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805+ Level|   Evaluate Argument|         
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sanjitscorps18
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GMAT Club Olympics 2025 (Day 5): Researchers studying workplace produc 04 Jul 2025, 22:22
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Bunuel
Researchers studying workplace productivity randomly assigned clerical workers to two equal groups. One group was told that their tasks, though routine, were cognitively demanding and vital to the company's operations. The other group received no such message. Over the following month, the first group showed a significant increase in typing speed and error reduction, despite working the same number of hours under identical conditions. The researchers hypothesized that the performance gains were caused by the workers' increased perception of their work as mentally engaging and important.

Which of the following would it be most useful to determine in evaluating the researchers’ hypothesis?

(A) Whether clerical workers who perceive their jobs as important are more likely to remain in their positions long term
(B) Whether those in the first group changed their time spent on personal distractions after receiving the message
(C) Whether both groups were equally likely to have prior experience in clerical tasks
(D) Whether the workers in the first group reported greater satisfaction with their pay after receiving the message
(E) Whether routine clerical tasks are commonly perceived as cognitively undemanding


 


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(A) Whether clerical workers who perceive their jobs as important are more likely to remain in their positions long term
--> Duration of work is irrelevant

(B) Whether those in the first group changed their time spent on personal distractions after receiving the message
--> Correct. Perceiving their job is important, if the first group focused more time on the job that confirms hypothesis else it doesn't

(C) Whether both groups were equally likely to have prior experience in clerical tasks
--> The premise tells us that the sample is if clerks. "randomly assigned clerical workers"

(D) Whether the workers in the first group reported greater satisfaction with their pay after receiving the message
--> Satisfaction is irrelevant

(E) Whether routine clerical tasks are commonly perceived as cognitively undemanding
--> Irrelevant

IMHO Option B
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GMAT Club Olympics 2025 (Day 5): Researchers studying workplace produc 04 Jul 2025, 22:54
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Option E is the most important because if the assumption is that routine tasks do not give stimulus to brain for performing better, than only external intervention such as telling that their tasks are important is needed. Other options such as A,B or C are not related to that assumption. D is the aftermath of the work and does not affect the decision making prior.
Bunuel
Researchers studying workplace productivity randomly assigned clerical workers to two equal groups. One group was told that their tasks, though routine, were cognitively demanding and vital to the company's operations. The other group received no such message. Over the following month, the first group showed a significant increase in typing speed and error reduction, despite working the same number of hours under identical conditions. The researchers hypothesized that the performance gains were caused by the workers' increased perception of their work as mentally engaging and important.

Which of the following would it be most useful to determine in evaluating the researchers’ hypothesis?

(A) Whether clerical workers who perceive their jobs as important are more likely to remain in their positions long term
(B) Whether those in the first group changed their time spent on personal distractions after receiving the message
(C) Whether both groups were equally likely to have prior experience in clerical tasks
(D) Whether the workers in the first group reported greater satisfaction with their pay after receiving the message
(E) Whether routine clerical tasks are commonly perceived as cognitively undemanding


 


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GMAT Club Olympics 2025 (Day 5): Researchers studying workplace produc 04 Jul 2025, 23:24
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Evaluating given Options:

(A) Reasoning:This talks about job staying time (long-term).But the study is about performance, not whether they stay or leave.
Verdict: Not relevant.
(B)Reasoning: This checks if they focused more after the message.If true, it means the message made them take work more seriously, which could cause better performance.
Verdict: Directly supports the idea in the study.

(C)Reasoning:This checks if both groups were fairly matched.Important for fairness, yes.But not the main point—the question is about why performance improved.
Verdict: Not useful for testing researcher's idea

(D)Reasoning: This talks about pay satisfaction.The study is about how they saw their work, not their salary.Not related to the hypothesis.
Verdict: Not directly relevant.

