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How To Solve Critical Reasoning Problems

Let us consider this Question for the Official Guide.

Male bowerbirds construct elaborately decorated nests, or bowers. Basing their judgment on the fact that different local populations of bowerbirds of the same species build bowers that exhibit different building and decorative styles, researchers have concluded that the bowerbirds’ building styles are a culturally acquired, rather than a genetically transmitted, trait.

Which of the following, if true, would most strengthen the conclusion drawn by the researchers?

(A) There are more common characteristics than there are differences among the bower-building styles of the local bowerbird population that has been studied most extensively.

(B) Young male bowerbirds are inept at bower building and apparently spend years watching their elders before becoming accomplished in the local bower style.

(C) The bowers of one species of bowerbird lack the towers and ornamentation characteristic of the bowers of most other species of bowerbird.

(D) Bowerbirds are found only in New Guinea and Australia, where local populations of the birds apparently seldom have contact with one another.

(E) It is well known that the song dialects of some songbirds are learned rather than transmitted genetically.

Just to remind you again, here is out framework

  1. Identify
  2. Read
  3. Reflect and Write
  4. Organize and Solve

1. Let us start by following our algorithm. The first step is to IDENTIFY the type of the problem

Identified the Problem as CR. In the CR problem, we have to identify one more thing apart from the problem type. The question stem should be the portion which you need to read first, even before the premise. This will help you identify the problem type and will help in pre thinking.

The various question types can be

  • Strengthen
  • Weaken
  • Assumption
  • Inference
  • Conclusion
  • Bold Face

For the question at hand, we can identify the problem to be a strengthen problem.

2. The second step asks us to READ the problem.

Reading the problem simply means glancing through the problem and keeping in mind what information has been given to us and what information has been asked.

In the case of CR, while reading keep in mind the type of the question that we identified in the previous step.

This type of reading helps us to arrive at the answer quickly. If we know that we have to strengthen the argument, then we can make our own opinion of the answer in the pre-thinking stage, which comprises of our next step.

3. Here we will club the next two steps: REFLECT and WRITE

This is where you decide on how to solve the problem, which information given to you is relevant and what do you need to solve this problem.

From the previous step, we have found that the problem wants us to strengthen the argument.

As soon as you have identified it to be a strengthen question, you need to Reflect on the following things:

  • the kind of information to expect in the argument
  • the kind of reasoning needed to answer the question
  • the characteristics the correct answer should contain
  • the kinds of traps the wrong answers will tend to contain

For a Strengthen question:

  • the argument will contain a conclusion; there will be at least one unstated assumption between the premise(s) and the conclusion
  • to strengthen, you need to find an answer that makes the argument at least a little more likely to be valid
  • the correct answer should contain a new piece of information that bolsters the argument and makes the argument coupled with the answer choice all the more likely to be valid
  • trap answers are likely to: weaken instead of strengthen; strengthen a related idea or conclusion, but not the argument at hand etc

After this point, comes the role of pre-thinking, where in you have to think of the ways that would support the argument that the traits are culturally acquired and not genetically transmitted.

4. At this point, again we will club the next two steps: ORGANIZE and SOLVE

The Write step will help us Organize the information and the pre-thinking part will help us with the direction in which we need to progress.

This is the point where you need to start reading the answer choices and start striking them off one by one:

(A) There are more common characteristics than there are differences among the bower-building styles of the local bowerbird population that has been studied most extensively.

This statement indicates that there are more similarities than differences in the bowerbirds. This might be because the traits are genetically transferred or they can be culturally transferred, but nothing can be said for sure. Hence the conclusion is not strengthened and we can easily neglect this statement.

(B) Young male bowerbirds are inept at bower building and apparently spend years watching their elders before becoming accomplished in the local bower style.

This statement tells us that the traits are culturally transferred and not genetically transferred as the young ones are inept at bower building. This clearly strengthens our conclusion. We can keep this statement for now and look for one that strengthens the conclusion even more.

(C) The bowers of one species of bowerbird lack the towers and ornamentation characteristic of the bowers of most other species of bowerbird.

This statement tells that the differences are among populations of the same species. This discussion about the differences between species is outside the scope of the conclusion. Hence this statement can also be neglected.

(D) Bowerbirds are found only in New Guinea and Australia, where local populations of the birds apparently seldom have contact with one another.

This statement is the easiest to eliminate. There is not information about the nest building or the transfer of traits. This is just an additional fact that has no bearing on the conclusion. Hence this option can also be easily neglected as it neither strengthens nor weakens the conclusion.

(E) It is well known that the song dialects of some songbirds are learned rather than transmitted genetically.

This statement provides an example of learned bird behavior, and so provides a little additional support for the conclusion and can be tempting. But when we compare it with the option B, it but lacks on two points. First, this option talks about song dialects and not about building styles. Second, the statement talks only about some birds and not the entire population. To make a statement true, it has to hold good for the entire population. Even a single false case makes the whole statement false.

Key Takeaways for Every Problem You Will Ever Do:

(1) On CR, your first point to Read is the question stem: what kind of question it is? The question type gives you the direction in which you need to think in order to solve the question. Also note that, if the question stem contains specific information about the argument, re-read that part once you’ve read the argument.

(2) Next deconstruct the argument, Writing down notes or a little diagram as you go. On Stregthen questions, find the conclusion and, if possible, brainstorm any assumptions.

(3) Pause for a moment and Reflect on what you know so far. Remind yourself of the goal of the question. Then jump to those answers and start Working from wrong to right. Cross off the ones you know are definitely wrong, and compare any tempting answers against each other.

 

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