QUESTION TEXT: It is widely believed that by age…
QUESTION TYPE: Flawed Reasoning
CONCLUSION: The belief that old people are dumber and more forgetful is false.
REASONING: Old people did just as well as 30 year olds at playing a card game designed to test perception and memory.
ANALYSIS: Card games usually aren’t the most demanding tests of our mental abilities. The argument is assuming that they are.
___________
- This isn’t a problem, since the conclusion is restricted to perception and memory.
- Actually, the argument fails to consider the possibility that card games are not the most difficult cognitive tasks.
- This shouldn’t matter, as long as we’re able to measure perception and memory accurately. We can measure something without fully understanding it.
- The argument wasn’t trying to explain why people think that older people are slow and forgetful.
- CORRECT. The stimulus didn’t say how much perception and memory were required to succeed at the card game.
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