(E)Reasoning: This is general background info.But the study already assumes people usually think it’s routine.Doesn’t help test the message effect.
Verdict: Background, not evaluative.

Final Choice: (B)
It clearly helps test whether the message changed how people behaved and worked—the main point of the researchers’ hypothesis.
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GMAT Club Olympics 2025 (Day 5): Researchers studying workplace produc 04 Jul 2025, 23:49
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(A) Whether clerical workers who perceive their jobs as important are more likely to remain in their positions long term
> tenure cannot be correlated to the metric (productivity boos) in question.

(B) Whether those in the first group changed their time spent on personal distractions after receiving the message
> shows another metric to eval which my not have direct influence; what if the the first group did the job early and still spend same amount of time on personal distractions.

(C) Whether both groups were equally likely to have prior experience in clerical tasks
> Contender: what if the groups were biased selection, did not have equal starting points (prior exp); then the experiment is biased.

(D) Whether the workers in the first group reported greater satisfaction with their pay after receiving the message
> just like (B) another metric is being questioned whose direct relation to prod is not demonstrated.

(E) Whether routine clerical tasks are commonly perceived as cognitively undemanding
> this may lead to contrasting observation; cuz the first group was told is cog. exhaustive; in that case they would have low moral.
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GMAT Club Olympics 2025 (Day 5): Researchers studying workplace produc 04 Jul 2025, 23:50
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Bunuel
Researchers studying workplace productivity randomly assigned clerical workers to two equal groups. One group was told that their tasks, though routine, were cognitively demanding and vital to the company's operations. The other group received no such message. Over the following month, the first group showed a significant increase in typing speed and error reduction, despite working the same number of hours under identical conditions. The researchers hypothesized that the performance gains were caused by the workers' increased perception of their work as mentally engaging and important.

Which of the following would it be most useful to determine in evaluating the researchers’ hypothesis?

(A) Whether clerical workers who perceive their jobs as important are more likely to remain in their positions long term
(B) Whether those in the first group changed their time spent on personal distractions after receiving the message
(C) Whether both groups were equally likely to have prior experience in clerical tasks
(D) Whether the workers in the first group reported greater satisfaction with their pay after receiving the message
(E) Whether routine clerical tasks are commonly perceived as cognitively undemanding

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GMAT Club Olympics 2025 (Day 5): Researchers studying workplace produc 04 Jul 2025, 23:58
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For this question, the focus was on the perception or view of the employees. If their work is normally just a secondary part of their routine, and the first group receives a message telling them it has now become their priority, they would likely approach it with more focus—and I would do the same in their position. That’s why I chose option E.
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GMAT Club Olympics 2025 (Day 5): Researchers studying workplace produc 05 Jul 2025, 00:34
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(A) The message might have caused long tern retention. But whether the message caused productivity boost or not is not explained. Eliminate

(B) In evaluating this, if found workers spent less time in personal distractions, it would prove that the message changed their working behavior. Correct

(C) The workers were assigned randomly to the groups. The random assignment nullify the effect of prior experience factor. Eliminate

(D) The change in satisfaction with their pay because of the message is not under discussion here. Eliminate

(E) General perception of clerical tasks does not explain behavioral changes after the intervention by the message. Eliminate

Answer: B
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GMAT Club Olympics 2025 (Day 5): Researchers studying workplace produc 05 Jul 2025, 00:50
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Bunuel
Researchers studying workplace productivity randomly assigned clerical workers to two equal groups. One group was told that their tasks, though routine, were cognitively demanding and vital to the company's operations. The other group received no such message. Over the following month, the first group showed a significant increase in typing speed and error reduction, despite working the same number of hours under identical conditions. The researchers hypothesized that the performance gains were caused by the workers' increased perception of their work as mentally engaging and important.

Which of the following would it be most useful to determine in evaluating the researchers’ hypothesis?

