LSAT 152 | Section 4 | Logical Reasoning: Q6

LR Question 6 Explanation

QUESTION TEXT: Psychologist: Thinking can occur without language …

QUESTION TYPE: Role in Argument

CONCLUSION: Thinking can occur without language.

REASONING: Infants can recognize abnormal faces, so they must be comparing what they see to some mental idea of a normal face.

ANALYSIS: This is a little tricky because there’s multiple layers. The big idea here is that thinking can occur without language, and the infant case is one example that’s supporting this idea. So the first sentence is the main conclusion.

We’re asked about the last sentence. “Thus” is a conclusion indicator, but wait, we already have a conclusion?

You’re right. The final sentence is an intermediate conclusion. It’s the conclusion about the infant study: it tells us what the infant study demonstrates.

This intermediate conclusion is used to support the main conclusion that thinking can occur without language.

___________

1. CORRECT. This captures that exact role: it’s a conclusion that then functions as a premise to support that thinking can occur without language.
2. The psychologist is making the claim, not reporting what researchers concluded.
3. Too strong. It’s not the main conclusion.
4. There’s no claim about the level of knowledge infants have of language.
5. It’s not the hypothesis of the study, it’s the result of the study.