#20 - Psychologist: In an experiment, business managers who normally drank coffee on a daily basis

[Administrator]

Complete Question Explanation

Assumption. The correct answer choice is (D).

Answer choice (A):

Answer choice (B):

Answer choice (C):

Answer choice (D): This is the correct answer choice.

Answer choice (E):

This explanation is still in progress. Please post any questions below!

[mathildebarland]

Hi there,

Could someone please explain why D is the right answer as opposed to B? Thank you!

[Luke Haqq]

Hi mathildebarland!

To see why (D) is correct and (B) incorrect, let's start with the conclusion of the stimulus: "this study demonstrates that drinking more coffee than usual impairs overall management ability."

It's worth noting that the conclusion is about "overall" management ability. This brings in a new element in the conclusion, when the premises were only about information processing speed and abilities to integrate it with past information. The premises indicate a drawback to business managers having more coffee than usual (decreased ability to integrate new info with past info), but they don't establish that this one drawback is decisive in terms of how more coffee than usual affects "overall management ability."

Answer choice (D) states, "In the experiment, drinking more coffee than usual did not have beneficial effects on overall management ability that outweighed the reduction in ability to integrate past information." For assumption questions, once can confirm that an answer is correct by applying the Assumption Negation technique--negating the answer choice, then plugging it back in and seeing if it weakens/makes the argument fall apart. If it does, then it's an assumption required by the argument. This answer choice negated would be: "In the experiment, drinking more coffee than usual did have beneficial effects on overall management ability that outweighed the reduction in ability to integrate past information." If drinking more coffee than usual did have these added beneficial effects that outweighed the negative ones, then the argument would fall apart that more coffee than usual "impairs overall management ability."

Answer choice (B) states, "Drinking less coffee than usual would not impede a manager's overall management ability as much as would drinking more coffee than usual." This is about drinking less coffee, while the conclusion in the stimulus is about drinking more. Negating this would still be about drinking less coffee (as a comparison with drinking more). It doesn't quite get to the conclusion that drinking more will inhibit overall management abilities.

[FreeTim]

Why doesn't the assumption negation technique work for answer C?

[Luke Haqq]

Hi FreeTim!

Answer choice (C) and its negation don't quite get to the conclusion of the stimulus. The conclusion is that the mentioned study "demonstrates that drinking more coffee than usual impairs overall management ability." Hopefully on reading the conclusion, you recognized that it brings in new information--it refers to "overall management ability," which wasn't mentioned in the previous sentences.

The following could be a negation of (C): "There are some other factors (at least one) that are more important to successful business management than either speed of processing information or ability to integrate it." The conclusion is about what a study shows, but this answer choice and its negation don't mention the study at all. Even if there are some factors more important than those two skills, we're still left with a conclusion about what the study shows about "overall management ability."