(A) Whether clerical workers who perceive their jobs as important are more likely to remain in their positions long term
(B) Whether those in the first group changed their time spent on personal distractions after receiving the message
(C) Whether both groups were equally likely to have prior experience in clerical tasks
(D) Whether the workers in the first group reported greater satisfaction with their pay after receiving the message
(E) Whether routine clerical tasks are commonly perceived as cognitively undemanding


 


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We need to closely observe the highlighted lines in the argument, We need to docus on the wording equal groups, Means no possibility of one better than other.

We are looking at the hypothesis :
The performance gains were caused by the workers' increased perception of their work as mentally engaging and important.

This is a casual passage. As per the research, the message -> perception -> Better outcome.
To evaluate this hypothesis, we need to know whether the outcome is due to the message/perception or something else.

POE
(A) Whether clerical workers who perceive their jobs as important are more likely to remain in their positions long term Irrelevant, Won't impact
(B) Whether those in the first group changed their time spent on personal distractions after receiving the message Hmm, If true then there is alternate reason, Otherwise the hypothesis will be correct. Perfect choice.
(C) Whether both groups were equally likely to have prior experience in clerical tasks Hmm, Contradicts argument.
(D) Whether the workers in the first group reported greater satisfaction with their pay after receiving the message Irrelevant, Won't impact
(E) Whether routine clerical tasks are commonly perceived as cognitively undemanding Irrelevant, Won't impact

Hence IMO B.
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GMAT Club Olympics 2025 (Day 5): Researchers studying workplace produc 05 Jul 2025, 00:56
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(A) Whether clerical workers who perceive their jobs as important are more likely to remain in their positions long term
This information pertains to long-term employee retention, which might be a consequence of job perception but doesn't directly help determine the cause of the immediate productivity gains (typing speed, error reduction) observed over the following month. The hypothesis is specifically about the link between perceived importance and performance, not retention.

(B) Whether those in the first group changed their time spent on personal distractions after receiving the message
Addresses a potential alternative explanation for the observed performance gains. The researchers hypothesize that the perception of importance directly caused the gains. However, if receiving the message also led workers to reduce personal distractions (e.g., less time on phones, personal Browse), then the increased productivity could be attributed, at least in part, to more focused work time rather than solely the "mentally engaging and important" perception.

(C) Whether both groups were equally likely to have prior experience in clerical tasks
The problem states workers were "randomly assigned to two equal groups," which is the standard experimental method to control for such pre-existing differences.

(D) Whether the workers in the first group reported greater satisfaction with their pay after receiving the message
Increased satisfaction with pay could be a result of feeling more valued or finding work more important, but it doesn't directly explain or test whether the perception of importance itself was the cause of the increased typing speed and error reduction. Performance can improve for reasons other than direct pay satisfaction, and pay satisfaction doesn't directly equate to the mechanism of "mentally engaging and important."

(E) Whether routine clerical tasks are commonly perceived as cognitively undemanding
Background context about typical perceptions of clerical tasks, reinforcing why the message to the first group was significant. However, the experiment's design already manipulates this perception directly.

Regards,
Lucas
Bunuel
Researchers studying workplace productivity randomly assigned clerical workers to two equal groups. One group was told that their tasks, though routine, were cognitively demanding and vital to the company's operations. The other group received no such message. Over the following month, the first group showed a significant increase in typing speed and error reduction, despite working the same number of hours under identical conditions. The researchers hypothesized that the performance gains were caused by the workers' increased perception of their work as mentally engaging and important.

Which of the following would it be most useful to determine in evaluating the researchers’ hypothesis?

(A) Whether clerical workers who perceive their jobs as important are more likely to remain in their positions long term
(B) Whether those in the first group changed their time spent on personal distractions after receiving the message
(C) Whether both groups were equally likely to have prior experience in clerical tasks
(D) Whether the workers in the first group reported greater satisfaction with their pay after receiving the message
(E) Whether routine clerical tasks are commonly perceived as cognitively undemanding


 


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GMAT Club Olympics 2025 (Day 5): Researchers studying workplace produc 05 Jul 2025, 01:29
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The performance gain was caused by workers perception of their work as important, so we need to evaluate a casual hypothesis:

(A) Whether clerical workers who perceive their jobs as important are more likely to remain in their positions long term
This question is about job retention, not productivity. Irrelevant.

