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On analyzing the Options one by one :

(A) Long-term job retention

Irrelevant — this is about future career paths, not immediate performance improvement. Eliminate



(B) Time spent on personal distractions

Seems relevant — if Group 1 focused more, it could explain productivity.
BUT: This doesn’t test the perception mechanism directly; it's more of a result, not a test of the cause. It’s helpful but not the most useful for evaluating the hypothesis itself. Plausible, but not best. Eliminate


(C) Prior experience-Useful for eliminating confounding variables, but the study said the groups were randomly assigned, which typically controls for such differences.
So while this matters in general, it’s less directly useful here than something that targets the core assumption. Eliminate



(D) Satisfaction with pay - Totally unrelated to the hypothesis — not about cognitive perception.Eliminate



(E) Whether routine clerical tasks are commonly perceived as cognitively undemanding - Now this directly targets the core assumption in the hypothesis:
That the message changed perception and that this new perception led to better performance.

If routine clerical tasks are normally seen as NOT cognitively demanding, then the message could have shifted the workers' mindset significantly, validating the causal claim.
If they are already perceived as demanding, then the message likely had little effect. Keep


Hence the Final Answer is E

This is the best answer because it directly helps evaluate the plausibility of the mechanism proposed in the hypothesis.
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C.
2 Gps, assigned tasks. 1 told tasks are vital and demanding , the other isnt.
And the gp which was told, that the tasks to be done are important performed better, the author hence concludes that it is the workers increases perception of their work to be important enough which made them perform better.
WE NEED TO EVALUATE THIS NOW.
After reading the argument what I prethink is that , Are both of these gps at equal level of training or knowledge? Some external help if any group got? Basically something which makes 1 at a higher pedestal. And, C aligns quite right with this. Every other option can be 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


 


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(A) Whether clerical workers who perceive their jobs as important are more likely to remain in their positions long term
Irrelevant. The hypothesis is about performance, not long-term retention.

(B) Whether those in the first group changed their time spent on personal distractions after receiving the message
This would support the idea that changed perception made them more focused and motivated, leading to better results. A behavioral mechanism linking the message to performance.

(C) Whether both groups were equally likely to have prior experience in clerical tasks
Somewhat relevant, but the study used random assignment, which controls for such background differences on average. Unless randomization failed, this is less useful.

(D) Whether the workers in the first group reported greater satisfaction with their pay after receiving the message
Irrelevant. The study is about perception of the task, not pay satisfaction.

(E) Whether routine clerical tasks are commonly perceived as cognitively undemanding
Irrelevant. It is not critical to evaluating what caused the observed effect in this study.

The right answer is B
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The extract tells us that a improvement in performance from focus group A was caused by the workers' increased perception of their work as mentally engaging and important. To determine if this is true, we have to rule out other factors that might have caused the performancce improvement. A factor which can be found in option B Whether those in the first group changed their time spent on personal distractions after receiving the message. If focus group A had spent more time on their work than personal distractions then this could also explain the performance improvement. Hence this must be considered in evaluating the researchers hypothesis.
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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

If it is false and the first group, along with the message, also has more experience, then the message doesn't have the intended effect; otherwise, it does.

(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) Irrelevant to immediate performance gains in the study.

(B) Correct
Useful. If they reduced distractions, the performance increase might be due to that, not just perception of importance.

(C) Since the groups were randomly assigned, prior experience should be balanced. Also, the question states “randomly assigned,” so less critical.

(D) Not directly related to the hypothesized cause (perception of task importance).

(E) Background info, but doesn’t test the cause-effect in this experiment.

Correct answer: (B)
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(A) Whether clerical workers who perceive their jobs as important are more likely to remain in their positions long term
Irrelevant to the hypothesis about short-term productivity as it as this is about job retention, not performance

(B) Whether those in the first group changed their time spent on personal distractions after receiving the message
Almost relevant. If the message led to reduced distractions, it supports the idea that the message changed behavior.
But even if they didn’t change their distraction time, the improvement in efficiency could have come from increased focus or motivation, which aren’t captured by distractions alone.
So it helps in evaluvating the hypothesis but not as strong as the requirement is.

