#19 - People who have habitually slept less than six hours

[stsai]

"People who have habitually slept..."
I know that the solution to this question is to examine the language, yet the answer I chose, (B), seemed to be closer to the stimulus than (A).
Isn't "Certain number of..." parallel to "People who..."?
Thanks!

[Nikki Siclunov]

Hey stsai,

Thanks for your question.

The stimulus states that people who habitually slept less than 6 hrs/night and then begin sleeping 8+ hrs/night typically feel less anxious. From this, the author concludes that most people who typically slept less than 6 hrs/night will probably experience the same benefit from sleeping 8+ hrs/night.

Use the Test of Abstraction: when people start doing something they have never done before, they tend to benefit from it. Therefore, most people in the same situation can probably benefit from doing something they have never done before. Notice the probabilistic language in the conclusion, and the element of "most" in the conclusion.

(A) has the same structure, because the small company described has never advertised on the internet before. So when it starts doing so, its situation tends to improve. This shows that most companies in the same situation (i.e. who have never advertised on the internet) can probably benefit from doing something they have never done before.

In (B), the premise matches but the conclusion does not. Yes, the small companies in the premise do benefit from a new way of doing things (advertising on the internet). However, the conclusion states, "Most small companies can probably improve their financial situations by starting to advertise on the Internet." There is no evidence that most of the companies in the conclusion never actually advertised on the Internet. The author is assuming they haven't (hence the verb "starting to advertise"), but this assumption must be stated as a condition attributable to the subject of the sentence (most small companies).

It's a fine line between (A) and (B), but this is often the difference between the decoy and the correct answer choice.

Hope this helps!

[stsai]

Yes it is helpful. What a tricky question! Thanks!

[SLF]

With this question, LSAT #53, Section #1, Question #19, can someone kindly explain to me how to process this "Parallel Reasoning" question and then select the correct answer?

In processing the stimulus, I first looked for conditional relationships...so I could map out a sufficient/necessary and contrapositive rule-set...but the stimulus didn't seem to fit that model.

So, at that point, I flipped into a mode of mapping out a generic "structure" ... which seemed to me to be as follows:

People who A
Who then begin to B
Begin to C
Therefore, people who A can C by B

In processing answer choice 'A', the structure seemed to me to be as follows:

When a company A
Its situation B
Therefore, companies that NOT-A can B by A

In my view of the world, this "structure" seemed very different from the one in the stimulus. Consequently, I summarily dismissed answer choice 'A' ... which LSAC says is the correct answer.

Clearly, I don't know what I am doing with this kind of question. And, reviewing the "Parallel Reasoning" chapter in the PowerScore Logical Reasoning Bible for the Nth time didn't shed any clues on how to properly process this question...or explain to me why/how I did not recognize the correct answer.

So, if someone would kindly explain how to properly attack this problem...and would kindly explain the reasoning in the stimulus...as well as in each answer choice, then I would greatly appreciate that.

[David Boyle]

With this question, LSAT #53, Section #1, Question #19, can someone kindly explain to me how to process this "Parallel Reasoning" question and then select the correct answer?

In processing the stimulus, I first looked for conditional relationships...so I could map out a sufficient/necessary and contrapositive rule-set...but the stimulus didn't seem to fit that model.

So, at that point, I flipped into a mode of mapping out a generic "structure" ... which seemed to me to be as follows:

People who A
Who then begin to B
Begin to C
Therefore, people who A can C by B

In processing answer choice 'A', the structure seemed to me to be as follows:

When a company A
Its situation B
Therefore, companies that NOT-A can B by A

In my view of the world, this "structure" seemed very different from the one in the stimulus. Consequently, I summarily dismissed answer choice 'A' ... which LSAC says is the correct answer.

Clearly, I don't know what I am doing with this kind of question. And, reviewing the "Parallel Reasoning" chapter in the PowerScore Logical Reasoning Bible for the Nth time didn't shed any clues on how to properly process this question...or explain to me why/how I did not recognize the correct answer.

So, if someone would kindly explain how to properly attack this problem...and would kindly explain the reasoning in the stimulus...as well as in each answer choice, then I would greatly appreciate that.

Hello SLF,

You were doing all right above, but your

When a company A
Its situation B
Therefore, companies that NOT-A can B by A

didn't really seem to map answer choice A. Your

People who A
Who then begin to B
Begin to C
Therefore, people who A can C by B

actually maps answer choice A just fine. ("Companies who haven't advertised on Internet but then start, usually improve; thus most of those who A [haven't yet advertised] can probably C [improve] by B [starting advertising].")
Answer choice B starts, "Certain small companies", which doesn't map the stimulus, where *anybody* sleeping a little but then sleeping more, tends to get better.
Answer C reverses things ("Most improve, so anyone else MUST improve").
Answer D has an "only if" (necessary condition) that isn't in stimulus.
Answer E swaps an absolute ("financially strong") for a comparative ("financially improves").

So, careful reading and accurate, thoughtful diagramming helps! And a lot of your diagramming was good. Keep practicing! Good luck!!

Hope this helps,
David

[SLF]

Thank you. That is very helpful.

[srcline@noctrl.edu]

Hello

So I read over Nikki's explanation and I'm trying to understand this. So the stimulus starts off with " People who" and is very general and could include all people and the conclusion ends with "most people" so again a vast majority or 99 %. Whereas B starts off with "certain small companies" which is select group of small companies and the conclusion ends with "most small companies" So the premise and the conclusion don't add up, the conclusion should be even narrower.

So B's premise doesnt match the stimulus. It goes from being very narrow to broad (certain to. most) whereas in the stimulus it goes from being narrow (people to most people) to still being general.

Thankyou
Sarah

[Jonathan Evans]

Sarah, excellent analysis. Spot on. Answer Choice (B) introduces a new flaw into the reasoning.

[EL16]

Hello,

I have read the discussion above, and am still quite confused with this one. Nikki mentioned that the stimulus is discussing something people "have never done before." I actually went ahead and crossed off answer choices that said "never previously" or "never advertised", because I thought that wording was too strong for the stimulus. In the stimulus, it talks about people who have "HABITUALLY slept less than 6 hours a night", but does NOT say people who have NEVER slept less than 6 hours a night. Therefore, I assumed that we cannot assume that these people have NEVER slept 8 hours a night before--rather, they tend to (habitually) sleep less than 6 hours a night.

Now that I know I should have assumed "never", I understand why A is correct over B (B discusses only certain small companies, whereas the stimulus is discussing a whole group of habitual less-than-6-hour-sleepers). But how could I have known to assume that "habitually" equates to absolutely never having done something? Maybe these 6-hour-sleepers have previously slept for more than 8 hours, but just habitually sleep for less than 6. Similarly, maybe these small companies have advertised on the internet before, but they habitually don't advertise on the internet?

Thank you,
Elana

[EL16]

Hi,

Sorry to post again--I just wanted to make sure my post didn't get missed, since I know you guys are usually on top of answering!

Thank You!