Q17 - People tend to make certain cognitive errors

[Laura Damone]

What does the Question Stem tell us?
"argument does which one of the following" = Procedure question. That means this argument is likely to follow a pretty standard pattern. It also means the argument is likely to be a refutation.

Break down the Stimulus:
This argument concludes that we shouldn't try to rid ourselves of the tendency to predict how something will impact our future happiness, even though these predictions are prone to error. The support for the conclusion is the seemingly unrelated claim that our eyes sometimes play tricks on us, but that it isn't reasonable to get that surgically corrected.

Any prephrase?
Since the only evidence for our conclusion about happiness prediction is a premise about our eyes and surgeons, this argument must be arguing by analogy. The fact that it isn't a very good analogy doesn't technically matter, but it can make the pattern of reasoning a bit tougher to spot.

Correct answer:
C

Answer choice analysis:
A) The claim this argument is attempting to refute isn't about the inevitability of an event. It's about what people should or should not try to change about themselves. Any time an answer choice describes a piece of the argument, make sure it does so accurately. If it says anything untrue, it's incorrect. What's more, answer choice (A) describes a common method of refutation: "could it be something else" thinking. We tend to apply this type of thinking most often to Causal arguments or arguments about explanations, but it could play out as (A) describes as well. Recognizing that this is not an argument about an alternative possibility also rules (A) out.

B) Another common method of refutation: calling the arguer out on the assumption. That's not what this argument does, however, so (B) is incorrect.

C) Correct! This answer can be hard to pick for some who want the description of the conclusion to be explicit about the prescriptive. That is probably intentional. Remember, the LSAT writers can make a question really hard either by giving us multiple answers that all seem right, or by giving us 5 answers that all seem wrong. What's important about (C) is that it addresses the analogy, which none of our other choices do. This alone is enough to make it better than the rest.

D) Tempting, because "two situations are similar" sounds like analogy language. Upon closer inspection, however, note that the similarity is positioned as the conclusion in this answer choice. But the conclusion of our argument isn't to argue that happiness prediction is akin to eyesight. Furthermore, the thing that is positioned as the premise in this answer choice - that the same action would be reasonable in each situation, is the opposite of what our argument actually uses to support it's conclusion. Our argument argues that the actions described are unreasonable, not reasonable.

E) There is no generalization established, so even though this argument is arguing against a particular action, answer choice (E) is incorrect.

Takeaway/Pattern: Look for common methods of arguing in both the stimulus and answer choice set of Procedure questions. Like Flaw questions, Procedure questions are made easier if you can quickly recognize the common methods of reasoning that the answer choices describe and efficiently assess whether they do or do not describe the stimulus.

#officialexplanation

[mornincounselor]

People tend to make certain errors when predicting how an event will affect their future happiness. But people shouldn't attempt to rid themselves of this tendency.

After all, in a visual context,parallel lines often appear to converge. But if a surgeon told you he could correct your vision to make this never occur it would not be reasonable to take him up on his action.

Argment does...

(A) The argument is about people tending to do something, it's not an argument about what is "inevitable" further the argument doesn't proceed by showing the possibility of an "alternative event"

(B) It does not attempt to undermine a theory, and it doesn't proceed by questioning an assumption with which that theory is based.

(C.) It does argue that an action may not be appropriate by suggesting that a corresponding action is not appropriate, but are the two situations analogous? Keep for now.

(D) The argument does require that one believe the two situations are similar, but does it talk about what would be "reasonable" in both circumstances? It mentions what "would not be reasonable." Keep for now.

(E) No, this choice has it backwards. The argument uses the particular action as an argument in support of the generalization.

A cursory look over leaves us with (B) and (C.) At this point I went with (C.) because I couldn't get over the use of the word "analogous" in (B).

[everrier27]

Can we have an instructor review this question? I note that it should be an easy question, but I think I had a hard time identifying the core... was the conclusion, "But people should not necessarily try to rid themselves of this tendency?" or.., "it would not be reasonable to take the surgeon up on the offer?"

The response that is already here on the forums doesn't seem to make ton of sense because the answer choices listed last don't seem to match those on the actual page, like B doesn't use the word analogous, C does.. even tho the above author writes that B does this...

Either way... can someone clarify this question for me?

Thanks,

[hnadgauda]

I've been trying to identify classic flaws in the stimuli of questions to see if it improves my accuracy/speed while answering the questions. This stimulus has a comparison flaw because it compares cognitive errors to visual errors.

With this information, you can prephrase that the answer has something to do with comparing two different things. C and D relate to this prephrase. Reading D more carefully led to the realization the D would require a conclusion that the two situations are similar. This didn't happen in the stimulus so we are left with C, the correct answer.