An experiment was done in which human subjects recognize a pattern wit

OG Specifies this question as Hard, and here we have difficulty level as low.

Can anyone explain me this paradox?

Hello experts

GMATNinja AjiteshArun

VeritasKarishma


Would it be right to say that E is incorrect because it is in a way giving a causal kinda touch between “low energy” and “success in recognising patterns” that in the actual argument just happen to be there/ exist ?

Am I making sense?

PS: one could also say that the argument is about human subjects who took part in this experiment that is there in the argument. So a hypothesis about the athletes doesn’t make sense over here

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INSEADIESE

We need to find the hypothesis which will lead you to expect the result of the study. That is, which of the following if true would make you expect the study's result?

What is the study's result?
That people who did the best were those who expended least energy.

(C) People who are better at abstract pattern recognition have more energy-efficient neural connections.

If this were true, I would expect that people who did best (they are better at abstract pattern recognition) also expended least energy (because they have more energy efficient neural connections).
Correct.

(E) The task of completing a given design is more capably performed by athletes, whose energy expenditure is lower when they are at rest.

If this were true, what would I expect?
I would expect that athletes would perform best in the activity. Also, since athletes expend low energy, their energy expenditure during the task would be low too.
But the results do not talk about athletes at all. We don't know if athletes performed the best and expended least energy. We just know that those who performed best expended least energy.

Note that option (C) is also giving a causal link. That is not the problem with (E). Problem with (E) is the connection to athletes which we did not find in our study. Hence (C) is more appropriate.

The answer is C.

We are trying to resolve , why is it that people who successfully perform the task expend less energy.
(A) The neurons of the brain react less when a subject is trying to recognize patterns than when the subject is doing other kinds of reasoning. wrong since we are concerned with people who successfully complete the task.

(B) Those who performed best in the experiment experienced more satisfaction when working with abstract patterns than did those who performed less well. No relationship between satisfaction and energy expended is given. therefore wrong

(C) People who are better at abstract pattern recognition have more energy-efficient neural connections. People who are better will more likely perform the task successfully as compared to those who aren't . This explains the surprising fact.( seems correct , keep on hold)

(D) The energy expenditure of the subjects brains increases when a design that completes the initially recognized pattern is determined. Irrelevant , cause the methodology is out of question here.

(E) The task of completing a given design is more capably performed by athletes, whose energy expenditure is lower when they are at rest. Irrelevant again. Cause the argument is talking about people in general .

Therefore C is the correct answer.

An experiment was done in which human subjects recognize a pattern within a matrix of abstract designs and then select another design that completes that pattern. The results of the experiment were surprising. The lowest expenditure of energy in neurons in the brain was found in those subjects who performed most successfully in the experiments.

Which of the following hypotheses best accounts for the findings of the experiment?

(A) The neurons of the brain react less when a subject is trying to recognize patterns than when the subject is doing other kinds of reasoning. X
-‘other kinds of reasoning’ is irrelevant, what we are concerned about is the self-contained experiment not something beyond the experiment

(B) Those who performed best in the experiment experienced more satisfaction when working with abstract patterns than did those who performed less well. X
-‘more satisfaction’ does not explain why successful performers were more energy efficient

(C) People who are better at abstract pattern recognition have more energy-efficient neural connections.
Correct.

(D) The energy expenditure of the subjects brains increases when a design that completes the initially recognized pattern is determined. X
-this goes in the wrong direction and even if we were to take this as true, we still don’t understand why overall the lowest expenditure of energy was found in successful performers

(E) The task of completing a given design is more capably performed by athletes, whose energy expenditure is lower when they are at rest. X
-‘more capably performed by athletes’ is inconsequential here

Hi avigutman - Just two quick question on option C


Q1) Option C is saying that people who perform successfully in the expirements . They happen to use up least amount of energy because they are just genetically gifted with MORE energy efficient neural connections ?

Q2) Per Option C, can we infer that the Pink is the CAUSE for why some people are more successful ? Per my understanding, MORE ENERGY efficient neural connections is NOT the cause for the success.

We don’t know why certain individuals are more successful at abstract pattern recognition. But, apparently, according to option C, those individuals’ neural connections are more energy efficient (for whatever reason). This can explain why they had the lowest expenditure of energy in neurons in the brain. Is this also why they were so successful at the abstract pattern recognition? Who knows?? Seems like a reasonable hypothesis, but we don’t know.

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Most successful subjects used the lowest energy of neurons used.

(A) The neurons of the brain react less when a subject is trying to recognize patterns than when the subject is doing other kinds of reasoning. Incorrect. No information on other kinds of reasoning.

(B) Those who performed best in the experiment experienced more satisfaction when working with abstract patterns than did those who performed less well. Incorrect. Satisfaction is out of scope.

(C) People who are better at abstract pattern recognition have more energy-efficient neural connections. Correct. Since most successful people used the lowest energy, they have more energy-efficient neural connections.

(D) The energy expenditure of the subjects brains increases when a design that completes the initially recognized pattern is determined. Incorrect. No such claim in argument.

