#22 - Researcher: Experiences that are accompanied by increased secretions of adrenaline

[99bengardner@gmail.com]

The conclusion is that frightening experiences tend to be remembered better than non-frightening ones. To say that some non-frightened experiences are equally memorable doesn't weaken that conclusion. The meaning of the word "tend" in this context is that a non-frightening event could be as or more memorable than a frightening one in some cases, but the rule holds when the two sets are compared in general. Since this means it is not the element-wise comparison Luke was stating, "all frightening experiences tend to be remembered better than all non-frightening ones", I don't see how (C) is a weakening at all. After all, since the frightening set is all more memorable, and even after (C) the non-frightening set is comprised of some more memorable and some less memorable[1], the conclusion holds.

Were the conclusion "frightening experiences tend to be remembered better than all sets of non-frightening ones" it would be weakened, but I think this is an unjustifiable assumption. All we are left with, when the non-fear event set is established as having some memorable events, is a change in the degree to which frightening experiences tend to be remembered better than non-frightening ones. Like how saying "a majority of the 100 balls are red since there are 60 red balls" is not a conclusion weakened after the hypothetical "now imagine 2 of them turn green."

[1]: Due to the existence of adrenaline being "more memorable", implying there are non-adrenaline events, and "fear events and non-fear events" together makes all events (therefore including less memorable events)

[Dana D]

Hey 99ben,

Note that on the LSAT, "tend" is different than "some". "Tend" is equivalent to likely, probably, most, etc etc. So to your point, 60/100 is most (more than half), and that holds true even if 2 of the 60 objects were negated. In this question, however, we're not given specific numbers. We're told that more often than not, frightening experiences are remembered more than any other type of experience. If we add in answer choice (C) however, it seems like that would no longer be true, because both highly pleasureable and frightening experiences have increased adrenaline, and therefore both types of experiences would "tend" to be remembered more clearly than all other types of experiences.

Does that make sense?

As an aside - if you disagree with answer choice (C) I'm curious which answer choice you thought was correct? Hopefully if you cannot identify (C) as a winning answer on first read through you could get there through process of elimination compared to the other answer choices.