(B) Whether those in the first group changed their time spent on personal distractions after receiving the message
This is the best question. It checks if the workers were more productive simply because they spent less time on personal distractions during work, which is a direct alternative to the researchers' theory.

(C) Whether both groups were equally likely to have prior experience in clerical tasks
The study used random assignment of workers so this doesn't play important role in determining.

(D) Whether the workers in the first group reported greater satisfaction with their pay after receiving the message
It is about the meaning of the work, not about money. Irrelevant

(E) Whether routine clerical tasks are commonly perceived as cognitively undemanding
This is already stated in premise, not much of help.
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Bunuel
Researchers studying workplace productivity randomly assigned clerical workers to two equal groups. One group was told that their tasks, though routine, were cognitively demanding and vital to the company's operations. The other group received no such message. Over the following month, the first group showed a significant increase in typing speed and error reduction, despite working the same number of hours under identical conditions. The researchers hypothesized that the performance gains were caused by the workers' increased perception of their work as mentally engaging and important.

Which of the following would it be most useful to determine in evaluating the researchers’ hypothesis?

(A) Whether clerical workers who perceive their jobs as important are more likely to remain in their positions long term
(B) Whether those in the first group changed their time spent on personal distractions after receiving the message
(C) Whether both groups were equally likely to have prior experience in clerical tasks
(D) Whether the workers in the first group reported greater satisfaction with their pay after receiving the message
(E) Whether routine clerical tasks are commonly perceived as cognitively undemanding


 


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Need to evaluate the hypothesis: performance gains in the first group were due to increased perception of their work as mentally engaging and important => Need to identify whether this perception actually led to the improvement.

B. Whether those in the first group changed their time spent on personal distractions after receiving the message.
=> Shows how the message might have caused the performance boost - i.e: by making workers more focused or engaged => Directly supports or challenges the researchers’ causal hypothesis.

Answer: B
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GMAT Club Olympics 2025 (Day 5): Researchers studying workplace produc 05 Jul 2025, 02:00
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Which of the following would it be most useful to determine in evaluating the researchers’ hypothesis?

We need something that could explain the change in productivity.

(A) Whether clerical workers who perceive their jobs as important are more likely to remain in their positions long term --> not relevant
(B) Whether those in the first group changed their time spent on personal distractions after receiving the message ---> if workers reduced their distractions after the message, it would support the idea that the message led to better performance
(C) Whether both groups were equally likely to have prior experience in clerical tasks --> we talk about random assignment so prior experience shouldn't be relevant
(D) Whether the workers in the first group reported greater satisfaction with their pay after receiving the message --> pay was never mentioned, not relevant
(E) Whether routine clerical tasks are commonly perceived as cognitively undemanding --> not relevant

ANSWER B
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GMAT Club Olympics 2025 (Day 5): Researchers studying workplace produc 05 Jul 2025, 02:11
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IMO, Option E is the most useful to determine in evaluating the researchers’ hypothesis.

Premise:
The group which was told that their tasks, though routine, were cognitively demanding and vital to the company's operations showed a significant increase in typing speed and error reduction, despite working the same number of hours under identical conditions.

Conclusion: The performance is are linked to workers perception of tasks assigned to them.

Logical Gap: If routine clerical tasks are not cognitively demanding and worker's perceive them as a cognitively demanding. Their performance will vary for the same set of tasks. So if know the nature of clerical tasks, it would be helpful in evaluating the argument.

