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655-705 Level|   Evaluate Argument|   Weaken|                           
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When hypnotized subjects are told that they are deaf and are then aske 30 Sep 2016, 05:15
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sayantanc2k
The deaf part cannot hear at all - hence a person who cannot hear the question, would not reply. The answer therefore comes out the part who can hear the question. Thus the part that hears the question must say "yes",because it had heard the question.
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Hi sayantankc2k,

it seems to be clear after reading this thread, but I am not sure whether I really got the idea. please point out my fault.

Given one of the subjects is John

John's brain is divided into hearing part and deaf part.
under normal condition, hearing part answers only "YES" to reply, deaf part keeps silence and won't answer anything.

it must be from hearing part if answer only "YES",
it must be from deaf part if silence.
if must be from neither hearing part nor deaf part if answer "NO"

as premise says,
the answer is "NO", so get the idea that reply part, hearing part, and deaf part are independent each other,
so the conclusion is that the part that is deaf is dissociated from the part that replies.

Answer choice A,
if get answer "YES", then the deaf part must take use of hearing part under unawareness, so it imply that deaf part and hearing exchange information, and transfer to reply,

we can see that deaf transfer information to reply indirectly, deaf part and reply are not independent, they transfer information indirectly
so A weakens the independent relationship. Am I right?


an idea occurred moment, please help to check whether my reasoning is correct
only "YES" can be the answer through hearing part,
so "NO" is an incorrect condition/source, the stimulus's conclusion is based on an incorrect condition/source, that imply the conclusion is problematic,
if weaken , we just point the incorrect condition/source.

I am desiring your confirm.


thanks a lot
have a nice day

>_~
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When hypnotized subjects are told that they are deaf and are then aske 01 Oct 2016, 02:26
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zoezhuyan
sayantanc2k
The deaf part cannot hear at all - hence a person who cannot hear the question, would not reply. The answer therefore comes out the part who can hear the question. Thus the part that hears the question must say "yes",because it had heard the question.

Hi sayantankc2k,

it seems to be clear after reading this thread, but I am not sure whether I really got the idea. please point out my fault.

Given one of the subjects is John

John's brain is divided into hearing part and deaf part.
under normal condition, hearing part answers only "YES" to reply, deaf part keeps silence and won't answer anything.

it must be from hearing part if answer only "YES",
it must be from deaf part if silence.
if must be from neither hearing part nor deaf part if answer "NO"

as premise says,
the answer is "NO", so get the idea that reply part, hearing part, and deaf part are independent each other,
so the conclusion is that the part that is deaf is dissociated from the part that replies.

Answer choice A,
if get answer "YES", then the deaf part must take use of hearing part under unawareness, so it imply that deaf part and hearing exchange information, and transfer to reply,

we can see that deaf transfer information to reply indirectly, deaf part and reply are not independent, they transfer information indirectly
so A weakens the independent relationship. Am I right?


an idea occurred moment, please help to check whether my reasoning is correct
only "YES" can be the answer through hearing part,
so "NO" is an incorrect condition/source, the stimulus's conclusion is based on an incorrect condition/source, that imply the conclusion is problematic,
if weaken , we just point the incorrect condition/source.

I am desiring your confirm.


thanks a lot
have a nice day

>_~
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Your understanding is very crisp and clear.
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When hypnotized subjects are told that they are deaf and are then aske 22 Sep 2017, 09:37
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68. When hypnotized subjects are told that they are deaf and are then asked whether they can hear the hypnotist, they reply, "No." Some theorists try to explain this result by arguing that the selves of hypnotized subjects are dissociated into separate parts, and that the part that is deaf is dissociated from the part that replies.

Which of the following challenges indicates the most serious weakness in the attempted explanation described above?

(A) Why does the part that replies not answer, "Yes"? I
(B) Why are the observed facts in need of any special explanation?
(C) Why do the subjects appear to accept the hypnotist's suggestion that they are deaf?
(D) Why do hypnotized subjects all respond the same way in the situation described?
(E) Why are the separate parts of the self the same for all subjects?
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Well this question took me by surprise initially i was inclining for C but after reading the prompt many number of times The answer is indeed A .
Here my reasoning for doing so

First something on hypnotism it used by people to control some other people for their own benefit where the person under hypnosis are not aware of their action. :-)
According to prompt we are told that people under hypnosis are told that they are deaf and when asked can they hear people doing the hypnosis they say no .
We this result is paradox if they cant hear then how come they heard the question and still replied no .
We are told that this result is explained by the different dissociated selves which act independently.

