CR - The growing popularity of computer-based activities

[bellthecatnow]

Source : GMATPrep

The growing popularity of computer-based activities was widely expected to result in a decline in television viewing, since it had been assumed that people lack sufficient free time to maintain current television-viewing levels while spending increasing amounts of free time on the computer. That assumption, however, is evidently false: in a recent mail survey concerning media use, a very large majority of respondents who report increasing time spent per week using computers report no change in time spent watching television.

Which of the following would it be most useful to determine in order to evaluate the argument?

A. Whether a large majority of the survey respondents reported watching television regularly
B. Whether the amount of time spent watching television is declining among people who report that they rarely or never use computers
C. Whether the type of television programs a person watches tends to change as the amount of time spent per week using computers increases
D. Whether a large majority of the computer owners in the survey reported spending increasing amounts of time per week using computers
E. Whether the survey respondents’ reports of time spent using computers included time spent using computers at work


OA: E

Could the instructors please explain? Anticipatory Thanks.

[jayachandran.b]

..while spending increasing amounts of free time on the computer..

choice E puts in to perspective this important piece of the puzzle; free time spent on the computer. If the surveyed people are not using computers in free time then the survey is not effective in determining whether computer usage has anything to do with TV time.

Hope it helps.

[RonPurewal]

first, let's make sure that we evaluate the question prompt correctly; it talks about "evaluating the argument".

usually, "evaluate" means "strengthen / weaken". we can't tell which, but the two are opposite sides of the same coin. (i.e., if X would strengthen, then not-X will usually weaken, and vice versa).

one reliable way to strengthen / weaken an argument is to bolster or sever the CONNECTIONS BETWEEN DIFFERENT SPECIFICS.

in this case, there are two specifics that are treated as if they were the same, even though they're totally different:
* FREE time spent on the computer (mentioned in the hypothesis of the study)
and
* TOTAL time spent on the computer (reported in the results)

note that you have to be pretty astute, and paying pretty close attention, to figure this out, since the passage doesn't actually use the word "total".

choice (e) correctly points to the issue of this connection (or lack thereof). if the answer to this question is "yes, the time includes computer time at work", then the connection is severed, and the study's conclusion doesn't mean anything. if the answer is the opposite, then the study has indeed found a surprising result.

[bellthecatnow]

thanks, Ron

[RonPurewal]

sure

[rahul_aich]

The actual answer to this question is actually C , as per GMAT PREP. Can anyone please help me explain how it is C and not E.?

Thanks
Rahul

[RonPurewal]

The actual answer to this question is actually C , as per GMAT PREP. Can anyone please help me explain how it is C and not E.?

Thanks
Rahul

wrong. the answer to this problem is (e).

you may be confusing it with this problem, which is based on the same passage prompt but is a different question.

[saptadeepc]

The actual answer to this question is actually C , as per GMAT PREP. Can anyone please help me explain how it is C and not E.?

Thanks
Rahul

wrong. the answer to this problem is (e).

you may be confusing it with this problem, which is based on the same passage prompt but is a different question.

Hi Ron,

Apologize to bump in such an old thread, but I have a doubt abt the later question
---------------------

Which of the following most logically completes the argument?

The growing popularity of computer-based activities was widely predicted to result in a corresponding decline in television viewing. Recent studies have found that, in the United States, people who own computers watch, on average, significantly less television than people who do not own computers. In itself, however, this finding does very little to show that computer use tends to reduce television viewing time, since _______.

A. Many people who watch little or no television do not own a computer.
B. Even though most computer owners in the United States watch significantly less television than the national average, some computer owners watch far more television than the national average.
C. Computer owners in the United States predominately belong to a demographic group that have long been known to spend less time watching television than the population as a whole does.
D. Many computer owners in the United States have enough leisure time that spending significant amounts of time on the computer still leaves ample time for watching television.
E. Many people use their computers primarily for tasks such as correspondence that can be done more rapidly on the computer, and doing so leaves more leisure time for watching television.
---------------------

Question says :- however, this finding does very little to show that "COMPUTER USE" tends to reduce television viewing time, since ____

In option "C" we know computer OWNERS do not watch TV too often, but nothing has been said about "COMPUTER USE" by them.

Option "E" specifies that "COMPUTER USE" leaves people with more leisurely time FOR WATCHING TV.

Even though I understand, C is the apt answer for this, I want to know how to answer such tricky questions with dubious answer choice(s)

[tim]

You seem to be asking a question about how to make these difficult judgment calls in general. I would say that the best way to get good at this process is through active study and review of questions you encounter. Keeping in mind that the GMAT is always right, at least from its own perspective, your job should be to analyze the reasoning involved in reaching the correct answer and eliminating the incorrect answers. What this means is that, regardless of your own analysis of the argument, you want to see if you can replicate the GMAT's analysis. So for every critical reasoning question you encounter, make sure you understand why the GMAT thinks the correct answer is correct, but also make an equal effort to understand why the GMAT thinks each incorrect answer is incorrect. As you study more of these questions and really begin to understand their reasoning, you'll find it easier to make distinctions among the answer choices they present in new problems..

