Bunuel
Medical Researcher: Among adults over 75, 62 percent of those who suffered three or more falls in the last 12 months walked unsteadily because of joint stiffness and age-related muscle loss, not because of neurological decline. Therefore, clinicians should no longer regard a history of frequent falls as evidence that neurological degeneration is beginning.
The researcher's argument is most vulnerable to criticism on which of the following grounds?
(A) Assumes proving many falls have another cause shows falls never indicate neurological decline.
(B) Ignores that stiff joints and early neurological decline could coexist in some patients.
(C) Takes for granted that “three or more falls” captures every clinically meaningful fall pattern.
(D) Presumes the 62 percent figure is inherently large enough to overturn the diagnostic link.
(E) Overlooks that participants may have been selected precisely because of musculoskeletal problems.
Answer: (A)
The argument says most older people who fall do so due to muscle and joint issues, so doctors should stop linking falls to neurological decline. But just because many falls happen for one reason doesn’t mean that other causes like brain issues don’t matter.
(A) points out this flaw — the researcher wrongly assumes that proving one common cause rules out all others. That’s a big leap, which makes this the best answer.
(B) This says people could have both joint problems and early brain decline. While true, the argument isn’t about whether both can happen at once — it’s about whether falls should be used to detect neurological issues at all.
So even if two causes can coexist, that doesn’t hit the main flaw in the logic. Not as strong as (A).
(C) This brings up whether “3 or more falls” is the right cutoff. That’s a fair technical point, but the core issue is about
why people fall, not how we define “frequent.”
It doesn't really weaken the argument’s logic, so it’s not the best choice.
(D) Here, the argument relies on 62% being a big enough number to dismiss the neurological link. But even if it's a majority, ignoring the rest could still be risky.
Still, this is more about how big the number is, not the deeper flaw in assuming falls can’t mean neurological decline. Decent, but weaker than (A).
(E) This suggests the people studied may have been chosen for already having joint issues. If true, that would make the data biased.
But we’re not told how the sample was picked, so this feels more like a guess than a real flaw in the argument. Doesn’t directly weaken the conclusion.
Final Answer: (A)