(E) The task of completing a given design is more capably performed by athletes, whose energy expenditure is lower when they are at rest. Incorrect. Energy expenditure at rest is out of scope.

An experiment was done in which human subjects recognize a pattern within a matrix of abstract designs and then select another design that completes that pattern. The results of the experiment were surprising. Reason?- People who performed most successfully had the lowest expenditure of energy in neurons in the brain

Why was this so? People who performed well had the lowest expenditure of energy in neurons in the brain and people who performed poorly had more expenditure of energy in neurons.
We need to find an answer that explains this paradox.

(A) The neurons of the brain react less when a subject is trying to recognize patterns than when the subject is doing other kinds of reasoning.
The comparison is not between how neurons react when a subject is trying to recognize patterns than when the subject is doing other kinds of reasoning. Out of scope. Eliminate A.

(B) Those who performed best in the experiment experienced more satisfaction when working with abstract patterns than did those who performed less well.
Unless there’s any indication that higher satisfaction leads to less expenditure of energy in neurons in the brain, choice B does not help answer the question at all. Eliminate B.

(C) People who are better at abstract pattern recognition have more energy-efficient neural connections.
Bingo. Why did subjects who performed well have the lowest expenditure of energy in neurons in the brain? Because people who are better at abstract pattern recognition have more energy-efficient neural connections. Option C clearly fits our question requirement. Correct

(D) The energy expenditure of the subject's brains increases when a design that completes the initially recognized pattern is determined.
Does not help answer the question. Irrelevant. Eliminate D.

(E) The task of completing a given design is more capably performed by athletes, whose energy expenditure is lower when they are at rest.
Irrelevant. Eliminate E.

Hi IanStewart, GMATNinjaTwo and avigutman,

I have no problem with the correct option but would like to discuss the incorrect options (D) and (E)--they are interesting to me since they seem to have been designed to distract test takers.

-(D) The energy expenditure of the subjects brains increases when a design that completes the initially recognized pattern is determined.

1. For the clause "when a design that completes the initially recognized pattern is determined," I wonder whether it refers only to the case in which the subject correctly determines the design, or to any case in which that the subject thinks he or she has selected the design correctly?

For this question, neither interpretation can really explain the finding's results, so the difference in the interpretation might not really matter. But I've seen this type of wording in other options in other questions, and sometimes the difference matters. So I am curious how you would interpret this sentence.

2. If the option (D) were revised into "the energy expenditure of the subjects brains stays at a high level until a design that completes the initially recognized pattern is determined," would it be an ideal contender?

This revised option is similar to the explanation I pre-thought-- I thought that although reasoning requires energy, those who are better at this task can spot the correct designs faster than others, and since they spend less time reasoning, they consume less energy.

But now I am not completely sure about the revised option (D), since I notice that the stem only says "those who performed most successfully"-- so these people must have answered more questions correctly than others, but they might not necessarily have answered the questions faster than others.


-(E) The task of completing a given design is more capably performed by athletes, whose energy expenditure is lower when they are at rest.

1. In previous posts in this thread, some club members eliminated the option (E) because they think that this option is irrelevant. But is this option really irrelevant? It seems to me that we can logically infer that some of those who performed most successfully in the experiment were athletes. Or, am I making a mistake with this inference? We cannot say that some athletes PERFORMED better in the experiment, just because the option (E) says that athletes CAN perform the task better?

2. Despite the above inference issue, I can understand why the option (E) is wrong, because we do not really need to know the relative energy expenditures of athletes when they are at rest and when they are doing other things. But, if we revise the option (E) to "...by athletes, whose energy expenditure generally is lower than others'," would it be considered more ideal?

Thank you so much!

If they had wanted D to be correct here (i.e. if answer C didn't exist and D was rephrased as you suggest) I think they would have rewritten the stem so it wasn't ambiguous about what "the pattern is determined" means. For your question #1, I could interpret that sentence either way. Fortunately it doesn't matter what meaning we take from it, because that doesn't affect the answer here. For your question #2, you've changed D so it now says the opposite of what it used to (the original answer D is weird -- energy expenditure goes up once the person completes the task?) and I agree that your D becomes a good candidate answer; if the better performing people work faster, they presumably use less energy overall, because they're spending less time working. Your D becomes even better if it makes clear that everyone expends a similar amount of energy on the task, per second, while they work on it.




As written, I find E more tempting than D, but again, if they had wanted E to be right, it would have needed a rephrasing. I actually don't know what their answer E even means, because I can interpret it in two different ways: does it mean athletes expend less energy at rest than non-athletes? Or does it mean athletes expend less energy at rest than when they are not at rest? Under the second interpretation, it's irrelevant, but under the first, it's sort of a roundabout way of saying something similar to what the OA, C, says, though it raises a lot of additional questions C does not raise. But if E was reworded as you suggest, and C did not exist, it would be the best answer here.

Thank you Ian so much for your explanations!

Now I think I am clear that sometimes the wording of an option could indeed be ambiguous, and the ambiguity might be a sign that the option is not ideal--it makes sense that the correct option should have a clear meaning. So, next time when I run into an ambiguous option, I would view it as a red flag (but I would not eliminate it until I check all other options.)

