Critical Thinking Flashcards

Which approach is most appropriate when a UMAT question asks you to evaluate the strength of an argument?

Answer: Assess whether the premises logically support the conclusion and whether evidence is relevant

Evaluating argument strength requires examining whether the premises are relevant, accurate, and whether they logically lead to the stated conclusion.

A UMAT passage states a doctor treated 100 patients with herbal remedy X and all recovered. Another doctor says this does not prove the remedy works. Who is more scientifically correct and why?

Answer: The second doctor, because there is no control group to compare against

Without a control group, it is impossible to know whether patients would have recovered anyway without treatment, making the observed recovery rate uninterpretable.

The 'false dichotomy' fallacy involves:

Answer: Presenting only two choices when other options exist

A false dichotomy oversimplifies a situation by presenting it as having only two options when a range of other possibilities may exist.

In a UMAT passage, a politician says 'We've always done it this way, so we shouldn't change.' This is an example of which fallacy?

Answer: Appeal to tradition

An appeal to tradition argues that a practice is correct or superior simply because it has been done historically, without evaluating its actual merits.

What is the primary purpose of identifying assumptions in a UMAT critical thinking question?

Answer: To expose unstated beliefs that an argument depends on, which may or may not be valid

Identifying assumptions reveals the hidden premises that an argument relies on; if those assumptions are false or unjustified, the argument weakens.

A UMAT question asks which conclusion is 'most strongly supported' by given data. This phrasing means you should select:

Answer: The conclusion that the data provides the clearest and most direct evidence for

When asked for the most strongly supported conclusion, you must select the one most directly and clearly evidenced by the given data, avoiding unsupported inferences.