December 2017 LSAT Section 3 Question 21

In an experiment, subjects were shown a series of images on a computer screen, appearing usually at the top but occas...

Nativeguy on June 5, 2023

What about the middle ?

I know it's not always suggested to assume unless it's stated but there have been some l.S.A.T questions where just because something is not stated does not mean it does not exist for ex Stethen with Suff and Nec. My question is why could the images have not been in the middle? The passage never states only the top or only the bottom, there is no restricted language that indicates this is not possible. Please help me understand.

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Emil-Kunkin on June 6, 2023

Hi, in this case I think the passage does tell us that images were only at the top or at the bottom. While it isn't explicitly stated, the phrase "they appeared mostly at the top, but occasionally at the bottom" seems to heavily imply that these were the only two options. That said, I see your point about unstated assumptions. While there may be (I would argue there isn't and that the phrase clearly implies a binary choice, but I agree that may be debatable) an unstated assumption here that there was no middle, that never comes up again and doesn't tie into our conclusion. how would it be relevant that they might have appeared at the middle? This argument really only concerns those two outcomes. This is an issue for sufficient assumption question when the assumed issue has something to do with the actual argument. Here, it is tangential at best