(C) Whether both groups were equally likely to have prior experience in clerical tasks
Relevant because evaluating the fairness of randomization (equal prior experience) is useful in evaluating the hypothesis. While randomization intends to control variables like prior experience, knowing whether it succeeded in this specific case is highly relevant.

(D) Whether the workers in the first group reported greater satisfaction with their pay after receiving the message
Irrelevant as the message was about cognitive engagement, not pay. Pay satisfaction is irrelevant to our case.

(E) Whether routine clerical tasks are commonly perceived as cognitively undemanding
Irrelevant as this isnt directly helpful in evaluating the claim in this study. This gives us a general background, not something that helps evaluate what caused the performance increase


(C) Whether both groups were equally likely to have prior experience in clerical tasks
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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
Yes- people remaining for long term doesn’t signify whether they think their work is important or note.
No- Still same, however, a person might leave job earlier if they don’t find it impostant however it doesn’t say anything about performance.
(B) Whether those in the first group changed their time spent on personal distractions after receiving the message –
Yes or No- still motivation to work can be identified but not performance.
(C) Whether both groups were equally likely to have prior experience in clerical tasks
Yes- hypothesis will be wrong as the one group might have performed better due to experience.
No – Hypthesis stands correct.
(D) Whether the workers in the first group reported greater satisfaction with their pay after receiving the message –
Yes – group may be motivatied due to pay instead of the message.
No – supports hypothesis , But being satisfied about pay won’t help in performance directly.
(E) Whether routine clerical tasks are commonly perceived as cognitively undemanding
Yes or No – it will be same for both group won’t help in evaluation.
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To evaluate whether the workers improved performance was truly due to seeing their tasks as more mentally engaging and important, it would be most useful to know if this shift in perception led to a change in behavior, specifically, whether the workers reduced time spent on personal distractions and focused more after receiving the message. That’s exactly what option (B) tests, making it the most relevant. The other options either explore unrelated outcomes like job retention or pay satisfaction, or raise background questions already addressed by random assignment, so they don’t directly help in evaluating the core psychological hypothesis.
Ans- B
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Argument - causal relationship identified - increase in typing speed + error reduction in group that was informed earlier IMPLIES THAT increased perception -> causes -> performance gain

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 - eliminate. whether which group of clerical workers are more likely to be in their positions is irrelevant to the hypothesis which is more about performance gains, not about staying in positions

(B) Whether those in the first group changed their time spent on personal distractions after receiving the message - keep. yes/no evaluation :
Yes - they did spend less time on personal distraction - gives an alternate cause for increase in typing speed + error reduction. Weakens the conclusion that their perception was the cause.
No - they did NOT spend less time on personal distraction - eliminates the alternate cause and strengthens the reasoning that it must be perception increase that caused performance gain

(C) Whether both groups were equally likely to have prior experience in clerical tasks - eliminate. Argument already says that the clerical workers were randomly assigned to two equal groups. So they should be equally likely to have prior experience - it is an assumption that is required by argument.

(D) Whether the workers in the first group reported greater satisfaction with their pay after receiving the message - eliminate. whether which group of clerical workers are more satisfied with pay is irrelevant to the hypothesis which is more about performance gains, not about satisfaction with pay.

(E) Whether routine clerical tasks are commonly perceived as cognitively undemanding -eliminate. This is a more general statement- whether it is commonly perceived as demanding or undemanding does not affect the conclusion of the argument.

Answer is B
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Correct Answer: Option B
Let’s check the concluding line of paragraph.
The researchers hypothesized that the performance gains were caused by the workers' increased perception of their work as mentally engaging and important.

It refers to whether employees are engaged mentally that’s important.
By this statements we can find option B as correct. "Whether those in the first group changed their time spent on personal distractions after receiving the message".
It indicates that if employees are involved by their focus and time spent on distractions.
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The hypothesis was that the performance gains were caused by the workers' increased perception of their work as mentally engaging and important.
But if they never considered their work to be cognitively undemanding, then this would become untrue.
Hence option E is the best choice.
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
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Win over $30,000 in prizes such as Courses, Tests, Private Tutoring, and more

 

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Type : Evaluate
Statement : The researchers hypothesized that the performance gains were caused by the workers' increased perception of their work as mentally engaging and important.

