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Theories posited

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Theories posited

by Abdulla » Sun Nov 15, 2009 5:04 pm
Psychologist: Some theories posit completely different causal mechanisms from those posited by the Smith psychological theory that are more successful at predicting human behavior. Therefore, the Smith theory of behavior, no matter how elegant or complex, ought to be abandoned in favor of these other theories.

Which of the following is an assumption made in drawing the conclusion above?

A) The Smith theory has led to intriguing predictions,which have been shown to be false, about the causes of human behavior.
B)A psychological theory with greater predictive success than another is scientifically preferable.
C) The Smith theory has had remarkable success in predicting how people will behave in certain situations.
D) Measuring the predictive success of a psychological theory always involves considering other theories that attempt to explain the same phenomena.
E) Scientific theories become impractical if they posit causal mechanisms beyond a certain level of complexity.
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by sunnyjohn » Sun Nov 15, 2009 7:56 pm
IMO:D

Fact : Some theories explain different mechanism than Smith theory - [MORE successful]

Conclusion:- Smith theories should be abandon.

Here, Author is trying to conclude by relating
Different mechanism --> abandon one theory to favor others.


D: Measuring the .. success of ..theory always involves considering other theories that attempt to explain the same phenomena.

if we negate this, measuring the success of one theory doesn't need to consider other theory, then, we don't need to abandon the other theory. So, D seems logical to me.
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by Abdulla » Sun Nov 15, 2009 8:10 pm
The OA is B
Unfortunately, I don't have explanations.
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by sunnyjohn » Sun Nov 15, 2009 9:00 pm
@abdullah...

Psychologist: There are theories that posit completely different causal mechanisms from those posited by the Smith psychological theory and that are more successful at predicting human behavior. Therefore, the Smith theory of behavior, no matter how elegant or complex it is, ought to be abandoned in favor of these other theories.


Hi Abdullah,

you have poster slightly wrong Question, You missed the and between two lines.
I though that smith theory that are more successful at... ==> telling that smith theories are more successful than other theories.

My mistake also, I did not see :- smith theory that ARE <- subject verb agreement.

now its clear that B should be the answer.
since other theories has more success and author is concluding that smith theory to be abandon.
clearly, more successful theories are preferable.
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by Abdulla » Sun Nov 15, 2009 10:09 pm
sunnyjohn wrote:@abdullah...

Psychologist: There are theories that posit completely different causal mechanisms from those posited by the Smith psychological theory and that are more successful at predicting human behavior. Therefore, the Smith theory of behavior, no matter how elegant or complex it is, ought to be abandoned in favor of these other theories.


Hi Abdullah,

you have poster slightly wrong Question, You missed the and between two lines.
I though that smith theory that are more successful at... ==> telling that smith theories are more successful than other theories.

My mistake also, I did not see :- smith theory that ARE <- subject verb agreement.


now its clear that B should be the answer.
since other theories has more success and author is concluding that smith theory to be abandon.
clearly, more successful theories are preferable.
I'm sorry sunnyjohn, but I copied it as it is and I doubled checked it again. Anyways you're right :)
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by heshamelaziry » Sun Nov 15, 2009 10:17 pm
Why D is wrong ? !!!!! I think i have seen this in kaplan.
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by Abdulla » Sun Nov 15, 2009 10:35 pm
heshamelaziry wrote:Why D is wrong ? !!!!! I think i have seen this in kaplan.
I copied this explanations. I don't think it's helpful but it might be.

This is an assumption question. Only answer choice B provides the missing link between the stated evidence, that other theories predict behavior better than the Smith theory does, and the stated conclusion, that therefore, the Smith theory should be abandoned in favor of those theories. Answer choice A is incorrect because no evidence exists that the Smith theory led to predictions that proved to be false. The conclusion is supported even if the Smith theory did lead to some predictions that proved to be true, so long as the other theories' predictions are more predictive. Answer choices C, D, and E are all irrelevant to the conclusion of the stimulus argument.
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by heshamelaziry » Sun Nov 15, 2009 10:45 pm
No. worthless OE. Who ever wrote this was lazy or didn't know why D is wrong or not a good test maker.
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by Abdulla » Mon Nov 16, 2009 5:42 pm
heshamelaziry wrote:No. worthless OE. Who ever wrote this was lazy or didn't know why D is wrong or not a good test maker.
Yeah, I think so. I won't visit their website again, but they do have some good math questions.
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by Testluv » Mon Nov 16, 2009 6:04 pm
To be clear, this is definitely not a Kaplan question.

And, whatever the quality of the question, choice B is definitely the correct answer. Look at his conclusion: he uses the word "ought". Words like "ought" and "should" signal that the author is making a recommendation. What is this author's recommendation? That the Smith theory should (ought) be abandoned in favor of theories that have greater predictive success. So the big supporting idea in the evidence is "predictive success". (Notice that this idea is not in his conclusion.) So he is assuming that when it comes to what theories are (scientifically) preferable (this was the language in choice B), that predictive success is what matters

And if you deny choice B, his argument falls apart: if he didn't think theories with better predictive success were preferable then how can he make his argument? (Remember his argument was that other theories should be adopted (in replacement of Smith's) because they have better have predictive success.)

Choice D has nothing to do with the argument. Is the author making an argument about how best to measure the predictive success of a theory? No. It is given in the author's evidence that some theories DO IN FACT enjoy better predictive success than Smith's. The author never argued anything about how that predictive success was or should have been measured.
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by james33 » Sun May 15, 2016 10:04 pm
'd say D but I'm afraid more because of my intuition than any logic
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