A provides a counter example for the explanation given above as if if the self that replied is independent of the part that is deaf they why did it not reply yes for the question asked .

All other options are just not good enough
B out of scope
C does not answer anything about the hypothesis well i may be true for the overall research purpose for the hypnosis but not for the prompt :-)
D There no information for this in the prompt
E Again no information given
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When hypnotized subjects are told that they are deaf and are then aske 31 Oct 2017, 22:42
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My approach: If the two parts are truly disassociated, then the answering part is not deaf. Hence, it should answer the question: Can you hear me? with a Yes. Hence the answer here is A.

Still dont really get it. To me, the answer of "yes" or "no" doesn't make any difference because the subject does ANSWER. No matter the answer is correct or not, the fact that the subject does answer means he/she can hear. If would make more sense if the subject remains silence... which truly prove that he/she is deaf!

Hello MulanQ

I understand the question's logic is quite hard to digest. The key point is that the deaf part is dissociated from the replies part. It means that no matter one can/can't hear anything, he/she always replies in a predetermined way. In this question, the deaf part means one is hypnotized to become "deaf", he/she is not a deaf person. (I think you misunderstood this point). In order to prove that the two parts is dissociated, we have to prove TWO cases, NOT only one used by the author.

If the deaf part is dissociated from the replies part, so:

Case #1: Although one can actually hear, he/she always replies "NO". --> It means the the "deaf" (or the hearing part) does not affect the reply part. (If he/she says "YES", he/she may hear something actually --> the deaf part may not dissociated from the reply part).

Case #2: Although one does NOT hear anything, he/she still replies "YES" --> It means the the "deaf" (or the hearing part) does not affect the reply part. (If he/she says "NO", he/she may not hear anything actually --> the deaf part may not dissociated from the reply part).

If the two cases above are shown properly, the argument's conclusion is correct. But if only one case is shown, case #1 in this question, we can't conclude that the deaf part is dissociated from the replies part.

A shows that the author "forgot" case #2, so the conclusion should be weaken.

Hope it helps.
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Hi, can u kindly help me to understand how option A is different from option D. A asks why do the subjects dont respond 'yes'. D, on the other hand, asks why do the subjects respond in the same manner ie. they say no every time instead of yes.
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When hypnotized subjects are told that they are deaf and are then aske 01 Nov 2017, 12:34
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Quote:
When hypnotized subjects are told that they are deaf and are then asked whether they can hear the hypnotist, they reply, "No." Some theorists try to explain this result by arguing that the selves of hypnotized subjects are dissociated into separate parts, and that the part that is deaf is dissociated from the part that replies.

Which of the following challenges indicates the most serious weakness in the attempted explanation described above?

(A) Why does the part that replies not answer, "Yes"?

(B) Why are the observed facts in need of any special explanation?

(C) Why do the subjects appear to accept the hypnotist's suggestion that they are deaf?

(D) Why do hypnotized subjects all respond the same way in the situation described?

(E) Why are the separate parts of the self the same for all subjects?
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sunny91
Hi, can u kindly help me to understand how option A is different from option D. A asks why do the subjects dont respond 'yes'. D, on the other hand, asks why do the subjects respond in the same manner ie. they say no every time instead of yes.
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Choice (D) does not ask, "Why do they always say 'No' instead of 'Yes'." Rather, choice (D) asks, "Why don't the responses vary from subject to subject? Why don't some subjects say 'No' while others say 'Yes'? What explains the consistency of these results? Answering this question alone might challenge the explanation described in the passage, but (A) directly challenges the explanation given, so it is a better answer.
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When hypnotized subjects are told that they are deaf and are then aske 22 Jan 2018, 06:09
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Indeed I got it right. However I am still not satisfied with Choice A. What guarantees that a Yes or No to this question will make theorists' argument wrong that selves of hypnotized subjects get dissociated into separate parts?

Just restarted my GMAT life. KUDOs please :-)
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When hypnotized subjects are told that they are deaf and are then aske 22 Jan 2018, 13:19
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Indeed I got it right. However I am still not satisfied with Choice A. What guarantees that a Yes or No to this question will make theorists' argument wrong that selves of hypnotized subjects get dissociated into separate parts?

