LSAT 157 | Section 3 | Logical Reasoning: Q20

LR Question 20 Explanation

QUESTION TEXT: Psychologist: In an experiment, business managers who normally…

QUESTION TYPE: Necessary Assumption

CONCLUSION: Drinking more coffee than usual impairs overall management ability.

REASONING: The business managers who were given more coffee than their usual amount were able to process new information more quickly, but were less able to integrate it with past information when making decisions. Successful management depends more on integrating information than on speed.

ANALYSIS: Speed is less important than integrating information, and these managers were worse at the latter. However, that doesn’t mean that drinking coffee is bad. We know that it hurt their integration of information, but maybe it only hurt it a little bit. Speed is generally less important, but if they could go twice as fast and only lose a little of their ability to integrate information, then they’d be more successful. The psychologist can’t conclude that coffee impairs ability unless they assume that the reduction in ability to integrate information outweighs all positive effects of coffee drinking.

___________

1. It doesn’t actually matter if the business managers had the same natural speed and ability to integrate information. It doesn’t change the study’s result regarding the impact of coffee.
2. This isn’t an assumption the argument makes. This would be an assumption if the psychologist said that drinking less coffee would improve performance.
3. This is true, but there’s more to the story. It’s not just that there might be other factors, it’s also that we don’t know the magnitude of the effects.
4. CORRECT. See above. If there were a benefit that outweighed the negative effects, it would prevent the psychologist from reaching the conclusion.
5. It doesn’t matter if coffee is the most important factor that affects speed. Knowing there’s a more impactful factor doesn’t change the actual effect.

Recap: The question begins with “Psychologist: In an experiment, business managers who normally”. It is a Necessary Assumption question. Learn more about LSAT Necessary questions in our guide to LSAT Logical Reasoning question types.