CCTST Interpretation 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A researcher reports: 'Among patients given the new drug, 70% showed improvement. Among patients given a placebo, 65% showed improvement.' What is the most accurate interpretation of these results?
- The drug is highly effective at treating the condition.
- The drug shows only a modest benefit over placebo. (Correct answer)
- The placebo effect explains all patient improvement.
- The study proves the drug should be approved.
Correct answer: The drug shows only a modest benefit over placebo.
The 5-percentage-point difference between drug (70%) and placebo (65%) represents a modest, not dramatic, benefit.
Question 2: A graph shows crime rates rising steadily from 2010 to 2015, then dropping sharply in 2016. A news headline reads: 'New Police Chief's Policies Slash Crime.' What interpretive error does this headline most likely commit?
- Overgeneralizing from a single data point.
- Assuming correlation implies causation. (Correct answer)
- Misreading the direction of the trend.
- Ignoring the base rate of crime nationally.
Correct answer: Assuming correlation implies causation.
Attributing the 2016 drop solely to the police chief's policies assumes causation from a temporal correlation without ruling out other factors.
Question 3: The statement 'All registered voters in this county are citizens' is best interpreted as:
- A normative claim about what voters should be.
- A universal affirmative claim about a specific group. (Correct answer)
- A statistical generalization about most voters.
- An inference drawn from a sample survey.
Correct answer: A universal affirmative claim about a specific group.
The word 'All' makes this a universal affirmative proposition applying to every member of the defined group.
Question 4: A survey finds that students who eat breakfast score higher on standardized tests. A school board member concludes: 'We must provide free breakfast to raise test scores.' Which interpretive assumption is embedded in this conclusion?
- Breakfast consumption causes higher scores, not merely correlates with them. (Correct answer)
- All students who eat breakfast will pass standardized tests.
- Standardized tests are the best measure of academic achievement.
- Students who skip breakfast do so because of poverty.
Correct answer: Breakfast consumption causes higher scores, not merely correlates with them.
The conclusion treats a correlational finding as evidence of causation, which is the key embedded assumption requiring scrutiny.
Question 5: When interpreting a passage, identifying the 'scope' of a claim means determining:
- How emotionally charged the language is.
- How wide or narrow the claim's coverage is. (Correct answer)
- Whether the claim is supported by evidence.
- What the author's purpose in writing was.
Correct answer: How wide or narrow the claim's coverage is.
Scope refers to the breadth of application of a claim—whether it covers all cases, some cases, or only specific instances.
Question 6: A politician says, 'My opponent has never publicly supported veterans' benefits.' The strongest charitable interpretation of this statement is:
- The opponent actively opposes veterans' benefits.
- There is no public record of the opponent endorsing veterans' benefits. (Correct answer)
- The opponent secretly opposes all military spending.
- The opponent's private views are hostile to veterans.
Correct answer: There is no public record of the opponent endorsing veterans' benefits.
The literal, least inflammatory reading is simply that no public endorsement exists, not that the opponent actively opposes such benefits.
Question 7: A report states: 'Unemployment fell from 8% to 4% over five years.' A critic argues: 'This figure is misleading because it excludes discouraged workers.' This criticism is an example of:
- Questioning the validity of the measurement used. (Correct answer)
- Disputing the arithmetic of the calculation.
- Arguing the trend is statistically insignificant.
- Claiming the data was fabricated.
Correct answer: Questioning the validity of the measurement used.
The critic challenges whether the official unemployment metric accurately measures the underlying reality it purports to represent.
CCTST Interpretation 2
A researcher reports: 'Among patients given the new drug, 70% showed improvement.
Among patients given a placebo, 65% showed improvement.' What is the most accurate interpretation of these results?