#9- Among people who have a history of chronic trouble

[melissa27]

How exactly does answer choice D weaken the authors argument?

I could understand if the answer said something along the lines of "still have the most trouble going to sleep" but "had?" Or if the AC said something like the tried modifying their behavior and it failed...

[Steve Stein]

Good question--in that one, we are told that among people who have a history of trouble falling asleep, those who only modify their behavior fall asleep more quickly than those who only use sleeping pills. From this information, the author concludes that behavior modification is more effective overall in helping people fall asleep.

The question requires us to find the answer choice that weakens this conclusion. Answer choice D weakens the conclusion that behavior modification is more effective overall:

If those who used sleeping pills were the ones who were worse off before the study, that means that those using behavior modification were better off at the beginning (before the study even began). Thus, the two groups didn't start out equal: at the beginning, the behavior modification group was better off, and after the study, the behavior modification group was better off. Based on this limited information, there is no way to tell what role was played by either the sleeping pills or the behavior modification.

Tough question--let me know whether this clears it up--thanks!

~Steve

[melissa27]

Thanks, Steve! It definitely did

[imagineer]

Hi,

So i'm trying to improve my reasoning score and I am stuck on question 9. The answer is D, I selected A.

My logic is provided below. If you could explain why D is the correct answer to weakening the question, I would really appreciate it.

Behavioral Modification--> Fall asleep quickly
BM > Sleeping Pills

My thought is that to weaken the question, there must be another explanation for why BM if more effective or an explanation that shows why sleeping pills may be more effective even though people don't go to sleep as fast.

Thanks as always for your help!

[Steve Stein]

Hey Imagineer

These group comparisons can be tricky.

The author discusses two groups of chronic insomniacs: The first insomniac club uses sleeping pills and the second uses--lets call it meditation.

The problem with answer choice A is that it deals with a group that we know nothing about--those people who don't take sleeping pills, and we know nothing about the amount of time they sleep on an average night.

Answer choice D provides that the people who take sleeping pills started out much worse than the others--this means that the meditators, in a sense, started out with an unfair advantage--they had the least serious cases.

If the meditators started out with the least serious cases, this weakens the author's argument, because meditation had less of a job to begin with.

I hope that's helpful--this can be tricky stuff. Let me know whether this clears it up--thanks!

~Steve

[imagineer]

Hey Steve,
Thanks for the explanation! That makes a lot of sense! Thanks so much! I really appreciate it.

[treyrg]

Hi everyone!

I am getting really annoyed with Weaken questions - I almost always get them wrong. I think it's because I focus too much on the idea that it need only weaken the reasoning a little but could weaken the reasoning a great deal.

So, I chose (C): Many people who use only behavior modification techniques to help them fall asleep have never used sleeping pills.

I'm thinking that, because the conclusion says that one (behavior modification techniques) is more effective than the other (sleeping pills), that (C) is wrong because it does not really tell us anything that may indicate that behavior modification techniques are not more effective than sleeping pills. So, while they may have never been tried by those who only use modification techniques, it could still easily be true that behavior modification techniques are more effective. Does that sound right?

Then, for answer choice (D): The people who are the most likely to take sleeping pills rather than practice behavior modification techniques are those who have previously had the most trouble falling asleep. So, in this answer, the two groups are being compared in a way that shows we might be mistaken about which technique is more effective. If we are to take the conclusion to be true, then it seems like we'd also want to assume that those who engage in behavior modification techniques are on a level playing field with those only taking sleeping pills. If (D) were true, then it would show that the two groups are not equal, which seems important in order to derive the conclusion.

My trouble comes from this: it does not destroy the argument. I know the Powerscore book says it doesn't need to, and I shouldn't be looking for that kind of answer, but it bothers me that (D) being true still does not *necessarily* mean that behavior modification techniques are more effective. How do I stop my brain from instantly distrusting answer choices that don't annihilate an argument?

[Robert Carroll]

trey,

You simply have to get used to the idea that we are never called upon to destroy an argument. There is no such question type on the test. If an answer choice weakens the argument, even a little, it's correct.

One bad way to evaluate answers is to think "Can the argument survive this answer?" That's acting as if the correct answer for a Weaken question must destroy the argument. Instead, ask "Is the conclusion in more doubt than before?" That will work to evaluate answer choices.

Your evaluation of answer choice (D) is spot-on! The conclusion depends on the sleeping pill group and the behavior modification group being relevantly similar, and if they're not, that undermines the conclusion. Maybe the sleeping pill people take sleeping pills because they have more intractable insomnia. If so, no wonder if sleeping pills look less effectively - anything that group would do would look less effective, because that group systematically has worse insomnia. It's not the fault of the pills, but the fault of the more severe insomnia, weakening the conclusion.

Answer choice (C) really tells us nothing about what would happen if people used a different treatment method for their insomnia. They might get the same results. They might get different ones. It's also impossible to tell why some people never used sleeping pills but did use behavior modification. So much is unknown in answer choice (C) that I can't even venture to say how it would affect the argument, which is why this is a wrong answer.

Robert Carroll

[treyrg]

That's really helpful! Thank you, Robert!