ganand wrote:
The kinds of hand and wrist injuries that result from extended use of a computer while maintaining an incorrect posture are common among schoolchildren in Harnville. Computers are important to the school curriculum there, so instead of reducing the amount their students use computers, teachers plan to bring about a sharp reduction in the number of these injuries by carefully monitoring their students' posture when using computers in the classroom.
Which of the following would it be most useful to know in order to assess the likelihood that the teachers' plan will be successful?
(A) Whether extended use of a computer while maintaining incorrect posture can cause injuries other than hand and wrist injuries
(B) Whether hand and wrist injuries not caused by computer use are common among schoolchildren in Harnville
(C) What proportion of schoolchildren in Harnville with hand and wrist injuries use computers extensively outside the classroom
(D) Whether changes in the curriculum could reduce the schools' dependence on computers
(E) What proportion of schoolchildren in Harnville already use correct posture while using a computer.
Solutionpassage analysis The kinds of hand and wrist injuries that result from extended use of a computer while maintaining an incorrect posture are common among schoolchildren in HarnvilleIn Harnville, it is common to find a particular type of injury among the school children caused by extensive use of computers. These injuries are caused to the hands and wrists, if the posture of the children is incorrect while using computers.
Computers are important to the school curriculum there, so instead of reducing the amount their students use computers,The use of computers cannot be diminished since they are vital for the school curriculum. So, the teachers have come up with a plan that won’t require reducing the usage of computers.
teachers plan to bring about a sharp reduction in the number of these injuries by carefully monitoring their students' posture when using computers in the classroom.They plan to sharply reduce the number of such injuries by carefully supervising their students’ posture when they are using computers in the classroom.
Conclusion:If the teachers at Harnville schools pay close attention to their students' posture when the latter are using computers in the classroom, then they will be able to bring about a sharp reduction in the number of hand and wrist injuries caused due to extensive computer usage and bad posture while doing so.
pre-thinking Falsification questionIn what scenario will the teachers not be able to bring about a sharp reduction in the number of hand and wrist injuries caused due to extensive computer usage and bad posture?
Given that →The use of computers cannot be diminished
→The teachers have planned to carefully monitor the posture of the children while they are using computers in the classroom
Thought ProcessClearly, here the stress is primarily on two things causing the hand and wrist injuries: the long duration of computer usage and the bad posture while working at the computers in the classroom. The teachers have observed this, and they believe that careful supervision will lead to the students correcting their posture, thus reducing greatly the number of such injuries. But what about the time when there are no teachers to monitor posture during computer usage?
Falsification condition#1What if these students also use computers extensively at home/outside the school?
In that case there would not be anyone to monitor their posture at home/outside the school and that might result in injuries all the same. Even if the teachers are able to correct the students’ posture in school, the schoolchildren will fall back to the incorrect posture once away from school and the injuries would continue.
This would break down our conclusion.
Assumption#1Hardly any of the schoolchildren at Harnville use computers extensively outside the school/at home.
Falsification Condition#2What if there existed other operational/functional/infrastructural factors that were causing the injuries?
Let us say the computer table is of the wrong height or width. Or say the keyboards are of bad quality. Or say the chairs are not posture friendly. Any or all of these could be reasons that may still persist even after careful supervision. In that case our conclusion would break down.
Assumption#2There are no other operational/functional/infrastructural factors that are causing the injuries.
Answer Choice AnalysisAOur main concern is to evaluate the possibility of reducing hand and wrist injuries through careful supervision. Whether other injuries are also caused due to incorrect posture does not help me clarify the feasibility of the teachers’ plan.
Hence, this is not the correct option.
BOur main concern is to evaluate the possibility of reducing hand and wrist injuries caused by computers through careful supervision. Hand and wrist injuries not caused by computers is beyond the scope of our argument
Hence, this is not the correct choice.
C -Correct answer choice analysis
(C) What proportion of schoolchildren in Harnville with hand and wrist injuries use computers extensively outside the classroom
This is in line with our pre-thinking assumption#1.
Let’s put it through the variance analysis.
Yes- A large proportion of schoolchildren in Harnville with hand and wrist injuries USE computers extensively outside the classroom.
If this is the case, then even if the teachers monitor their posture at school, the hand and wrist injuries continue to take place. This weakens our belief in the conclusion.
No- A large proportion of schoolchildren in Harnville with hand and wrist injuries DO NOT USE computers extensively outside the classroom
In this case, the monitoring of the posture at school would bring down the number of hand and wrist injuries considerably and would strengthen our belief in the teachers’ plan.
Hence, this is the correct answer.
DChanging the curriculum will present us with another argument. And this argument itself will cease to exist. We are to consider a scenario where the computer usage cannot be reduced and that is partly responsible for the injuries.
Hence, this is not the correct answer.
EWhatever be the proportion of schoolchildren in Harnville already using correct posture while working on a computer, it does not change the fact that in Harnville, it is common to find hand and wrist injuries among the school children caused by extensive use of computers. This does not impact my conclusion.
Hence, this is not the correct choice.