Q10 - Researcher: All defects in short-term

[yusangmin]

Hi,

so the stimulus says all defects in short term memory --> malfunction in hippocampus

then goes on to give us information saying info gets stored in long term or forgotten

then says learning --> accumulation of info in longterm

thus, learning deficit, then hippocampus malfunction

why exactly is he mistaking that learning deficits all involve shortterm?

it just "feels" like he says it because he connects short term deficits with hippocampus..however he never says ALL deficits in the hippocampus are short term memory deficits..this is why im confused..unless i missed something else that was huge.

so to say it again, he concludes than learning deficit, then its definetely because of a deficit in hippocampus..

then theres the answer choice.

HOWEVER in the first sentence he NEVER said all malfunctions in hippocampus involve short term.

and is C bad because "disabled" was never said?

thanks!

[bbirdwell]

Your notation of the argument is great. I wonder if you're clear on what your task here is: two identify a flaw in the logic, most likely an assumption.

Premises:
1. defects in short-term memory --> hippocampus malfunction

2. short-term memory --> mind holds info briefly then forgets or puts in long-term memory

3. learning = new info going to long-term memory

Conclusion:
whenever (ALL) child learning deficit --> hippocampus malfunction

Think about this for a moment before even considering the choices. What does the evidence say about learning deficits? Nothing!

What does the evidence say about hippocampus malfunction? It says deficits in short term memory cause h malfunction. Therefore, in drawing the erroneous conclusion, the author is connecting child learning deficits to short-term memory deficits, because that's the only way to arrive at "hippocampus malfunction" based on the given evidence.

So the big assumption, the flaw, is in equating child learning deficit with short-term memory deficit, as answer choice (B) says.

Yes, "disabled" is not a part of the argument at all. Thus, (C) is incorrect.

Can you see that?

[gplaya123]

I believe another way to describe this question is
sufficient/necessary flaw.

short term memory defect -> malfunction of hippo.
When you have a learning deficit, is it ok to say your hippo is malfunctioning? I say no.

As Matt has said, stimulus says nothing about learning deficit.
Thus, we could sorta contradict the conclusion:
when a child exhibit a learning deficit, maybe because that child has an ADD or recently has suffered a concussion.

This is simply to say that learning deficit itself isn't sufficient to conclude that hippo must be malfunctioning.

[hamham]

I am having a hard time understanding why the statement, "all defects in short term memory are caused by a malfunction of hippocampus" is diagrammed defects in st memory -----> malfunction of hippocampus.

Shouldn't it be the other way since malfunction leads to defects in short term memory?

Thank you.

[roflcoptersoisoi]

P: Short term memory defects caused by malfunctioning hippocampus
P: In short term memory mind holds info for a few moments after which it is stored or forgotten.
P: Learning is the accumulation of new info in long-term memory
C: Learning deficits in children are caused by a malfunctioning hippocampus.

Assumption: Learning deficits in children are caused by defects in short term memory.

(A) Descriptively inaccurate, the conclusion isn't based on a sample of anything
(B) Looks good
(C) The author doesn't presume this, the conclusion doesn't even the disabling of the hippocampus
(D) Descriptively accurate but not a flaw in the argument
(E) Descriptively inaccurate, l earning deficits in adults are not even discussed in the stem.

[hstler1]

Hey guys, if I'm not mistaken I think there's an error with Birdwell's explanation. There is a causal connection in the first sentence "All defects in short term memory are CAUSED by a malfunction. In the proceeding premises we then see that the author asserts that short term memory has two paths it can take, it can either be stored as long term memory or it can be forgotten. Next, it gives us a working definition for what "learning" is (accumulation of new information in long term memory). Finally, we get our conclusion which takes a fairly large leap that I hope you all see, Every time a child exhibits a learning deficit the hippocampus (love that word) is malfunctioning.

Whoa, let's point out our the flaw/gap:

Within the first paragraph we have our casual connection Malfunctions in the hippocampus result in or causes malfunctions in short term memory. Furthermore, we are informed that short term memory can have two routes, being stored in long term memory or being forgotten. However look closely at the conclusion! Just because we claim that short term memory can be stored as long term memory, which inevitably helps in learning, we cannot say with absolute certainty that it is indeed the hippocampus causing the inability to learn in a child or causes"learning deficits".

We would have to assume that there is indeed a connection with the hippocampus-----> short term memory and the process of learning.

A) I love these answers because we should know fairly quickly when we are given data/sample sets to draw a conclusion, in this case this does not occur. We would need something in the stimulus that states: "10 adolescence were gathered to study the impact of the hippocampus and its influence on short term memory."

B) Ah, this is what we stated above! We needed to assume that there does in fact exist a connection between the hippo.-----> short term memory and learning deficits. The author mistakenly leaps to a conclusion without providing this information, thus we can be confident that this is our answer.

C) For some reason this answer caught my eye, but upon second read I realized that this doesn't help us connect or identify what is going on in the core. Ask yourselves this question: Even if the author gave further justification of this connection would it give us further confidence in his conclusion about how the hippocampus' malfunction causes all cases of learning deficits? No, it does not.

D) Length of time? Look at our core again and does it uses a metric of time to measure anything? Does it use time to draw the conclusion? No to both, thus you can eliminate this.

E) Alright let's use the same process that we used to eliminate C and D to eliminate this. Let's ask ourselves is any information posited about adults or is there information about adults used to draw our conclusion? No, this has nothing to do with our core, thus we can safely say it isn't our answer!

Hopefully that clears up some of the issues that future posters may have in regards to this question. Furthermore, this is my first explanation done on the internet (I write personal explanations for myself all the time so I'm not totally unqualified )! So, I'm open to critique, correction, or addition! Hope this helps