PrepTest 140, Section 3, Question 4
The Magno-Blanket is probably able to relieve arthritic(61 more words not shown)
Which one of the following,(6 more words not shown)
- AThe Magno-Blanket is(22 more words not shown)
- BMagnets have been(17 more words not shown)
- CThere are currently(12 more words not shown)
- DThe patients in(30 more words not shown)
- EMost of the(24 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Do the magnets actually relieve pain? And if they help people, will this particular blanket help dogs?
Those are separate questions. Seventy-six percent of the treated patients reported less pain after three weeks, but perhaps they would have improved anyway. Rest, nursing care, or expecting a treatment to help could account for some improvement. We need to know what happens without the magnets before confidently giving them the credit.
Then there's the jump from people to dogs. Similar bodies needn't respond identically in every respect. Even the equipment could matter: what if the blanket's magnets are weaker than the ones used in the study? Putting them the same distance from a joint doesn't tell us that they're equally strong.
What we’re looking for
To strengthen the argument, we could address any of these concerns. Evidence that the treatment works the same way in dogs would help. So would evidence that the human improvement came from the magnets rather than something else about being treated. We don't need one choice to fix every gap; making an important part of the reasoning more convincing is enough.
Working the answers
- A
This starts with 'if it is effective' on dogs. That's exactly what we're trying to establish. Telling us that success with dogs would extend to cats and other pets doesn't give us a reason to believe the first success occurs. It describes a consequence of the conclusion being true.
- B
More intense messages from nerves don't necessarily mean less pain. Which messages are strengthened, and what effect does that have? The answer doesn't say. We cannot turn an unspecified effect on human nerve signals into evidence that this blanket relieves dogs' arthritic pain.
- C
Having fewer available treatments could make an effective blanket especially useful. It doesn't make this blanket effective. A need for pain relief and evidence that a particular product provides it are different things.
- D
Read the negatives carefully: the patients who did not improve tended not to have the most severe pain. That tells us something about which patients failed to benefit. It doesn't compare magnet treatment with no magnet treatment or establish why other patients improved. Their improvement might still have happened without the magnets.
- ECorrect
Now we have a comparison group that received a placebo. Most of those patients didn't report less pain, whereas 76 percent of the magnet-treated patients did. Improvement was more common with the actual treatment than with the placebo.
That makes it harder to explain the result simply by the experience of receiving treatment or expecting to improve. It doesn't prove that expectations had no effect, and it doesn't settle the human-to-dog comparison. But it gives us a better reason to think the magnets themselves helped the patients, strengthening one important step toward the claim about the blanket.
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