ISAT Critical Reasoning 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A company's annual report states that revenue increased by 15% while employee satisfaction scores dropped by 20%. A union representative concludes that the company is prioritizing profits over employee well-being. Which of the following, if true, most weakens the union representative's conclusion?
- The company recently expanded into new markets requiring significant overtime
- Employee satisfaction surveys had a lower response rate this year
- The revenue increase was primarily driven by automated systems that reduced repetitive tasks (Correct answer)
- Competitor companies showed similar trends in the same period
Correct answer: The revenue increase was primarily driven by automated systems that reduced repetitive tasks
If automated systems drove revenue growth while reducing repetitive tasks, the company may actually be improving working conditions. The correlation between rising revenue and falling satisfaction would be coincidental.
The union representative assumes a direct trade-off: higher revenue means the company chose profits at the expense of employees. However, if automated systems both increased revenue AND reduced burdensome tasks, the revenue increase might reflect efficiency gains rather than exploitation. The satisfaction drop could stem from entirely different factors.
Question 2: All students who passed the advanced mathematics module also passed the statistics module. Maria did not pass the statistics module. Which of the following must be true?
- Maria did not take the advanced mathematics module
- Maria did not pass the advanced mathematics module (Correct answer)
- Maria failed both modules
- Maria took the statistics module but not the advanced mathematics module
Correct answer: Maria did not pass the advanced mathematics module
Since all students who passed advanced mathematics also passed statistics, and Maria did not pass statistics, by contrapositive reasoning, Maria could not have passed advanced mathematics.
This is a classic contrapositive logic problem. The premise states: If passed advanced math then passed statistics. The contrapositive is: If NOT passed statistics then NOT passed advanced math. Since Maria did not pass statistics, she necessarily did not pass advanced mathematics.
Question 3: A school principal argues that replacing paper textbooks with tablets will improve student learning outcomes because students in a pilot program using tablets scored 12% higher on standardized tests. What is the most significant flaw in this reasoning?
- Tablets are more expensive than textbooks
- The pilot program may have selected above-average students or included additional support not available to all students (Correct answer)
- Some students prefer reading from paper
- Not all subjects benefit equally from digital resources
Correct answer: The pilot program may have selected above-average students or included additional support not available to all students
The most significant flaw is selection bias. If the pilot group was not representative of the general student population, or received additional resources, the 12% improvement cannot be attributed solely to the tablets.
This reasoning flaw is a classic confounding variable problem. Pilot programs frequently attract motivated volunteers, receive extra funding, or benefit from additional teacher training. Without random assignment and controlled conditions, attributing the 12% improvement specifically to tablets is unjustified.
Question 4: Consider the following statements: (1) No experienced researchers publish in predatory journals. (2) Some members of the faculty are not experienced researchers. Which conclusion can be validly drawn?
- Some faculty members publish in predatory journals
- No faculty members publish in predatory journals
- Some faculty members might publish in predatory journals (Correct answer)
- All experienced researchers are faculty members
Correct answer: Some faculty members might publish in predatory journals
Since some faculty members are not experienced researchers, they are not covered by Statement 1's restriction. They might or might not publish in predatory journals.
Statement 1 tells us experienced researchers avoid predatory journals. Statement 2 tells us some faculty lack experience. These inexperienced faculty members fall outside Statement 1's scope, meaning we have no information about their publishing habits. The only valid conclusion is possibility, not certainty.
Question 5: A study found that countries with higher chocolate consumption per capita have more Nobel Prize winners. A journalist reports this as evidence that chocolate consumption enhances cognitive ability. Which reasoning error does the journalist commit?
- Appeal to authority
- Confusing correlation with causation (Correct answer)
- Straw man argument
- Hasty generalization
Correct answer: Confusing correlation with causation
The journalist assumes that because two variables are correlated, one causes the other. This ignores confounding variables such as wealth, education spending, and research infrastructure.
This is a textbook correlation-causation fallacy. Countries with high chocolate consumption tend to be wealthy nations with robust education systems. The chocolate-Nobel correlation is spurious, driven by the confounding variable of national wealth and development.
Question 6: If a proposed regulation would reduce industrial pollution by 30% but increase consumer prices by 8%, which of the following would be most relevant to evaluating whether the regulation should be implemented?
- The total health care cost savings from reduced pollution-related illnesses (Correct answer)
- The number of industries affected by the regulation
- Public opinion polls about environmental regulations
- The political party that proposed the regulation
Correct answer: The total health care cost savings from reduced pollution-related illnesses
Healthcare cost savings directly allows a cost-benefit comparison with the 8% price increase, making it the most relevant factor for evaluation.
Evaluating policy requires weighing costs against benefits in comparable terms. The 8% price increase is a quantifiable cost. Healthcare savings from reduced pollution provides a quantifiable benefit for direct comparison.
ISAT Critical Reasoning 2
A company's annual report states that revenue increased by 15% while employee satisfaction scores dropped by 20%.
A union representative concludes that the company is prioritizing profits over employee well-being.
Which of the following, if true, most weakens the union representative's conclusion?