QUESTION 6

Assuming the premises in the following argument are true, do they support the causal conclusion? Explain your answer.

(10 marks)

Researchers claim to have shown that SuperBrain yoga increases intelligence. The researchers randomly selected Monash students by emailing people whose student number was selected by a random number generator. The researchers then took the final group of students that consented to participate and split them into two groups. Both groups did an IQ test at the beginning of the experiment. For the next week, the first group did SuperBrain yoga once a day. The second group was a control group, and did Vinyasa yoga once a day. Both groups recorded their sessions in an app. After the week of yoga, both groups repeated the IQ test, and their scores went up. The researchers suggest that SuperBrain yoga works by synchronising the two hemispheres of the brain in an alpha rhythm, thus preparing it for more complex cognitive tasks.