#11 - Psychologists observing a shopping mall parking lot

[Administrator]

Complete Question Explanation

Weaken—CE. The correct answer choice is (A)

This is a cause and effect argument about a possible explanation for an observed relationship.
The premises indicate that drivers leave a parking space most quickly when no one is waiting (32
seconds), take slightly longer when another car is waiting patiently (39 seconds), and much longer
when the driver of the waiting car honks impatiently (51 seconds). The author believes there is a
direct correlation between how long it takes to leave a space and how possessive the author feels
about the space. However, there is no other evidence for this supposed feeling and it is possible that
some other aspect of the situation explains why drivers move more slowly when we might expect
them to move more quickly. Since this is a Weaken question, you might prephrase that the correct
answer will provide an alternative explanation for this phenomenon.

Answer choice (A): This is the correct answer choice. Perhaps drivers are equally eager to leave
their parking spots, regardless of the presence or patience of other drivers. According to this answer,
however, it may be the case that they feel pressure when others are waiting and increased pressure
when others are waiting impatiently. Since this explanation is consistent with the observed reaction
times and undermines the idea of possessiveness, answer choice (A) is correct.

Answer choice (B): Although entering and leaving parking spaces are clearly related behaviors,
the fact that there are no observed differences when entering parking spaces has no impact on
our argument. We already know that drivers exit parking spaces at different rates under different
conditions, and answer choice (B) cannot help us undermine the author’s explanation of these
differences.

Answer choice (C): This might be an attractive contender if it explained all aspects of the stimulus
at least as well as the author’s explanation. However, if (C) were true, there would be no reason to
suspect that honking should delay drivers exiting a space. We would expect drivers to be slower
when others are waiting (as the stimulus shows), but not that it would take an additional 12 seconds
if others were waiting impatiently. Since this answer is not at least as good at explaining the evidence
as the author’s argument, it cannot be correct.

Answer choice (D): The author’s argument does not depend on the likelihood that other cars will be
waiting; this argument cannot be weakened with evidence involving parking spaces that are more or
less likely to have cars waiting than other spaces would be. We need to find another way to explain
why the differences exist, not to predict how often they will occur.

Answer choice (E): Like (C), this would be an attractive answer if it explained as much as the
author’s argument. (E) does explain why drivers with impatient observers might take longer than
others, but does not account for the difference between drivers with patient observers and no
observers. This answer does not explain enough to weaken the author’s reasoning.

[netherlands]

This is one of those questions where I can see what everyone means by needing to pay close attention to detail. Both answers C and A looked like good answers to me -

C- people "took time" to leave their parking spaces not because of possessiveness, but because of their inability to maneuver when someone is waiting on them.

But I can see how in A, there is also an explanation for the "increasing" time spent in the parking spots- the increases pressure- which would explain not only why it took them time to leave the parking spots, but also why there were differences in the amounts of time.

It's a little worrisome for me to realize that some details this small could be the difference between choosing the wrong and right answer. It's also interesting because normally when we're attempting to "weaken" an answer choice your mind sometimes automatically starts thinking in "opposite" terms and so it's almost a little tricky that these terms of similarity - although serving to attack the conclusion more precisely, were what made this answer choice right.

[Dave Killoran]

Hey Netherlands,

This is a tough question overall, precisely because you have an attractive wrong answer like (C). Let's break it down.

The stimulus is fairly clear--the psychologists conclude that possessiveness causes the difference in time reactions.

The Question stem is a Weaken, and although there are a number of different ways to Weaken a causal conclusion, both (A) and (C) appear to provide alternate causes.

We know (A) is right, so what's wrong with (C)? As you note, it comes down to small details. And, on that note, yes indeed, there are a number of questions that come down to pretty small details. There's a definite reward for reading closely on this test, and a high penalty for not doing so. This puts every test taker in the cross hairs of the speed vs accuracy battle, and that's something we talk about a lot in class.

Ok, so back to (C). (C) seems to provide an alternate explanation, but it really doesn't. The extra time is related to a car being nearby, which is more of a physical limitation issue (harder to maneuver quickly with less space). But, that doesn't explain the range in reaction times we see in the stimulus. All we know is that people are waiting, but we can't be sure these people are waiting nearby. If they were backed off pretty far, why would this slow down people from leaving the spaces? Then, when you look back at (A), you can see how it works to explain how reaction times would rise as first someone waits, and then as they honk impatiently (which would, common sense assumption, create more pressure on the driver).

Please let me know if that helps. Thanks!

[netherlands]

Interesting - before reading your response I tried to go back and look at why I ruled out "C" the first time and realized that it was most likely because of the "nearby" language - I had a feeling that the distance of the waiting cars was a little unhelpful since nothing was said in the stimulus indicated whether or not the cars were close or far away. I think I should also learn to trust my instincts a little more and be confident with these *hunches*.

[BMM2021]

I moved past A fairly quickly because I didn't like the correlative nature of the answer. It says the more people feel pressure, the less able they are to maneuver quickly. I saw how this could provide an alternative explanation, but, even if the relationship between pressure and slowness is true, you still have to assume that the drivers feel any pressure at all when faced with another car waiting on their spot (quietly or otherwise).

I could understand how this may be expected of the test taker to make the real-world assumption that people feel pressure when others are waiting on them; however, in real-world terms I think we've all run into scenarios where the person backing out of spot seemingly feels no pressure at all to act quickly. While I wasn't running through this logic while reading the question, it just struck me as a bridge too far to assume that pressure is being felt by parked drivers. Thus, even if the relationship identified by answer A is true, I didn't understand why it would necessarily apply to the psychologists' observations.

Of course, I chose C instead. I also saw how it didn't take the honking scenario into account, and I didn't like assuming what "nearby" entails, but I thought it was safer to assume that cars waiting on parking spots would naturally be in an obviously close vicinity to the parked car, at least often enough to influence the driving decisions of the parked driver.

Ultimately, I understand why A is better than C, but my first inclination was to not make the necessary assumption to choose A. What am I missing here?

[Adam Tyson]

I think what you may be missing, BMM, is that answer A tells us that "others waiting" causes pressure. We don't have to assume it - it's baked right into the answer! Also, it's not that much of a leap to see that someone honking could create a greater sense of pressure than someone waiting quietly, is it? And it's no accident that the stimulus described them as honking "impatiently," since their impatience with us is also a reasonable source of feeling pressure. I mean, not for me. If you honk to get me to hurry up, I will turn off the engine and read a book until you go away, but that's me. Most people would feel like they are being pressured to hurry up.

We do need to account for why the time increases when the honking starts, which is why the difficulty of maneuvering isn't a good enough answer.