LSAT 157 | Section 2 | Logical Reasoning: Q18

LR Question 18 Explanation

QUESTION TEXT: In an experiment, each of 200 randomly selected people…

QUESTION TYPE: Sufficient Assumption

CONCLUSION: Gesturing helps speakers find the phrases they want.

REASONING: Out of 200 people who were describing action sequences from cartoons, those who were permitted to gesture spoke more quickly and did not repeat themselves as much as those who were prohibited from gesturing.

ANALYSIS: We want to find the break in the author’s reasoning and plug it with one of the answers. Here, the author reasons as follows:

1. People who were permitted to gesture spoke faster and repeated themselves less.
2. Gesturing helps them find their phrases.

The leap here is from “speaking faster and repeating less” to “finding the phrases they want”. We need something that connects these two.

___________

1. This does not connect the evidence to the conclusion. We need to show that speaking faster and repeating less means that you can find the phrases you want.
2. It really doesn’t matter at all how or by who the cartoons were selected.
3. CORRECT. This answer tells us that if a behaviour is associated with people speaking faster and repeating less, then it’s helping them find phrases they want.
4. This is the inverse of what we want. It tells us that people who can find phrases they want will speak faster and repeat less. But that only goes one way – it doesn’t mean that people who speak faster and repeat less can find the phrases they want. Make sure you’re up to speed on sufficient/necessary conditions.
5. This doesn’t matter to us. It solidifies the correlation between gesturing and being able to speak fast and repeat less, but that wasn’t what we were missing.

Recap: The question begins with “In an experiment, each of 200 randomly selected people”. It is a Sufficient Assumption question. Learn more about LSAT Sufficient questions in our guide to LSAT Logical Reasoning question types.