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11-100
164.
Analyze the following study according to the criteria set by your instructor:
A study from the University of Health Sciences/Chicago Medical School suggests, says
psychologist David E. Schotte, coauthor of the study, "that dieters have to learn to cope
with stresses and emotional upsets in order to lose weight." Fifteen women who were
frequent dieters and fifteen who dieted infrequently were all given a premeasured bag of
popcorn, and then saw scenes from
Halloween
. After the screening, each bag was
collected and reweighed. The habitual dieters ate more than twice as much popcorn as did
the women who dieted infrequently.
—Adapted from Sally Squires in the
Washington Post
Answers will vary
11-101
165.
Analyze the following study according to the criteria set by your instructor:
A study published in the
New England Journal of Medicine
concludes that the number of
handgun deaths in Vancouver, British Columbia, between 1980 and 1986 was less than
one-fifth that of Seattle, 120 miles to the south. Seattle’s population is approximately
490,000, whereas Vancouver’s is about 43,000.
In Seattle, handguns may legally be purchased for self-defense. After a thirty-day waiting
period, a permit to carry a handgun as a concealed weapon can be obtained. Recreational
uses are minimally restricted. In Vancouver, self-defense is not a legal reason to purchase
a handgun. Concealed weapons are not permitted, and recreational weapons may be fired
only at a licensed shooting club.
Dr. Henry Sloan, chief investigator for the study, said 388 homicides occurred in Seattle
during the study period, while 204 occurred in Vancouver. The number of gun-related
deaths in Seattle was 139, compared with 25 for Vancouver, he said. He stopped short of
saying his findings prove Seattle’s less strict gun-control laws cause more deaths, but
said, "It virtually explains it."
Note:
New gun-control laws went into effect in 1978. Sloan said Vancouver’s laws were
made stricter in 1978 but didn’t change significantly.
—Adapted from Associated Press
Answers will vary
11-102
166.
Analyze the following study according to the criteria set by your instructor:
Women who take one to six aspirin tablets a week can lower their risk of heart attacks,
according to a new study conducted at Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital. The
study followed 87,678 female nurses for six years. According to the study leader, Dr. JoAnn
Manson, there was a 30 percent reduction in the risk of a first heart attack among women
who took one to six aspirin tablets per week. Altogether, about 26 percent of the nurses
studied took one to six aspirin a week, she said.
—Adapted from an article by Judy Foreman,
Boston Globe
Answers will vary
167.
Analyze the following study according to the criteria set by your instructor:
"Barbara Sherwin, director of a research team at McGill University, found that a small
quantity of the male hormone testosterone, in addition to estrogen, led to a spicier sex life
for some postmenopausal women. Twenty-two of the McGill team’s subjects were given
150 milligrams a month of testosterone with estrogen, 11 were given estrogen alone, and
11 took placebos. The testosterone group reported more desire and arousal and more
frequent sexual thoughts than did the women in the other two groups. Though 17 percent
of the testosterone recipients developed mild facial hair, this side effect receded when the
dosage was reduced."
—Elsie Rosner,
Physician’s Weekly
, reported in
Reader’s Digest
Answers will vary
11-103
168.
Analyze the following study according to the criteria set by your instructor:
Dr. Dean Ornish, of the University of California San Francisco Medical School and Pacific
Presbyterian Medical Center, wanted to learn whether lifestyle changes could reverse the
progress of heart disease. At first, he found little support for his research, and several of
his grant requests were turned down. Eventually he secured funding from private
contributors.
Ornish recruited forty-three men and five women, ages forty-one to seventy-one, all with
very serious heart disease. A statistician randomly assigned the subjects either to a group
that followed their own doctor’s recommendations for diet and lifestyle changes or to a
group that would follow a mild exercise regimen coupled with stress-management
counseling and a low-fat vegetarian diet with no meats, poultry, or fish and with restricted
intake levels of cholesterol and fat.
Six people in this group did not complete the testing. Among the remaining twenty-two
participants, eighteen showed reversal of the blockages in their coronary arteries after one
year. In the comparison group, one person dropped out, and ten of the remaining nineteen
developed measurably worse heart disease, while three showed no significant change. Six
people in the comparison group showed measurable reversal. This was due, says Ornish,
to the lifestyle changes they made on their own.