Just restarted my GMAT life. KUDOs please :-)
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We don't need a GUARANTEE that a yes/no answer to this question will make the argument invalid. We simply need the answer choice that identifies the most serious weakness in the argument. Choice (A) is the best answer, even though it does not prove that the argument is wrong.
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When hypnotized subjects are told that they are deaf and are then aske 01 Apr 2018, 19:55
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Though the hypnotised subjects are disassociated into two , the part that is dissociated (not deaf) from the part that’s deaf might still be thinking that it’s not deaf. There’s no evidence that there’s a communication between two parts. So when asked if they can hear the part that’s answering, since it is dissociated from the deaf part can still answer ‘yes’. If that’s the case the explanation doesn’t hold good so IMO A

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When hypnotized subjects are told that they are deaf and are then aske 18 Apr 2018, 18:37
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It seems to me that the reply of those hypnotized is a given fact. It has to be given a reason. Only that reason can be attacked and not the fact that the hypnotized saying "no". So choice A may not be a good choice.
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When hypnotized subjects are told that they are deaf and are then aske 22 Jul 2020, 22:51
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is this a easy medium or hard question on the gmat?
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When hypnotized subjects are told that they are deaf and are then aske 23 Jul 2020, 00:15
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is this a easy medium or hard question on the gmat?
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You can check the difficulty level of a question in the tags just above the first post. You can also check the stats in the original post. For this question the difficulty level is 700..
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When hypnotized subjects are told that they are deaf and are then aske 24 Jun 2022, 21:42
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GMATNinja ManhattanPrep avigutman MartyTargetTestPrep I do not understand this question at all. Why is the concern not about what is stated in D or E? If the two parts are dissociated then how does everyone have the same response and also how ar everybody's parts the same? This does weaken the conclusion

What would the passage or wording have to be in order for D or E to work?
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When hypnotized subjects are told that they are deaf and are then aske 25 Jun 2022, 03:38
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Elite097
I do not understand this question at all. Why is the concern not about what is stated in D or E? If the two parts are dissociated then how does everyone have the same response and also how ar everybody's parts the same? This does weaken the conclusion
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This is the proposed explanation for the surprising phenomenon:
the selves of hypnotized subjects are dissociated into separate parts.
If that explanation is indeed the correct explanation, Elite097, wouldn't you expect all subjects to be impacted in the same way? In fact, I'd find it surprising if there was a variation in the ways in which the subjects were impacted.
Elite097
What would the passage or wording have to be in order for D or E to work?
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(D) would be a good answer if we add the word "some" to the explanation:
the selves of SOME hypnotized subjects are dissociated into separate parts, and that the part that is deaf is dissociated from the part that replies.
(E) would be a good answer if the hypnotized subjects were all told different things (some were told that they're blind, some were told that they're deaf, etc.
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When hypnotized subjects are told that they are deaf and are then aske 25 Jun 2022, 04:51
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avigutman why do you think that would be surprising? To me it seems that if deafness and what they say are dissociated, the responses would be more randomized and people wouldbe more likely to give random responses: some yes and some no since there is no logic behind them saying 'no'. It is not that we are told anywhere that they say 'no' on behalf of the deaf part