Option E. [correct] Clearly identifies the logical gap.
Bunuel
Researchers studying workplace productivity randomly assigned clerical workers to two equal groups. One group was told that their tasks, though routine, were cognitively demanding and vital to the company's operations. The other group received no such message. Over the following month, the first group showed a significant increase in typing speed and error reduction, despite working the same number of hours under identical conditions. The researchers hypothesized that the performance gains were caused by the workers' increased perception of their work as mentally engaging and important.

Which of the following would it be most useful to determine in evaluating the researchers’ hypothesis?

(A) Whether clerical workers who perceive their jobs as important are more likely to remain in their positions long term
(B) Whether those in the first group changed their time spent on personal distractions after receiving the message
(C) Whether both groups were equally likely to have prior experience in clerical tasks
(D) Whether the workers in the first group reported greater satisfaction with their pay after receiving the message
(E) Whether routine clerical tasks are commonly perceived as cognitively undemanding


 


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GMAT Club Olympics 2025 (Day 5): Researchers studying workplace produc 05 Jul 2025, 02:19
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A) Not useful, the hypothesis was related to productivity not work duration
B) Again, productivity doesnt need to be related to time spent on personal distractions alone, productivity could be simply working slow or fast and several other factors
C) This is useful as it lets us evaluate whether performance gains were due to workers' increased perception or prior experience that let them adapt to these clerical tasks better
D) Not useful
E) Could be useful, but again we wouldn't know if the other group members were actively thinking that their work was cognitively and thus performing poorly.

Answer C.
Bunuel
Researchers studying workplace productivity randomly assigned clerical workers to two equal groups. One group was told that their tasks, though routine, were cognitively demanding and vital to the company's operations. The other group received no such message. Over the following month, the first group showed a significant increase in typing speed and error reduction, despite working the same number of hours under identical conditions. The researchers hypothesized that the performance gains were caused by the workers' increased perception of their work as mentally engaging and important.

Which of the following would it be most useful to determine in evaluating the researchers’ hypothesis?

(A) Whether clerical workers who perceive their jobs as important are more likely to remain in their positions long term
(B) Whether those in the first group changed their time spent on personal distractions after receiving the message
(C) Whether both groups were equally likely to have prior experience in clerical tasks
(D) Whether the workers in the first group reported greater satisfaction with their pay after receiving the message
(E) Whether routine clerical tasks are commonly perceived as cognitively undemanding


 


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GMAT Club Olympics 2025 (Day 5): Researchers studying workplace produc 05 Jul 2025, 02:35
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(A) Job retention - Whether workers stay in their jobs long-term
This is about the future, not about what happened in the study
If we are trying to figure out why someone ran faster in a race, asking "will they keep running next year?" doesn't help explain this race

(C) Prior experience - Whether both groups had equal experience
They randomly assigned workers, so this should already be fair
If we flip a coin to divide people into teams, we don't need to check if the teams are fair - that's the whole point of random assignment

(D) Pay satisfaction - Whether Group 1 felt better about their salary
Pay satisfaction has nothing to do with the hypothesis about "cognitive engagement"
If someone claims they're cooking better because they feel more creative, asking about their salary doesn't test that claim

(E) Common perceptions - Whether clerical work is usually seen as boring
This is just background information, doesn't test the specific hypothesis
Knowing that most people find math boring doesn't help you figure out why one student suddenly improved in math class

Only option B offers an alternative explanation that could account for the exact same results. The others either don't relate to the hypothesis or don't explain the performance improvement.
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GMAT Club Olympics 2025 (Day 5): Researchers studying workplace produc 05 Jul 2025, 03:37
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I would go with C because, it is an external factor
if true then prior experience is not causing the difference but indeed it is the perception.
if false then the performance could be an effect of prior experience variation between both the groups.

Bunuel
Researchers studying workplace productivity randomly assigned clerical workers to two equal groups. One group was told that their tasks, though routine, were cognitively demanding and vital to the company's operations. The other group received no such message. Over the following month, the first group showed a significant increase in typing speed and error reduction, despite working the same number of hours under identical conditions. The researchers hypothesized that the performance gains were caused by the workers' increased perception of their work as mentally engaging and important.