(A) Whether clerical workers who perceive their jobs as important are more likely to remain in their positions long term - Not relevant as the passage does not mention anything about long term or short term stay.
(B) Whether those in the first group changed their time spent on personal distractions after receiving the message - This would clearly help us evaluate the passage by giving us information on whether the performance gains were just because of the group eliminating their distractions rather than because of their "increased perception of their work as mentally engaging and important"
(C) Whether both groups were equally likely to have prior experience in clerical tasks - It is already mentioned that the members of the group were randomly selected.
(D) Whether the workers in the first group reported greater satisfaction with their pay after receiving the message - This is not relevant, nothing mentioned about this in the topic.
(E) Whether routine clerical tasks are commonly perceived as cognitively undemanding - This talks of common perception, rather than the perception of people in the group.

Correct option is Option B
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The author hypothesizes that the workers' increased perception of their work is the CAUSE for the performance difference (the effect). To evaluate this claim is true we need to do the VARIANCE TEST on each choice.
- None of the Choice (A,B, D & E) helps
- Choice (C): If both groups were equally likely to have prior experience (ALL ELSE BEING EQUAL), it would strengthen the author's causation hypothesis
If one of the groups is more likely than the other, then maybe the prior experience is actually the cause, not the perception.
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(A) Whether clerical workers who perceive their jobs as important are more likely to remain in their positions long term
The hypothesis is about performance gains due to changed perceptions, not about staying in the job longer.

(B) Whether those in the first group changed their time spent on personal distractions after receiving the message
The hypothesis attributes gains to perception change, but if they worked more diligently, less distracted, that's an alternative explanation.

(C) Whether both groups were equally likely to have prior experience in clerical tasks
The groups were randomly assigned. They should be equal in experience.

(D) Whether the workers in the first group reported greater satisfaction with their pay after receiving the message
No direct link between pay satisfaction and performance gains in this context.

(E) Whether routine clerical tasks are commonly perceived as cognitively undemanding
It supports that the message could change perceptions. But it doesn't directly evaluate if the changed perception caused the performance gains.

Correct answer is B
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(A) Whether clerical workers who perceive their jobs as important are more likely to remain in their positions long term
Irrelevant to testing the causal link between perception and productivity within a month.

(B) Whether those in the first group changed their time spent on personal distractions after receiving the message
If they reduced distractions, that would support the idea that perceiving their work as more important made them more focused and engaged.

(C) Whether both groups were equally likely to have prior experience in clerical tasks
The groups were randomly assigned, so prior experience is likely balanced.

(D) Whether the workers in the first group reported greater satisfaction with their pay after receiving the message
Pay satisfaction is unrelated to perception of task importance or mental engagement.

(E) Whether routine clerical tasks are commonly perceived as cognitively undemanding
That might explain why the intervention worked, but it doesn't help evaluate whether the perception change caused the performance improvement.

Answer B
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To evaluate this hypothesis, we need to ask:
Did the change in perception directly lead to more focused or motivated work behavior?

(A) Talks about retention, not performance or perception-to-performance link. Irrelevant.
(B) Whether those in the first group changed their time spent on personal distractions after receiving the message.

--This directly tests the mechanism behind the hypothesis. If the first group reduced distractions (e.g., less phone use), it supports the idea that increased perceived importance led to more engagement and productivity. And this helps link perception change to actual behavior change, which explains the performance gains.
(C) Random assignment implies equal distribution of experience across groups. Not mentioned and not critical too for this hypothesis.
(D) Pay satisfaction is unrelated to the message or hypothesis about task perception. Not useful for evaluating this hypothesis.
(E) Interesting background, but doesn’t help evaluate whether the message changed behavior or caused performance gains. Not relevant to this hypothesis

Thus, Choice B directly evaluates the hypothesis.

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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