spriya wrote:
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.
(B) Those who performed best in the experiment experienced more satisfaction when working with abstract patterns than did those who performed less well.
(C) People who are better at abstract pattern recognition 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.
(E) The task of completing a given design is more capably performed by athletes, whose energy expenditure is lower when they are at rest.
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!