Q2 - long-distance runners use two different kinds of cognit

[Nina]

i know the 2nd question should be fairly easy, but i wrongly chose B during my timed PT. Is B incorrect because we never know which cognitive strategy the runners should use during a race?

thanks for help!

[sumukh09]

i know the 2nd question should be fairly easy, but i wrongly chose B during my timed PT. Is B incorrect because we never know which cognitive strategy the runners should use during a race?

thanks for help!

B is incorrect because it doesn't fit well with the information we're given in the argument + the premise introduced in the last sentence. We know associative strategies cause runners to be mentally exhausted for more than a day, and we know it's important for them to enter races mentally refreshed from the premise in the last sentence. So if it's important for them to enter races mentally refreshed + associative strategies cause mental exhaustion lasting more than a day, then we know they shouldn't rely too heavily on that strategy the day before a race.

B says unless they train regularly using associative strategies, long distance runners should use dissociative strategies during races. There's a couple things wrong with this answer choice.

1) it doesn't address the part about entering the race "mentally refreshed," we don't care what strategy they use during races since the premise is talking about the importance of "entering" races mentally refreshed.

2) who knows if regularly using associative strategies has any affect on the degree of exhaustion experienced by these runners? Just because they use a strategy regularly doesn't mean it has any less of an impact on the effects of that strategy

[ganbayou]

Hi,
Just want to double check...Is E wrong because the efficiency is out of scope?
Sometimes I'm still not sure when is out of scope, so just wanted to make sure I understand the concept correctly...

Thank you

[ohthatpatrick]

Let me put up a complete explanation.

Question Type: Logical Completion (close cousin: Inference)

We basically want to draw a safely worded conclusion that synthesizes the various claims discussed.

The information compares two strategies,
- one distinction is that Associative has you listen to your body while dissociative has you ignore it.
- the other distinction is that Associative results in mental exhaustion that lasts more than a day.

The "since" trigger word tells us that we will be drawing an inference off the premise that follows.

We learn that long-distance runners do NOT want to be mentally exhausted for their race, so what can we infer about the two strategies discussed?

We can safely infer that they should not use Associative strategies the day before the race.

(A) Bingo.

(B) Harsh, conditional wording. Associative might be better, DURING the race. It's only worse the day before the race.

(C) Max benefit and frequently alternating strategies are out of scope ideas.

(D) We can't possibly infer the statistics of how many runners employ which strategy.

(E) Overstatement that dissociative is GENERALLY better for training. For all we know, associative is usually the better way to go for a day's training run. To assume that dissociative is generally better is to assume that runners GENERALLY don't want to be mentally exhausted the following day. But we don't know that. We only know that they don't want to be mentally exhausted during the race.