Q9 - In a medical study of all of

[daijob]

I'm not sure why E is wrong...I see C is correct, but I could not eliminate E confidently.
Is it because they do not have to assume this?

[ohthatpatrick]

Question Type: Flaw

Argument Core:

Conclusion
Many people who talked to doctors about their headaches don't remember doing so.

How do I know?

Evidence
35 ppl said they talked to docs about headaches
but there were
105 appointments with docs about headaches

Evaluating the Core: Missing Links / Potential Objections
If you're already seeing the numerical assumption being made, great.

If not, you need to put on the Anti-Conclusion helmet and see if anything comes to you. The author is trying to convince a jury that "a bunch of ppl in Groverhill forgot that they saw a doctor about headaches last year."

YOU have to convince a jury that "Almost everyone in Groverhill who saw a doctor about headaches last year, REMEMBERS that they saw a doctor."

The author says to the jury:
"Oh, yeah? Well THIRTY FIVE people remember they saw a doctor. But there were ONE HUNDRED FIVE, not 35, consultations!"

Can you think of what you could say to the jury to defend your side?


We could say, "What if a bunch of these 35 people went multiple times? If the 35 people all had three consultations last year, that would be 105 consultations."

Now that we hear our OBJECTION, we can think about how we might phrase the author's ASSUMPTION.

He must be assuming that "the 35 people did NOT just go to the doctor multiple times".


== answer choices ==

(A) Was this a Sampling Flaw? It says, "in a medical study of ALL the residents of Groverhill" ... that seems like a representative sample.

(B) Would this Weaken? If some ppl in this city saw doctors elsewhere, does that help me argue that "everyone who talked to a doctor about headaches remembers doing so"? Nope.

(C) Ahhh, this is like what we thought of. If I say that these 35 people saw their doc more than once, then I can explain why there are 105 consultations and thereby defend the idea that everyone who saw their doc remembers doing so.

(D) Does the author NEED to provide/assume this? Is any part of the author's argument hinging on comparing Groverhill to OTHER towns in terms of how headache-y they are? Not at all.

(E) Does the author NEED to assume this? No, it's way too EXTREME to be an author assumption. The author doesn't care if some people have headaches and DON'T see a doctor. He only cares about people who DO see a doctor but (according to him) DON'T remember seeing the doctor.

(C) is the correct answer.