Which of the following would it be most useful to determine in evaluating the researchers’ hypothesis?

(A) Whether clerical workers who perceive their jobs as important are more likely to remain in their positions long term
(B) Whether those in the first group changed their time spent on personal distractions after receiving the message
(C) Whether both groups were equally likely to have prior experience in clerical tasks
(D) Whether the workers in the first group reported greater satisfaction with their pay after receiving the message
(E) Whether routine clerical tasks are commonly perceived as cognitively undemanding


 


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GMAT Club Olympics 2025 (Day 5): Researchers studying workplace produc 05 Jul 2025, 03:45
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(A) - Job retention doesn't matter for testing immediate performance gains.

(B) - This is key! If the first group just spent less time on distractions (phones, chatting) after getting the message, that could explain the better performance without needing the "perception" explanation.

(C) - Prior experience matters for fair comparison but doesn't test the specific hypothesis.

(D) - Pay satisfaction is irrelevant to the hypothesis.

(E) - Background info but doesn't test the causal claim.

Answer is (B). Tests whether the improvement was really from changed perception or just from being less distracted.
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GMAT Club Olympics 2025 (Day 5): Researchers studying workplace produc 05 Jul 2025, 04:00
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The question asks for an option that would provide the most support for the hypothesis. Let's evaluate the options one by one;
A. Whether clerical workers who perceive their jobs as important are more likely to remain in their positions long term. This is Out Of Scope. There is no mention of long-term or short-term positions. There is no relevance to the passage.
B. Whether those in the first group changed their time spent on personal distractions after receiving the message. They could or could not have spent the same time on personal distractions, but this would not supplement the hypothesis as much.
C. Whether both groups were equally likely to have prior experience in clerical tasks. This option would add weight to the hypothesis, only if both the groups were equally competent in the tasks performed, we can assess the validity of increased perception of work importance (research's main conclusion).
D. Whether the workers in the first group reported greater satisfaction with their pay after receiving the message. This has no relevance to the research's theme.
E. Whether routine clerical tasks are commonly perceived as cognitively undemanding. This does not add as much value as the other option (option C).
Bunuel
Researchers studying workplace productivity randomly assigned clerical workers to two equal groups. One group was told that their tasks, though routine, were cognitively demanding and vital to the company's operations. The other group received no such message. Over the following month, the first group showed a significant increase in typing speed and error reduction, despite working the same number of hours under identical conditions. The researchers hypothesized that the performance gains were caused by the workers' increased perception of their work as mentally engaging and important.

Which of the following would it be most useful to determine in evaluating the researchers’ hypothesis?

(A) Whether clerical workers who perceive their jobs as important are more likely to remain in their positions long term
(B) Whether those in the first group changed their time spent on personal distractions after receiving the message
(C) Whether both groups were equally likely to have prior experience in clerical tasks
(D) Whether the workers in the first group reported greater satisfaction with their pay after receiving the message
(E) Whether routine clerical tasks are commonly perceived as cognitively undemanding


 


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GMAT Club Olympics 2025 (Day 5): Researchers studying workplace produc 05 Jul 2025, 05:00
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We need to rule out other reasons why the group that received the message typed better.
Biggest alternative: they might already have been better typists before the study. If that difference exists, the results are not due to the "increased perception of their work as mentally engaging and important"

Options:
A. Long-term retention doesn’t affect one-month performance. Eliminate
B. Less time on distractions measures an effect, not a pre-existing difference. Eliminate
C. Prior clerical experience could fully explain better performance. Talks about exactly what we were looking for. Keep
D. Pay satisfaction is unrelated to speed or accuracy here. Eliminate
E. General perception doesn’t compare the two groups. Eliminate

Answer: C
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GMAT Club Olympics 2025 (Day 5): Researchers studying workplace produc 05 Jul 2025, 05:08
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Option B is the correct answer.

