LSAT 104 | Section 4 | Logical Reasoning: Q19

LR Question 19 Explanation

QUESTION TEXT: Most people feel that they are being confused by the…

QUESTION TYPE: Necessary Assumption

CONCLUSION: Broadcast news stories are poorly organized.

REASONING: Broadcast news is confusing. This could be because the news comes too fast, or is poorly organized.

Individual broadcast news stories have low information density, compared to the maximum information you could process at once.

ANALYSIS: There are a few problems. First, the argument proposes two causes: quickness or poor organization. But the argument doesn’t say those are the only possible causes.

Second, we’re told the information density of one story is well within our limits. But most people watch 10-30 stories in one sitting. Maybe that is enough to overload us.

So the author hasn’t shown that news is delivered at a good pace, and they haven’t shown there are only two possible causes of confusion. The right answer challenges both of these ideas. Maybe the news is too fast (when there are many stories), or maybe the sheer number of stories is enough on its own.

___________

1. CORRECT. If it is the number of news stories that is confusing, then this argument has a problem. The only proof of poor organization was that the information density of a single story wasn’t too high.
2. This would strengthen the argument, by showing that poor organization always causes confusion. But it isn’t essential, as long as poor organization can cause confusion.
3. The argument would be stronger if more (poorly organized) stories actually confused a person even more.
4. This would strengthen the argument, but it isn’t necessary. We already know that the information density of the news is far below most people’s limit.
5. If no people are overwhelmed by too much information, the argument would be even stronger.

Recap: The question begins with “Most people feel that they are being confused by the”. It is a Necessary Assumption question. Learn how to master LSAT Necessary questions on the LSAT Logical Reasoning question types page.