[divineacclivity]

The actual answer to this question is actually C , as per GMAT PREP. Can anyone please help me explain how it is C and not E.?

Thanks
Rahul

wrong. the answer to this problem is (e).

you may be confusing it with this problem, which is based on the same passage prompt but is a different question.

Hi Ron,

Apologize to bump in such an old thread, but I have a doubt abt the later question
---------------------

Which of the following most logically completes the argument?

The growing popularity of computer-based activities was widely predicted to result in a corresponding decline in television viewing. Recent studies have found that, in the United States, people who own computers watch, on average, significantly less television than people who do not own computers. In itself, however, this finding does very little to show that computer use tends to reduce television viewing time, since _______.

A. Many people who watch little or no television do not own a computer.
B. Even though most computer owners in the United States watch significantly less television than the national average, some computer owners watch far more television than the national average.
C. Computer owners in the United States predominately belong to a demographic group that have long been known to spend less time watching television than the population as a whole does.
D. Many computer owners in the United States have enough leisure time that spending significant amounts of time on the computer still leaves ample time for watching television.
E. Many people use their computers primarily for tasks such as correspondence that can be done more rapidly on the computer, and doing so leaves more leisure time for watching television.
---------------------

Question says :- however, this finding does very little to show that "COMPUTER USE" tends to reduce television viewing time, since ____

In option "C" we know computer OWNERS do not watch TV too often, but nothing has been said about "COMPUTER USE" by them.

Option "E" specifies that "COMPUTER USE" leaves people with more leisurely time FOR WATCHING TV.

Even though I understand, C is the apt answer for this, I want to know how to answer such tricky questions with dubious answer choice(s)

Please explain why C and not E? thanks in advance.

[jlucero]

Please explain why C and not E? thanks in advance.

(Moderator's Note: this is in response to divineacclivity and is a second, different question than the one posted at the top of this thread)

E would do the opposite of logically completing the argument. If you can do small tasks faster with a computer, you should have more leisure time and potentially use that leisure time for things like television.

C completes the argument and explains why people who have computers don't watch as much tv- not because computers cause users to spend less time watching tv, but rather, people who own computers have always tended to spend less time than others watching tv. It would be like saying people who watch football are less likely to watch ballet... not because they don't have time to do both, but because people who watch football tend to not like watching ballet.

[ishanbhat455]

first, let's make sure that we evaluate the question prompt correctly; it talks about "evaluating the argument".

usually, "evaluate" means "strengthen / weaken". we can't tell which, but the two are opposite sides of the same coin. (i.e., if X would strengthen, then not-X will usually weaken, and vice versa).

one reliable way to strengthen / weaken an argument is to bolster or sever the CONNECTIONS BETWEEN DIFFERENT SPECIFICS.

in this case, there are two specifics that are treated as if they were the same, even though they're totally different:
* FREE time spent on the computer (mentioned in the hypothesis of the study)
and
* TOTAL time spent on the computer (reported in the results)

note that you have to be pretty astute, and paying pretty close attention, to figure this out, since the passage doesn't actually use the word "total".

choice (e) correctly points to the issue of this connection (or lack thereof). if the answer to this question is "yes, the time includes computer time at work", then the connection is severed, and the study's conclusion doesn't mean anything. if the answer is the opposite, then the study has indeed found a surprising result.

Hi Ron,

I have a different thought regarding choice E. If the answer to the question in E is "yes", then we are saying that the total time includes the time spent using computers at work. But that doesn't indicate that total time spent only includes "time spent using computers at work". It could include both free time spent on the computer as well as time spent on computers at work.

And because the evidence in the final sentence of the argument already shows that a large majority of respondents report no change in the time spent on TV, then how does a "yes" to E weaken the argument?

Thanks,
Ishan

[RonPurewal]

I have a different thought regarding choice E. If the answer to the question in E is "yes", then we are saying that the total time includes the time spent using computers at work. But that doesn't indicate that total time spent only includes "time spent using computers at work". It could include both free time spent on the computer as well as time spent on computers at work.

Right, but the point is that the "work" component opens up a clear line of criticism.

Remember, "weaken" doesn't mean "destroy" -- it just means "weaken". You don't have to prove that the argument is wrong, as you seem to be trying to do.

And because the evidence in the final sentence of the argument already shows that a large majority of respondents report no change in the time spent on TV, then how does a "yes" to E weaken the argument?

The point of the argument is that people do have extra free time.
If they are merely increasing their use of computers at work, rather than at home, there's less reason to believe that this is the case.

[tushaw]

Is it true in strengthen/weaken CR questions the choices that start with "many/some" are generally not strong answers?

I'm not trying to find any rule here. but from this question it looks like d & e use "many" to just give an example of a small group of people. i do see other error reasons from d and e are wrong but just curious to know about the use of qualifier words in CR answer choices.

[RonPurewal]

Is it true in strengthen/weaken CR questions the choices that start with "many/some" are generally not strong answers?

Read this:

general-question-in-cr-use-of-some-in-correct-answers-t25210.html

It's weird that two different people would ask this question within a couple of days. Did this idea appear somewhere in internet-land recently?

As I wrote on that thread, don't waste your time. If you look for "patterns" like this, you'll get worse at CR, not better.