Let's understand the information mentioned in the passage and what the question is asking of us.

So the question starts by telling us that their is a study conducted by the Researchers for which they have they have created two groups of people and then they have told the people of the first group that their work is very important and have a huge impact on business and other conditions while on the other hand no such information was given to the second group of people and after a month the they compare the two groups in which they observe that the people of first group have shown an increase in typing speed and the error made of them also reduced significantly in comparison to the second group of people, despite both the groups work for the same amount of time and under the same conditions. Based on these findings the Researchers concluded that "the performance gains were caused by the workers' increased perception of their work as mentally engaging and important". And now the question asks us which of the following options will help us in evaluating the researcher's conclusion.

The best way of answering the evaluate type of question is to simply take the option to its two extreme points and test if one extreme is weakening and other is strengthening the passage or not and if it is doing this then that will be our answer. But it is not necessary to do so in all options; some options can be eliminated without using this condition.

Option A: "Whether clerical workers who perceive their jobs as important are more likely to remain in their positions long term". This option is irrelevant in answering the question as we are not concerned whether the people who take their jobs seriously will be able to retain them or not. The question basically asks us whether the conclusions reached by the Researchers are due to the things which they told the first group of people or not and this option does not answer that question. Eliminated

Option B: "Whether those in the first group changed their time spent on personal distractions after receiving the message". Now this option seems interesting so let's check the answering methodology which we discussed earlier to check whether this option is our answer or not. So the first extreme will be "No, the first group did not change the time they spent on personal distractions after receiving the message" which will tell us that the employees performance did not improve because they perceived their work to be important and engaging hence weakening the Reachers conclusion. Now let's check the other extreme of this option which will be "Yes, the first group changed the time they spent on personal distractions after receiving the message" which tells us the performance gains were caused by the workers' increased perception of their work as mentally engaging and important that will strengthen the Researchers conclusion. Selected

Option C: "Whether both groups were equally likely to have prior experience in clerical tasks". This is a good option but this option needs additional assumptions in order to strengthen and weaken the Reacher's conclusion like "No, both groups were not equally likely to have prior experience in clerical tasks" from here now we need to assume which group have lower experience, which will not meet the condition of our method. So Eliminated

Option D: "Whether the workers in the first group reported greater satisfaction with their pay after receiving the message". The option is irrelevant in answering the question as satisfaction level is not the part of the passage as well as the Researchers did not conclude their findings based on the level of satisfaction. Eliminated

Option E: "Whether routine clerical tasks are commonly perceived as cognitively undemanding". This option is also irrelevant as we are not concerned whether the work the clerical tasks are seen as cognitively demanding or not and the Researchers also did not take this into consideration in reaching the conclusion. Eliminated

Bunuel
Researchers studying workplace productivity randomly assigned clerical workers to two equal groups. One group was told that their tasks, though routine, were cognitively demanding and vital to the company's operations. The other group received no such message. Over the following month, the first group showed a significant increase in typing speed and error reduction, despite working the same number of hours under identical conditions. The researchers hypothesized that the performance gains were caused by the workers' increased perception of their work as mentally engaging and important.

Which of the following would it be most useful to determine in evaluating the researchers’ hypothesis?

(A) Whether clerical workers who perceive their jobs as important are more likely to remain in their positions long term
(B) Whether those in the first group changed their time spent on personal distractions after receiving the message
(C) Whether both groups were equally likely to have prior experience in clerical tasks
(D) Whether the workers in the first group reported greater satisfaction with their pay after receiving the message
(E) Whether routine clerical tasks are commonly perceived as cognitively undemanding


 


This question was provided by GMAT Club
for the GMAT Club Olympics Competition

Win over $30,000 in prizes such as Courses, Tests, Private Tutoring, and more

 

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