Support The brain area that enables one to distinguish the different sounds made by a piano tends to be larger in a highly skilled musician than in someone who has rarely, if ever, played a musical instrument. ████ █████ ████ ██████████ ███ ███ ████████ █ ███████ ██████████ ████████ ██████ █████ ██████████
The author hypothesizes that playing a musical instrument alters brain structure. As evidence, he notes that the part of the brain responsible for differentiating piano sounds tends to be larger in highly skilled musicians than in people who rarely play an instrument.
This is the cookie-cutter flaw of assuming that correlation proves causation. The author points out a correlation: a certain area of the brain tends to be larger in highly skilled musicians. He then jumps to the conclusion that playing an instrument causes changes to the brain. He overlooks two key alternative hypotheses:
(1) The causal relationship could be reversed— maybe having a larger brain area causally contributes to people becoming highly skilled musicians.
(2) Maybe there’s some other, underlying factor that causes both altered brain structure and musical skill.
Which one of the following ████ ██████████ █████████ █ ████ ██ ███ █████████
The argument presumes, ███████ █████████ ██████████████ ████ ████ ██ ████ █████ ███ █████ ██████████ ██ ██████ ███████ ████████ ██ ████ ████ ██ ███ █████ ██████████ ██ █████ ██████ ███████ ██████████
The argument fails ██ ███████ ███ ███████████ ████ ██████ ███ ██████ ██████ ███████ █████████ ██ ███ ██ █████ ███████ ██ ███ ████ ██ █ ███████ ████ ██ █████ ███████
The argument draws █ ██████████ █████ █ █████ █████ ██ █████████ ████ ████████ ██████████ █ ████ ████████ █████ ██ ██████████
The argument fails ██ ███████ ███ ███████████ ████ █ ███████ ████ ██ ███ █████ ██ ███████ ██ ██████ ███ ████ ████████ ██ █ ███ ██ █████ ███ ███ ████ █████ ███████ ██ ████ █ ███████ ██████████ ████ ██ ██ ██ ██████ ███ ████ ███████ ██ ████ █ ███████ ███████████
The argument presumes, ███████ █████████ ██████████████ ████ ██████ ███████ █████████ ████████ ████ ████ █████ ██████████