Dr. Alexander Leaf, former chairman of the Department of Preventive Medicine at Harvard
University Medical School, says, "For the first time, we have a carefully done scientific
study that shows, even in advanced stages, this disease can be reversed with lifestyle
changes." Ornish’s findings have prompted sizable grants from the National Heart, Lung,
and Blood Institute and other foundations.
—Adapted from
Reader’s Digest
Answers will vary
11-104
169.
Analyze the following study according to the criteria set by your instructor:
We provided evidence that we could prevent myocardial infarction in angina patients, says
Pierre Theroux of the Montreal Heart Institute. As reported in the
New England Journal of
Medicine
(October 27, 1988), Theroux and his colleagues placed 479 hospitalized patients
who had experienced chest pains into four treatment groups receiving either aspirin,
heparin, a combination of the two, or a placebo. Heparin therapy reduced the rate of fatal
and nonfatal heart attacks by 89 percent as compared with the placebo. It also reduced
chest pain by 63 percent. Previous studies of heparin treatment of chest pain have
produced questionable results, Theroux says.
Aspirin therapy also helped: The Montreal team found that aspirin reduced the risk of
heart attacks by 72 percent as compared with the placebo. But the combination
aspirin/heparin treatment showed no particular benefit compared with aspirin alone or
heparin alone, and patients getting the two drugs combined had a slightly higher risk of
complications, such as bleeding.
The researchers recommend, for patients hospitalized with chest pain, treatment with
heparin upon admission followed by aspirin therapy for long-term management.
—Adapted from
Science News
Answers will vary
11-105
170.
Analyze the following study according to the criteria set by your instructor:
As reported in the
Journal of the American Medical Association
, 26 surgeons-in-training
were studied to see whether sleep deprivation impaired their patient-care ability. For 18 to
19 days the residents kept a sleep diary and underwent five tests each morning to
measure cognition, visual and auditory alertness, and hand-eye coordination. Sleep
deprivation was defined as less than 4 hours of continuous sleep in the previous 24 hours,
which occurred in 89 percent of the on-duty nights studied. When sleep deprivation
occurred, total sleep averaged 3 hours, and the longest uninterrupted sleep averaged 2.2
hours.
Residents did show "trivial" improvement on two tests when they obtained some sleep just
before testing, but the researchers said repetitive sleep deprivation did not impair the
residents’ test performances.
The study "does not support arbitrary recommendations to limit working hours of
residents," it was said.
—Adapted from
Science News
Answers will vary
11-106
171.
Analyze the following study according to the criteria set by your instructor:
Smoking greatly increases the likelihood of premature facial wrinkling, according to
University of Utah scientists reporting in the
Annals of Internal Medicine
. The scientists
studied 109 smokers and 23 people who had never smoked, all between the ages of thirty-
five and fifty-nine. The smokers had smoked three to fifty pack-years, with a pack-year
equal to smoking one pack a day per year. Each subject estimated the number of hours
spent in the sun, and that information was adjusted for pigmentation, place of residence,
and use of sunscreen or protective clothing. The subjects’ temples were then
photographed and the pictures evaluated by two doctors, who did not know whether the
subject smoked or not. The reviewers agreed on the degree of wrinkling 81 percent of the
time, and disagreements were averaged. The results were adjusted for age and
pigmentation. Heavy smokers were nearly five times more likely to show excessive skin
wrinkling than their nonsmoking counterparts.
—Adapted from
Science News
and AP reports
Answers will vary
11-107
172.
Analyze the following study according to the criteria set by your instructor:
William Elliott, a University of Chicago physician, has found a link between diagonal
creases in earlobes and risk of heart disease. He investigated twenty-seven groups of
people, each group containing two pairs of individuals matched for age, sex, and race: one
pair with established coronary heart disease and another pair of healthy people. A single
member of each pair also had creased earlobes. After eight years, a significantly greater
number of people with ear creases had died of heart disease, whether or not they were
known to have heart disease at the start of the study.
Elliott, who reported his findings at a meeting of the American Federation for Clinical
Research, encourages other physicians to monitor patients with earlobe creases for
symptoms of heart disease.
