Assumption questions

[miak]

Hi,

I am using your study centre and came across this explanation to an answer,.

(D)]ss the correct answer choice, because its logical opposite weakens the conclusion. What if people who regularly take guarana extract were more likely than others to consume caffeine, a known stimulant that decreases fatigue? This suggests that their decreased level of fatigue may be due to an alternate cause—caffeine—revealing that the study is based on a potentially biased sample. It is no longer possible to claim with absolute certainty that Pump3D can greatly reduce athletes’ fatigue, because their alertness can be due to the consumption of caffeine instead. Since the logical opposite of answer choice (D) weakens the conclusion of the argument, it is the correct answer to this Assumption question.[/i]


My question is: is the correct answer to assumption questions logical opposites? The incorrect answers to assumption questions can not strengthen or weaken the answer? If so, I'm having trouble understanding the logic of this. Hopefully you can help clear this up.

Thank you for your time.

[Kristina Moen]

Hi miak,

You are describing the Assumption Negation Technique.

The correct answer to the an Assumption question is a statement that the stimulus depends upon. It is something that is necessary for the argument to work. One way to test whether an answer choice is necessary is to negate it and see if the argument still works.

Think about it this way. If you remove a part from your car and it still runs fine - was that part necessary? It may have been helpful, but was it truly necessary? No, it was not. On the other hand, if you remove a part from your car and it won't start - well, you now know that part was necessary. That's the concept behind the Assumption Negation Technique.

But once you understand the concept, the question becomes - how do I negate an answer choice? That's where logical opposites come into play. For example, take the statement "The faucet was hot." I negate that using the logical opposite of "hot" which is "not hot." So the logical opposite of "The faucet was hot" is "The faucet was not hot." Seems simple enough, right? But it takes some practice, especially when you have conditional statements or statements that use amounts like "some" or "all."

Both the full-length and accelerated course books have explanations of the Assumption Negation Technique in the lesson where Assumption questions are introduced. In the full-length course book, you'll find more information about logical opposites in Lesson Two.

Hope this helps.

[miak]

thanks for that. it does help. very clear.