LSAT 80, Reading Comprehension, Q27, LSATHacks

RC Question 27 Explanation, by LSATHacks

DISCUSSION: Lines 34-37 show how an fMRI is usually interpreted: people think that only the areas lit up are in use. But in fact, the areas that are lit up are merely more in use. Their error is thinking: “One region is especially active in a process. So only that region is active.”

We’re trying to find an answer that matches the incorrect reasoning of those who interpret fMRIs. So, we should look for something that says: “X is especially a factor. So only X is in play.” Most importantly, it should be a bad argument.

___________

1. The correct analogy would have said: “So only that district voted for the mayor.”
2. CORRECT. This matches. With brain scans, the thought process is: “During this emotion, only one area has an increase in activity. So only that area is involved”. Likewise “During the ad campaign, only one season had an increase. So only that season is affected”. The flaw here is that it’s possible sales would have declined during the off season without the ads. Or maybe the ads affected which products people bought, even though there weren’t more customers. Just like a certain emotion might affect which things the other parts of the brain do, even if the activity of those areas doesn’t increase.
3. To be correct, this should have said: “only the agricultural customers are affected”. Also, the parts of the brain active in brain scans don’t necessary have the most oxygen usage. They simply have the biggest difference in oxygen usage. I.e. maybe the amygdala increases its oxygen usage by 20%, but it is only 3% of the brain and so it uses a tiny percentage of overall oxygen.
4. This is a fairly sensible argument, if we grant the assumption that in the evenings people are at home rather than at work. Whereas the way people normally interpret fMRI is not sensible.
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PT 80 /  PT 148

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