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Information and IdeasMediumSelecting supporting evidence

Information and Ideas practice question

A psychologist claims that reading fiction improves a person's ability to recognise other people's emotions.

Which finding, if true, would most directly support the psychologist's claim?

  1. A. Participants who read a short story scored higher on a test of identifying emotions from photographs of faces than participants who read a nonfiction article of the same length.Correct
  2. B. Participants reported enjoying a short story more than a nonfiction article.
  3. C. People who are good at recognising emotions tend to read more fiction than other people.
  4. D. Sales of fiction have risen over the past decade.

Answer: A. Participants who read a short story scored higher on a test of identifying emotions from photographs of faces than participants who read a nonfiction article of the same length.

The claim is that fiction CAUSES better emotion recognition. Choice A compares fiction with nonfiction readers on an emotion-recognition test and finds the fiction readers ahead — the direct test.

Why the other answers are wrong

B. Participants reported enjoying a short story more than a nonfiction article.
Enjoyment isn't the ability the claim is about.
C. People who are good at recognising emotions tend to read more fiction than other people.
This runs the other way: it could be that people who already read emotions well choose fiction. It doesn't show fiction improving the ability.
D. Sales of fiction have risen over the past decade.
Sales figures say nothing about anyone's abilities.

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