—Adapted from
Science News
Answers will vary
Short Answer Questions
173.
Make this inductive (statistical) syllogism into a strong argument by supplying an
appropriate premise or conclusion: Rayyan must have the book “No Place for Animals.”
Most animal rightists do.
Rayyan is an animal rightist.
11-108
174.
Make this inductive (statistical) syllogism into a strong argument by supplying an
appropriate premise or conclusion: I'm sure Jim is attending the antiwar rally. Most
Liberals are attending it.
Jim is a Liberal.
175.
Gwen plays basketball and soccer and has won many awards for the two sports. She
thinks she should learn a new sport. She expects to be good at it, given her performance in
the other sports. If we don't know which sport she would undertake, would her argument
be stronger, weaker, or neither if she had excelled in four sports, rather than two?
Stronger.
176.
Gwen plays basketball and soccer and has won many awards for the two sports. She
thinks she should learn a new sport. She expects to be good at it, given her performance in
the other sports. Would her argument be stronger, weaker, or neither if the sports she
excelled at were tennis and badminton, but planned to learn soccer?
Weaker. The premise-analogue and the conclusion-analogue are different.
177.
Gwen plays basketball and soccer and has performed adequately in the two sports. She
thinks she should learn a new sport. She expects to be adequate at it, given her
performance in the other sports. Would her argument be stronger, weaker, or neither if she
decided that she would undertake special training to excel at the new sport?
Weaker. This seems counterintuitive, but the argument for this scenario would change.
The argument would be that special training is required for Gwen to excel at sports.
However, the additional details would weaken the given argument due to the difference in
the premise-analogue and the conclusion-analogue.
178.
Mark buys a pair of running shoes that is said to improve the user's speed. When he uses
these shoes, he runs faster than he usually does. “It works!” he tells his friend. What
causal claim (if any) is stated or implied in Mark's conclusion?
Wearing the new shoes improved his running speed.
179.
Mark buys a pair of running shoes that is said to improve the user's speed. When he uses
these shoes, he runs faster than he usually does. “It works!” he tells his friend. What type
of argument or pattern of reasoning has Mark employed?
Paired Unusual Events Principle.
Multiple Choice Questions
11-110
180.
Is the following a physical causal explanation or behavioral causal explanation? "They are
not attending the concert because they are traveling that weekend."
A.
physical
B.
behavioral
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181.
Rachael has been hired by Mane, a fitness company, to see if their new fitness program is
an effective method of reducing weight. She recruits 500 overweight people between the
ages of 45-60 and randomly assigns them two groups. Group A consists of people who
take part in Mane's fitness program for 5 hours a week, while group B consists of people
who will undertake cardio and weight training, also 5 times a week. Both groups are
instructed to maintain a balanced diet during the course of the experiment. After 3
months, Rachael finds that group A members have lost 10 percent of body fat, while group
B members have lost 3 percent of body fat.
Identify the target population.
A.
overweight people in general
B.
the overweight people who participated in the study
C.
overweight people in group A
D.
overweight people in group B
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182.
Rachael has been hired by Mane, a fitness company, to see if their new fitness program is
an effective method of reducing weight. She recruits 500 overweight people between the
ages of 45-60 and randomly assigns them two groups. Group A consists of people who
take part in Mane's fitness program for 5 hours a week, while group B consists of people
who will undertake cardio and weight training, also 5 times a week. Both groups are
instructed to maintain a balanced diet during the course of the experiment. After 3
months, Rachael finds that group A members have lost 10 percent of body fat, while group
B members have lost 3 percent of body fat.
Identify the sample.
A.
the overweight people who participated in the study
B.
overweight people in general
C.
overweight people in group A
D.
overweight people in group B
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183.
Rachael has been hired by Mane, a fitness company, to see if their new fitness program is
an effective method of reducing weight. She recruits 500 overweight people between the
ages of 45-60 and randomly assigns them two groups. Group A consists of people who
take part in Mane's fitness program for 5 hours a week, while group B consists of people
who will undertake cardio and weight training, also 5 times a week. Both groups are
instructed to maintain a balanced diet during the course of the experiment. After 3
months, Rachael finds that group A members have lost 10 percent of body fat, while group
B members have lost 3 percent of body fat.