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Elite097
I do not understand this question at all. Why is the concern not about what is stated in D or E? If the two parts are dissociated then how does everyone have the same response and also how ar everybody's parts the same? This does weaken the conclusion
This is the proposed explanation for the surprising phenomenon:
the selves of hypnotized subjects are dissociated into separate parts.
If that explanation is indeed the correct explanation, Elite097, wouldn't you expect all subjects to be impacted in the same way? In fact, I'd find it surprising if there was a variation in the ways in which the subjects were impacted.
Elite097
What would the passage or wording have to be in order for D or E to work?
(D) would be a good answer if we add the word "some" to the explanation:
the selves of SOME hypnotized subjects are dissociated into separate parts, and that the part that is deaf is dissociated from the part that replies.
(E) would be a good answer if the hypnotized subjects were all told different things (some were told that they're blind, some were told that they're deaf, etc.
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When hypnotized subjects are told that they are deaf and are then aske 25 Jun 2022, 05:23
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Elite097
To me it seems that if deafness and what they say are dissociated, the responses would be more randomized and people would be more likely to give random responses: some yes and some no since there is no logic behind them saying 'no'. It is not that we are told anywhere that they say 'no' on behalf of the deaf part
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That's why the correct answer is (A). If the selves are truly dissociated, you'd expect the part that replies to always reply "Yes".
I don't know why you'd expect the responses to be randomized, Elite097.
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When hypnotized subjects are told that they are deaf and are then aske 25 Jun 2022, 05:32
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To me it seems that if deafness and what they say are dissociated, the responses would be more randomized and people would be more likely to give random responses: some yes and some no since there is no logic behind them saying 'no'. It is not that we are told anywhere that they say 'no' on behalf of the deaf part
That's why the correct answer is (A). If the selves are truly dissociated, you'd expect the part that replies to always reply "Yes".
I don't know why you'd expect the responses to be randomized, Elite097.
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Yeah because what is the reason for them to always say 'no'? There is no reason to it. It is purely random and without a logic- not related to deaf part or anything they perceive. It is purely random so people would be likely to give random responses. It is like if you toss 10 coins and expect them all to land on heads. There is no logic to the flip- any flip can result into anything and having all heads would be a rare coincidence. Similarly, all of them saying no is a rare coincidence which does not make sense as it seems like they would be rather be giving random responses since they cannot even hear from some parts and the part that can hear has no specific logic
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When hypnotized subjects are told that they are deaf and are then aske 25 Jun 2022, 13:46
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To me it seems that if deafness and what they say are dissociated, the responses would be more randomized and people would be more likely to give random responses: some yes and some no since there is no logic behind them saying 'no'. It is not that we are told anywhere that they say 'no' on behalf of the deaf part
That's why the correct answer is (A). If the selves are truly dissociated, you'd expect the part that replies to always reply "Yes".
I don't know why you'd expect the responses to be randomized, Elite097.
Yeah because what is the reason for them to always say 'no'? There is no reason to it. It is purely random and without a logic- not related to deaf part or anything they perceive.
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Just because we don't know what the reason is, that doesn't mean there's no reason. In fact, we can be sure that a reason exists, because such a surprising phenomenon MUST have an explanation (in GMAT world).
It's not for us to determine *why* the hypnotized subjects all said "no." Some theorists attempted to do that, and our job is to challenge the most serious weakness in that attempted explanation, which argued that
Quote:
the selves of hypnotized subjects are dissociated into separate parts
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and that
Quote:
the part that is deaf is dissociated from the part that replies.
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So, let's pretend for a moment that the attempted explanation is indeed the reason why they all said "no."
Do you then question why the hypnotized subjects all gave the same answer, Elite097?
I know you're questioning why the hypnotized subjects always said "no?" but that's not the same as questioning why they all responded the same way.
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When hypnotized subjects are told that they are deaf and are then aske 08 Sep 2024, 13:34
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A. If the subject is disassociated the part that heard the hypnotist should have answered YES. The part that heard the hypnotist was clearly not deaf
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When hypnotized subjects are told that they are deaf and are then aske 03 Jan 2025, 09:38
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Here's the complete explanation
perfectstranger
When hypnotized subjects are told that they are deaf and are then asked whether they can hear the hypnotist, they reply, "No." Some theorists try to explain this result by arguing that the selves of hypnotized subjects are dissociated into separate parts, and that the part that is deaf is dissociated from the part that replies.

Being deaf means not hearing
They are told they are deaf
They are then questioned - Hey can you hear me?

The correct response should be - Silence, No word, Nada OR YES I CAN HEAR YOU

But they say 'NO' implying No I can't hear you. Reinforcing the fact they are deaf but actually disproving it.


The theorist explain this result by saying - Hey the hypontized subjects have various parts. Lets say Part A,B,C,D... Part D who replies is dissociated from part which we hypnotised into believing is deaf. But if part D is dissociated then why is it agreeing that it cannot hear? Shouldn't it say YES I CAN HEAR.

Which of the following challenges indicates the most serious weakness in the attempted explanation described above?

(A) Why does the part that replies not answer, "Yes"?
Exactly!

(B) Why are the observed facts in need of any special explanation?
This is the most ridiculous option where we are saying hey why are we even questioning all this!

(C) Why do the subjects appear to accept the hypnotist's suggestion that they are deaf?
We are not bothered with this 'Why' This is a whole different thing. We have to find a flaw in specific situation not anything and everything related to this situation.

(D) Why do hypnotized subjects all respond the same way in the situation described?
'Same way' could mean why are they not using different variations of No such as Nope, Nada, Not at all or different replies like Maybe, Some say I don't know, Some say I guess etc... Again we don't need to know this as it doesn't pertain to the specific situation.

(E) Why are the separate parts of the self the same for all subjects?­
They have no where suggested the separate parts are same - just that there are definitely two parts one which is deaf one which is not.

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