Q14 - Psychology researchers observed that parents feel

[mshinners]

Question Type:
Strengthen

Stimulus Breakdown:
Some researchers did a study to show that emotion impacts singing. Parents sung with and without their children, and other scientists could tell when they were singing to the kids. Hypothesis confirmed!

Answer Anticipation:
Many times, it's good to think about the premises without the conclusion, and see what you think the argument actually proved (not what the LSAT then falsely concludes).

Here, to me, the study shows that parents sing differently when they sing with their kids. That's not the same as the conclusion, which states the difference comes from emotion. Because of this, I'm on the lookout for an answer that connects emotion to this difference in sound.

Correct Answer:
(D)

Answer Choice Analysis:
(A) Out of scope/unnecessary comparison. The conclusion doesn't care about how much emotion, as it does just the presence of emotion.

(B) Too weak. If we knew this group overlapped with the 20% that the researchers incorrectly assessed, then it might be a consideration. Since we don't know if there was an overlap, we don't know what impact this answer would have on the conclusion. This is more of an Explain a Result answer.

(C) Tempting. I can see an argument for this answer, stating that we need to know the baseline is a lack of emotion. However, that's not the case. We just need to know that the emotion they feel while singing with their children is noticeable. If they still feel emotion when singing alone or with other adults, that's fine, as long as it impacts their singing differently (e.g., it's a different emotion, or affects singing differently).

(D) Bingo. This answer choice explains differences in singing could be caused by emotion. Since that was the gap we were trying to strengthen, knowing how it works gives us reason to believe it happened here.

(E) Out of scope. The argument only requires that the difference exists; whether the parents believed it exists doesn't matter.

Takeaway/Pattern: By using the given premises to come to your own conclusion and comparing that to the actual conclusion, you can sometimes make it easier to find the gap.

#officialexplanation

[hayleychen12]

For me, the problem with D is that, it totally irrelevant to the experiment in the stimulus, it standing alone can be used to justify the conclusion. But our LSAT strategy always tell us to find the flaw or gap between the premise and the conclusion.
Also, the question asks as to strengthen the reasoning..
So I don't think D is really an ideal answer. And I feel simply tricked by the author and by my standard question-tackling strategy

I think C is a proper answer, although not a necessary one, ( but we are doing the strengthen question). By identifying that when singing with no child, there is little emotion, it surely strengthen the hypothesis to a degree.

Any help!!!

[andrewgong01]

Doesn't "D" pre-assume you are feeling emotion because "D" is If you feel emotion then your vocal cords and lungs are affected. However, the hypothesis we want to strengthen is to lead us to conclude you are feeling emotion whereas "D" takes it for granted you are feeling emotion. In other words, it seems like "D" is flipped and is giving an illegal reversal/negation to strengthen the argument. However, I guess it does lend more credence to the connection between emotions affecting singing voice.



It was for this reason that I thought "C" was more attractive because it does not pre-suppose you feel emotion so in "C"'s case you are taking out the cause (children) and you do not get the effect (emotion).


However, I now understand from Matt's response that there are different types of emotions so you can stil have emotion when no kids are present. However, Matt's explanation seems more like explaining why "C" is not a necessary assumption needed for the argument because it is about the fact that you do not need to have these factors to be "little" to make the argument works whereas this is a strengthen question.

I do think, however, from review, "C" is a bit of a relative vs absolute level issue because in the stimulus it is relative levels of emotion where you have a surge in feeling something whereas C is an absolute level where you start with little emotion. Hence, this alone on the differences between relative vs abs. would have also been enough to eliminate the answer

[AviS649]

Doesn't "D" pre-assume you are feeling emotion because "D" is If you feel emotion then your vocal cords and lungs are affected. However, the hypothesis we want to strengthen is to lead us to conclude you are feeling emotion whereas "D" takes it for granted you are feeling emotion.

Andrew, the hypothesis is actually different, and I think this is the root of your confusion. The researchers have already observed that parents feel certain emotions while singing to their infants. Their hypothesis is that "this emotion noticeably affects the sound of singing". And this is supported by the fact the the psychologists could tell which ones included infants which means the effects were noticeable. But what if these effects weren't from emotions? D solidifies that relationship by saying that emotions do create involuntary psychological responses that affect singing.

[EricaL584]

Can I say that this question is similar to Session II Question 10 of the same test? Being different from other typical strengthen questions, these two questions are not deleting alternatives or validating the experiments, instead, they are kind of boost/justify the premise by explaining how the mechanism in the premise works.

[JonghyukJ247]

Will answer choice C strengthen if it replaced "display" with "feel"?

Since the stimulus is about feeling emotions causing noticeable differences in the sound of the singing, the absence of the cause(feeling no emotion) will not render any effect.

I'm not fully getting why C is wrong!