The research category that best fits this study is
A.
randomized controlled experiment.
B.
prospective observational study.
C.
retrospective observational study.
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184.
Rachael has been hired by Mane, a fitness company, to see if their new fitness program is
an effective method of reducing weight. She recruits 500 overweight people between the
ages of 45 and 60 and randomly assigns them two groups. Group A consists of people who
take part in Mane's fitness program for 5 hours a week, while group B consists of people
who will undertake cardio and weight training, also 5 times a week. Both groups are
instructed to maintain a balanced diet during the course of the experiment. After 3
months, Rachael finds that group A members have lost 10 percent of body fat, while group
B members have lost 3 percent of body fat.
If there is a control group here, it is
A.
overweight people in group B.
B.
overweight people in group A.
C.
overweight people in general.
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True / False Questions
185.
The claim "Exercise reduces the risk of heart diseases," if true, implies that exercise would
reduce the risk of heart disease in the majority of the individuals who undertake it.
FALSE
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186.
Evaluate the following analogical argument:
I know somebody good for our band. Her name is Stacy, and she hasn't performed in a
band, but she sings in my church choir.
Someone who sings in a church choir is likely to perform well in a band. Good analogical
argument.
187.
Evaluate the following analogical argument:
Look, I enjoyed my vacation in Tokyo. I'm sure I'm going to love living there as well.
We're not sure if this is a good analogy. Going on a vacation somewhere has very different
challenges than actually living there.
11-115
188.
Evaluate the following analogical argument:
I'm sure Kerron will win the tennis finals. He won the racquetball tournament, didn't he?
This would be an inaccurate analogy. The skills and rules involved in the two sports are
very different.
11-116
189.
Analyze the following study according to the criteria set by your instructor:
Researchers at Moros University believed that there was a link between sleep and athletic
performance. They performed an experiment in which 300 marathoners between the ages
of 17 and 27 were randomly assigned to group A and group B. Members who belonged to
group A were instructed to sleep for 4 hours a day, while people in group B were
instructed to sleep for 8 hours a day. Both groups were instructed to follow similar diets.
For two weeks, the members of both groups were asked to run two miles every day, and
their lactic acid levels were measured while they ran. The researchers found that members
of group A were three times more likely to have a higher lactic acid buildup in their
muscles than group B members. Group A members also took twice as long to clear the
lactic acid buildup than members of group A.
The researchers concluded through this experiment that lack of sleep significantly impairs
athletic performance.
[ This is a fictitious experiment.]
Answers will vary.
11-117
190.
Analyze the following study according to the criteria set by your instructor:
A research was conducted to study the link between insulin production and hunger. 500
people from the age of 18 and 30 were chosen for this experiment. 250 people who had
been diagnosed with low production of insulin were assigned to group A, while people with
normal insulin production had been assigned to group B. Both groups had been adjusted
for race, age, and socioeconomic differences. It was ensured that the participants had
eaten before the experiment began. The members of both groups were shown images of
various food items while an fMRI measured their brain activities. The part of brain
responsible for signaling hunger, the hypothalamus, was activated in 80 percent people in
group A, while it was activated in 27 percent people in group B. The researchers concluded
that people's insulin production governs their eating habits.
[This is a fictitious experiment.]
Answers will vary.
11-118
191.
Analyze the following study according to the criteria set by your instructor:
Professor Richard Kennedy of Mosor University believed that there was a link between the
amount of coffee people consumed and their reaction time. 100 regular coffee drinkers
between the ages 18-35 were studied for this experiment. The participants were
instructed to not consume any coffee for 2 weeks prior to the experiment. For the
experiment, they were required to press a buzzer when a light in front of them came on.
The time they took to press the buzzer after the light came on was considered their
reaction time. Their reaction time for 10 trials were measured. The experiment was
repeated after the participants consumed coffee. The researchers found that people were
more likely to react twice as fast after drinking coffee than before. However, researchers
also found that after 2 cups of coffee, there was an inverse relationship between the
participants' reaction time and the amount of coffee they consumed. Professor Kennedy
concluded that moderate consumption of coffee would be beneficial to people.
[This is fictitious experiment.]
Answers will vary.
