t. We still know the program-completers increased their achievement after the program.
Failed alternate explanation
Failed alternate explanation
Weaken Qs: Answers that try to introduce an alternate explanation, but fall short, or try to explain a different phenomenon.
Strengthen Qs: Answers that try to eliminate an alternate explanation, but fall short, or try to eliminate an explanation for a different phenomenon.
c
Many of the ████████ ███ █████████ ███ ███████ ████████████ ██████ ██████████ ██ █ ██████ █████ ████ ████ ████████ █ ████ █████ ███████ ███ ███████████
This suggests a potential alternate hypothesis for the increase in achievement levels observed in the study. If many of the children wanted to join a team that required a high grade average, that could have motivated these students to do better on their schoolwork.
Alternate explanation
Alternate explanation
Weaken: Introduce or support an alternate explanation for a phenomenon.
Strengthen: Helps to eliminate an alternate explanation for a phenomenon.
d
Some students who ███ ███ ███████████ ██ ███ █████ ███████ ████████████ ███████ ██ ████████████ █████ ████████ ████ ██████ ████ █████ ████ ██████ ██████ ██ ███████████ ██ ███ ████ █████ ████ ████████ ███ █████████
The author never assumed that chess is the only activity that can improve student achievement. And, since we have no reason to think that the students who completed the chess program attended the sessions described in (D), this answer has no impact.
e
At least some ██ ███ ████████ ███ ███ ███ ████████████ ████████ ███ ███████ ████ ████████████ ████ ████████ █████ ███████ ████ ████ ██ ███ ████████ ███ ███ ████████ ███ ████████
We don’t know whether the students described in (E) experienced an increase in achievement levels. In addition, varyling levels of chess talent don’t necessarily impact the level of reasoning power or spatial intuition exercised during chess.