Elena: While I was at the dog show, every dog that growled at me was a white poodle, and every white poodle I saw growled at me.
This question provides a great refresher on the importance sets, subsets, and supersets, and of staying inside the argument’s domain. It features two core claims:
Domain: Dogs Elena saw at the dog show.
- If it’s a growler, it’s a white poodle.
- If it’s a white poodle, it’s a growler.
Note the narrow scope of these sufficient conditions: these claims only trigger if we know something is a growler or if we know it’s a white poodle. These aren’t claims about all dogs, or even all white dogs, or all poodles.
Which one of the following ███ ██ ████████ ████████ ████ █████████ ██████████
The only white ████ ████ █████ ███ ██ ███ ███ ████ ████ ████████
(A) translated: If it’s a white dog, it’s a poodle.
The stimulus gives us a claim about white poodles (which growl) and a claim about growlers (which are white poodles), but we don’t have any claims about the broader set of white dogs.
There’s room for Elena to have seen a non-growling white terrier, for example.
There were no ████ ███████ ██ ███ ███ █████
The stimulus gives us a claim about white poodles (which growl) and a claim about growlers (which are white poodles), but we don’t have any claims about non-white poodles.
There’s room for Elena to have seen some non-growling, non-white poodles.
At the dog █████ ██ ████ ████ ███████ ██ ██████
(C) translated: If it’s a growler, it’s not a gray dog.
The stimulus tells us all growlers are white poodles. White poodles aren’t gray.
All the white ████ ████ █████ ███ ███████ ██ ████
(D) translated: If it’s a white dog, it’s a growler.
The stimulus gives us a claim about white poodles (which growl) and a claim about growlers (which are white poodles), but we don’t have any claims about the broader set of white dogs.
There’s room for Elena to have seen a non-growling white labrador, for example.
Elena did not ███ ███ ████ ███████ ██ ███ ███ █████
The stimulus gives us a claim about white poodles (which growl) and a claim about growlers (which are white poodles), but we don’t have any claims about non-white poodles.
There’s room for Elena to have seen some non-growling, non-white poodles.
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