#6 - Advertisement: Anyone who exercises knows from

[Linabear218]

Hello!!

I got the correct answer but I can not see what the conclusion is. Would it be "And since your brain is a physical organ, your actions can improve its performance."

I want to make sure I do not identify something wrong for a future problem.

[Jeff Wren]

Hi Lina,

First, I want to link the complete explanation in case you missed it. (It's listed on the prior page to your question, so it's easy to miss.)

viewtopic.php?f=686&t=9043

To answer your question, the actual conclusion of the argument is:

"Subscribe to Stimulus"

This is the statement that everything else in the argument is designed to support. (By the way, the fact that this argument comes from an advertisement is a clue that the conclusion will likely be asking you to buy their product.)

As for the sentence that you cited "And since your brain is a physical organ, your actions can improve its performance," this includes both a premise (the first half of the sentence starting with the word since, which is a premise indicator) and an intermediate conclusion in the second half of the sentence.

An intermediate conclusion (also known as a subsidiary conclusion) is a conclusion that then supports the main conclusion. In other words, the fact that your actions can improve your brain's performance is a reason for why you should subscribe to Stimulus magazine.

[jwooon]

Hi,

I am still very confused about this question. I was able to eliminate (A) to (D) and initially did choose (E), but upon careful reread of the question during blind review, I realized that the question does not classify "muscle tone" as physical organ (since the stimulus states "better performance of such physical organs as the heart and lungs, as well as to improvement in muscle tone.") The fact that the stimulus repeated the "improvement" before introducing "muscle tone" made me think that exercise improves (1) physical organ function and (2) muscle tone.

I also saw a recommendation that the fact that muscle tone being a physical organ is common knowledge. But a quick google shows that muscles can be classified as tissues that work within certain organs of the body (ex. heart, stomach, etc.).

The only thing that the stimulus mentions that relate muscle tone and the brain is that it can be improved by some type of exercise/action, but I cannot find anything else. Please clarify!

[Rachael Wilkenfeld]

Hi jwoon,

Your heart is a physical organ, and your brain is a physical organ. The stimulus states that exercise improves the functioning of physical organs and muscles. We can see the first part of the stimulus---hearts are muscles and physical organs. They improve with exercise. The author compares that to the brain and says it also improves with exercise because it's also a physical organ. Therefore it is comparing muscles (like the heart) with the brain. They are both physical organs, so they both improve with exercise (per the advertisement).

Hope that helps!

[jwooon]

Hi,

Thank you for your explanation. I apologize, but I am still very confused to how the wording of the stimulus was meant to imply that the heart is a muscle? When I read the stimulus, I visualize "leads to better performance of such physical organs as the heart and the lungs, as well as to improvement in muscle tone" as being fit (good heart and lung health), as well as having a muscular form (like biceps and legs) instead of thinking that the heart and lungs are improved and the muscle tone of the heart and lungs are better. Is the latter visualization what the stimulus is implying?

[Rachael Wilkenfeld]

HI jwooon,

I'd categorize the knowledge of the heart as a muscle as generalized knowledge the test would assume people have---if you don't, that's ok! We all have knowledge we don't use enough to pull it out at a moment's notice. The logic here though is that since exercise improves heart function and muscle tone, it will improve brain function. The brain and the heart are similar in that they are both physical organs, therefore the argument suggests they will also be similar in benefiting from exercise.

Hope that helps!

[jwooon]

Ah, I see. Thank you!

[lsatchallenger]

Hello!

I read through this whole thread but I am still left feeling confused. I understand why A-C is wrong hwoever D I am still a bit iffy on. D is wrong because there's no careful analysis of the concept of exercise -- what would a careful analysis potentially look like? Further, my prediction was that the author was drawing an analogy between exercising physical organs which leads to improved performance and exercising the brain which would lead to improved performance. E mentions "muscles" specifically. How could we arrive at E and know that there are flaws in this stimulus?

Thank you!

[Jeff Wren]

Hi lsatchallenger,

You wrote:

"Further, my prediction was that the author was drawing an analogy between exercising physical organs which leads to improved performance and exercising the brain which would lead to improved performance."

That's exactly right, and Answer E is the closest match to that prephrase. In fact, Answer E is the only answer that is describing an analogy (The word "similar" in the answer is a clue that this is describing an analogy.) The main thing about Answer E that seems to bother many students is that it refers to "muscle" rather than "physical organs." While the argument does mention "such physical organs as the heart and the lungs," it also mentions "improvement in muscle tone." Also, while this isn't needed to answer the question, apparently the word "muscle" can refer to either the tissue or to the organ, so "muscle" here could be one of the physical organs improved by exercise.

While the argument is flawed due to a potentially false analogy, this is a Method of Reasoning question. Method questions can contain flawed arguments such as this one, but the answer need not mention that the argument is flawed.

As for what "a careful analysis of the concept of exercise" would look like, it would likely be much longer/more detailed than what you would find in the stimulus of a logical reasoning question, so that is one clue that it is not likely to be the correct answer. (I imagine it could include the history of exercise, the purpose of exercise, the scientific explanation of different types of exercise, and any physical/mental/emotional benefits from exercise, etc.).