LSAT 130 | Section 1 | Logical Reasoning: Q2

LR Question 2 Explanation

QUESTION TEXT: Psychologist: The best way to recall a certain word

QUESTION TYPE: Principle – Parallel

CONCLUSION: If you want to remember something you can’t think of, occupy your mind with other things.

REASONING: The more you try to remember, the less likely it is you will.

ANALYSIS: The principle here is that sometimes direct effort is counterproductive, but automatic processes can do the work for you.

___________

1. This is different.
   Example of similar stimulus: The best way to be happy is not to try to remember stuff. Often, people who succeed at remembering things think “oh, that wasn’t very important after all.”
2. This is different. This describes a strategy for getting through something long and repetitive (like writing LSAT explanations!)
   The stimulus was about a short, one-off scenario: it doesn’t take long to remember things.
3. This is the most tempting answer. But the issue is that it switches from a mistake to new challenges. Whereas in the stimulus the whole argument was about how to remember a thing.
   To have been right, this could have said “the best way to fix a mistake is to do new challenges. Often you’ll realize how to fix the mistake while focused on other things.”
4. CORRECT. This matches. Direct effort at sleeping is counterproductive, but if you think about something else the body’s automatic processes will put you to sleep.
5. This is about how to feel content about a situation. The stimulus was about how to fix the problem of not remembering something.