Thank you once again!

Hi GraceSCKao avigutman IanStewart - saw your post and was intrigued as well.. I am no expert but here are my 2 cents on your post above

Focussing on your (E variation)..have listed it out



I personally think (E-variation) is wrong in addition to (E-original)

Because we cannot be sure what the energy expenditure of athletes is when the athletes are completing the task of choosing a given design specifically.

All we know from (E-variation) is -- athletes have lower energy expenditure vs non-athletes (when athletes are resting)

But perhaps, when the athletes are completing the task of selecting a design specifically -- perhaps the athletes are not resting.

Perhaps when selecting a design, the athletes are using a lot of neuron energy and fully engaged.

We only know athletes use less energy (Relative to others) when the athletes are rested.

GraceSCKao avigutman -- Focussing on (D-variation)



I personally dont think (D variation) is right either.

We need to proove that the most successfull people at this task - use the lowest expenditure of energy

All (D variation) says is -- FOR ALL PEOPLE (Most successfull / Least successfull / Mid successful / Zero successfull) -- Energy expenditue is HIGHEST before picking a design

But this is the case for ALL people ? So how does this proove that the MOST SUCCESSFULL FOLKS use the LEAST AMOUNT of energy

I wouldn't use the word "prove", jabhatta2. We simply need to find a reasonable explanation for this surprising phenomenon:



Does that not explain why lower energy expenditure correlates with success? It's hard to say for sure, because the language is a bit vague. We don't know how "success" is defined: is it percent of questions correct? Is it the time spent per correct question? Is it the number of correct answers within a given amount of time?
It's certainly possible that this is a legitimate explanation for the surprising phenomenon: perhaps the successful people spent less time per question, and that's why they expended less energy.


I'm afraid I couldn't follow this sentence, jabhatta2. Are you saying that when athletes are at rest they expend less energy than when non-athletes are at rest?
If so, what does "rest" mean? Are you "resting" when you're trying to recognize a pattern within a matrix of abstract designs and select another design that completes that pattern? If so (but that's a lot of ifs), then I'd say this E-variation is pretty good. It claims a correlation between athleticism and abstract design recognition, as well as a correlation between athleticism and a low energy expenditure.
If A~B and A~C, that can explain why B~C.
Incidentally, that's what the correct answer choice does.

Hi jabhatta2,

Thanks for joining this discussion about these virtual variants of the options (D) and (E)!

As avigutman points out in his post, we do not need to prove any thing for this question. Generally, I think that the mindset of trying to "prove" or "disprove" something is not really helpful for us with most CR questions, as that would not be the exact requirement of these questions. For this question, which is a so-called "resolve the paradox" question, we need to find a statement that can help explain how the two sets of facts that seem contradictory can coexist. The stimulus implies the existence of a paradox by saying "the results of the experiment were surprising...," (even though I personally think this is not surprising at all.)

IanStewart has revised my original variant of the option (D) "the energy expenditure of the subjects brains stays at a high level until a design that completes the initially recognized pattern is determined" by adding that the variant would be better if it makes clear that everyone expends a similar amount of energy on the task, per second, while they work on it. Now, even though we cannot be sure for 100 percent whether those people who are most successful have correctly selected the designs faster than others, this could be true and the variant (D) can help explain why these people spend less brain energy.

There is still space of uncertainty though--as Avigutman has pointed out, the definition of "successful" in not clear in the stimulus. But I would not explore this issue further, because my original intention to discuss these variants is to confirm what is wrong in the original options. As Ian has pointed out, if the question designer wanted (D) to be correct, he or she would have rewritten it so it wasn't ambiguous.



I think both experts, Ian and Avigutman, have explained the option (E) and the variant very well.

The option (E) is "The task of completing a given design is more capably performed by athletes, whose energy expenditure is lower when they are at rest."

My variant of (E) is "The task of completing a given design is more capably performed by athletes, whose energy expenditure generally is lower than others." (My variant does not have the part "when they are at rest.")

Ian has said that the original option (E) has two meanings. The option could be irrelevant with one meaning, but it could be an explainer with another meaning, though it would still be inferior to the correct option (C). Avigutman also says that if the option is read with the second meaning, it could be an explainer.

The given experiment found that the human subjects who performed most successfully in recognizing a pattern within a matrix of abstract designs expended the lowest amount of energy in neurons in the brain. Based on this information, the hypothesis that best accounts for the findings is option C: People who are better at abstract pattern recognition have more energy-efficient neural connections. This hypothesis suggests that individuals who are better at recognizing patterns in abstract designs have neural connections in their brains that are more efficient at processing this type of information, leading to lower energy expenditure in the brain. Option A is incorrect because the experiment does not compare pattern recognition to other types of reasoning. Option B is unsupported by the given information and is therefore incorrect. Option D is also incorrect because it suggests an increase in energy expenditure when the experiment found the opposite result. Finally, option E is irrelevant to the given experiment and is therefore incorrect.