2. Questions 1, 2 & 3

ChatGPT does surprisingly well on most short answer questions but it does better if you ask it one question at a time.

Answer the following questions
  1. What is the difference between a statement and an exclamation?
  2. What are the differences between an argument and an explanation?
  3. Give an example of an argument that contains a premise indicator.

***GPT says***

  1. A statement is a sentence that conveys information or an idea, while an exclamation is a sentence that expresses strong emotion, such as surprise, excitement, or anger. Statements can be either true or false, and are usually used to convey information or express an opinion, while exclamations are used to express a speaker's emotions or feelings.
  2. An argument is a set of reasons or evidence that support a conclusion, while an explanation is a statement that clarifies or illuminates something that is already understood or accepted. An argument is used to persuade someone to accept a certain conclusion or belief, while an explanation is used to help someone understand something that they may not have previously understood.
  3. "All dogs are mammals, and all mammals have hearts, therefore all dogs have hearts." In this argument, the premise indicator is "therefore," which indicates that the conclusion follows logically from the premises that have been presented.


In the context of this course GPT gets (3) wrong. In this course 'therefore' would be classified as a conclusion indicator. There is, however, room for debate on this for although the word 'therefore' tells you that a conclusion will be following it, crucially, also tells you that what came before was a premise.

When asked question (3) by itself the answer it gave was:

Give an example of an argument that contains a premise indicator.

***GPT says***

Sure, here's an example of an argument that contains a premise indicator:

"Since studies have shown that exercise has numerous health benefits, it follows that everyone should make an effort to exercise regularly."

In this argument, "Since studies have shown that exercise has numerous health benefits" is the premise, and "it follows that everyone should make an effort to exercise regularly" is the conclusion. The premise indicator here is "since", which is used to introduce the premise that supports the conclusion.

Although it wouldn't matter if a candidate gave this answer to this question, it is worth noting that, if the candidate had been asked to state the premise(s) or the conclusion, the SQA would require students to omit the indicator words.

ChatGPT did this when specifically asked to identify the premise and the conclusion.

Identify the premise and the conclusion in the following argument:
"Since studies have shown that exercise has numerous health benefits, it follows that everyone should make an effort to exercise regularly."

***GPT says***
Premise: Studies have shown that exercise has numerous health benefits.
Conclusion: Everyone should make an effort to exercise regularly.