A student of mine brought my attention to this question, and I would like to outline my thoughts on it so that the community may benefit. Before we get to the passage, I like to take a look at the question. This one is a little involved:
souvik101990 wrote:
Each of the following may be important to know before arriving at a conclusion regarding the influence of playing computer games on cognitive flexibility except:
Although
except is not written in all capital letters, I have seen students skip over even those, so take note: this is an EXCEPT question. We are tasked with assessing what it
may be important to know before arriving at a conclusion, so we can deduce that a conclusion is not provided in the passage. But this is not just any conclusion. We need to focus specifically on one pertaining to
the influence of playing computer games on cognitive flexibility. That is quite narrow in its scope. We can anticipate that we will be given enough information to qualify four of five answer choices on this link alone, that playing computer games has some influence on cognitive flexibility.
souvik101990 wrote:
In order to find out the effect of computer gaming on 'cognitive flexibility' – ability to switch between tasks – researchers recruited two groups of volunteers. One group played a real-time strategy game, which requires frequent decision making and high level of organising skills, while the other a life-simulation game, which does not require much memory or many tactics. The two groups played their respective games for at least forty hours over six weeks.
Sentence 1 defines
cognitive flexibility as the
ability to switch between tasks. There were two groups, both composed of volunteers.
Sentence 2 tells us about the different types of game each group played, either
a real-time strategy game or
a life-simulation game, with each type of game defined.
Sentence 3 provides the duration of gameplay--
at least forty hours over six weeks--but it also indicates that each group played just one type of game.
With this mental map laid out, what do the answer choices have in store for us?
souvik101990 wrote:
A. Whether the volunteers already knew the rules of the games before the experiment?
Analysis: This is weird. Why does the answer end in a question mark? It is a statement, so it should end in a period. Anyway, keep in mind, the question asks us to consider whether this information
may be important to know to arrive at a conclusion about
the influence of playing computer games on [the ability to switch between tasks]. If volunteers knew the rules of their respective games beforehand, would this knowledge change such an ability? I am not sure. To provide an example, I love playing the WWII strategy game Axis and Allies, a game that strikes the right balance, in my mind, between complexity and fun gameplay. There are many versions of this game, some of which I have played, some of which I have not. If I were presented with a version I had not played--say, Axis and Allies: Pacific--would my
cognitive flexibility be compromised because I already knew the basic rules of the game? I would say no. I would still need to strategize and react to in-game situations. Thus, I would say that this consideration is one that might
not need to enter the picture to arrive at the conclusion in question, and that fits an EXCEPT condition. This looks promising, but I am not ready to commit.
Yellow light.souvik101990 wrote:
B. How many participants in each group have been playing strategy games before the experiment?
Analysis: Because the passage goes into detail in sentence 2 about the different types of games and suggests that a real-time strategy game, since it
requires frequent decision making and high level [sic] of organising skills, should prove more taxing on
cognitive flexibility, it might be useful to know whether participants in either group had, in fact,
been playing strategy games beforehand. If someone from the life-simulation-game group had been playing strategy games, perhaps that person would have developed cognitive skills more in line with the members of the other group. Such an aberration would be noteworthy if it were to appear, so this consideration does not fit our EXCEPT condition.
Red light.souvik101990 wrote:
C. How was the performance of the participants on cognitive flexibility tests before the experiment?
Analysis: This seems an obvious choice for being a pertinent consideration. Similar to the biological passport notion in athletics, namely that establishing baseline biometric readings for specific athletes will provide useful data for subsequent cross-comparisons (to check for performance-enhancing substances), establishing baseline cognitive flexibility data for each of the participants prior to the experiment would seem a good idea. Otherwise, the researchers might not know how to interpret their findings. Cross this answer choice off and move on.
Red light.souvik101990 wrote:
D. How was the food habits and sleeping habits of the participants during the experiment?
Analysis: These third-party questions are killing me! How
was? Even if we left off the conjunction
and, the word
habits alone would require a plural agreement in
were. Anyway, would the dietary/nutritional habits and sleeping habits of the participants be of concern to the researchers? Sure, particularly over a span of six weeks. If such factors could influence the way participants approached their game-playing, then the experiment could hang in the balance. This is another easy answer choice to see off.
Red light.souvik101990 wrote:
E. What was the ratio of male to female in each group?
Analysis: I think I know why
RonPurewal and
GMATNinja might not have touched this question, and this answer choice probably sealed the deal. There is no information in the passage about the number of people involved in the study, so a
ratio of, say, 2:3 could mean 2 men to 3 women or 246 men to 369 women. Furthermore, there is no information in the passage about any inherent biological differences between the cognitive abilities of males and females. Although such information would likely appear sexist if it showed either males or females possessing some inherent cognitive edge regarding, again,
the ability to switch between tasks, at least there would be some grounds in the passage to qualify this answer choice. As is, we have to ask ourselves, would it make a difference if the ratio in one group was 2:3 and the ratio in the other was also 2:3? What if one of them flipped to 3:2? Or what if the ratios were changed altogether, to 1:2 and 4:7? We really have to grasp at straws to make this consideration relevant, let alone
important to know, to draw a meaningful conclusion, per the question. I am not convinced by anything above that suggests this information about ratios will somehow affect the outcome of the research. How so? I disagree, quite frankly. And I do not see how someone could put together a cogent argument from the information provided in the passage that this consideration
should weigh into a conclusion that would be drawn. I cannot argue against this answer fitting the EXCEPT framework.
Yellow light.There you have it. I think a case could be made for either (A) or (E). In CR, you have to answer the question based on what is presented in the passage, and here, choice (E) falls outside the jurisdiction of what would seem reasonable to me. All I can say for sure is that this question would
not appear as is on the GMAT™. There are too many problems. That does not mean you cannot learn something from it, but it does emphasize the point that you should probably center your studies on official material.
Best of luck with your prep.
- Andrew
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26 Dec 2015, 11:53
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(01:50)
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