Q24 - people were asked in a survey

[wj097]

I am confused as to how the author arrives at a conclusion from 2 premise that seems to be totally not related...i.e., how does the author jump from "people respond that they feel like 75% of their real age" to saying that this would lead us to interpret "48 would feel like child"... I don't find anything ambiguous from the survey question that can lead us to accept such example cited.

Thx

[sumukh09]

Hey

If people at 48 felt like they were 75 percent of their age then that would mean they felt like they were 36 (.75 x 48). BUT if they felt like they were 36 and people in the survey said they felt like they were 75% their real age, then that would mean they felt like they were 27 ie) 36 x 0.75... and so on up until they felt like they were a child.

The author basically misconstrues the question being posed and assumes that the survey question suggested that the individuals would feel 75 percent of their age indefinitely; but feeling 75 percent of your "real" age is different than feeling 75 percent of the age you feel like you're at.

[Nina]

i don't really understand what A says. what does "hypothetical earlier responses of a single individual" refer to?

Many thanks!

[tommywallach]

Hey Nina,

"Hypothetical" here means we aren't actually talking about actual responses made by people. You can see that where it says: "For example, suppose it meant that a 48-year-old man..." This is just an example, but it never happened, so it's hypothetical. As for the "individual" part, they are talking about "a [single] 48 year-old man". So that's an individual.

Hope that helps!

-t

[ttunden]

Here is my thought process for this question.

I identified it as a method of reasoning question.

From the stim we can see there was a survey conducted. Almost all the people that took it said they were 75% of their real age.

Author says there is a problem. Uses counter example of one individual and applies the results of the survey to the individual in a temporal sense.

SO the method of reasoning or argumentation that I see going on here is that the author uses that example and assumes that they always feel 75% of their age when it was just a survey asking the people once. Now, this is my real time thinking ie what I would be thinking in a test taking situation. Especially since this is the last Q, this is sufficient for me and I would from here on hit the answer choices and see if anything matches up.


A - yeah this looks pretty good. Lets see what the other choices have to say.

B - well....... not sure about reinterpreting what CERTAIN people actually said. Only uses example of one individual, a 48 year old man. Not sure about the most reasonable part either. This is enough for me to eliminate.

C - there is no generalization occurring. I am going to eliminate this.

D - Not trying to prove that at least one of the statements i false. I am going to eliminate this.

E - No. I am reading this and I'm a little confused but overall, it didn't match my understanding of the argument core and I don't think this is occurring. So I will eliminate.

Once again, I was fairly brief but this would match my real time thinking. If you want me to elaborate more or want more information, feel free to send me a pm.