The use of lie detectors is based on the assumption that lying produces emotional reactions in an individual that, in turn, create unconscious physiological responses.

(A) that, in turn, create unconscious physiological responses
(B) that creates unconscious physiological responses in turn
(C) creating, in turn, unconscious physiological responses
(D) to create, in turn, physiological responses that are unconscious
(E) who creates unconscious physiological responses in turn

The easiest place to start is probably with the create/creates split. What "create(s)...responses"? The emotional reaction. (Strictly speaking the subject of the verb "create" is the pronoun "that." More on this issue later.) Since "emotional reactions" is plural, we want a plural verb, "create." That eliminates B and E. "Creating" in C is a present participle, and "to create" in D is an infinitive, so neither of these is either singular or plural.

Next we might consider which form of the verb "create" is appropriate, the verb "create," the present participle "creating," or the infinitive "to create." A verb-form split usually signals either an idiom problem or a problem with parallelism, but not in this case. Rather, neither C nor D captures the original meaning. Answer C: A present participle (-ing word) immediately preceded by a noun (no comma separating them) attributes action to that noun. So C means that "an individual" creates responses. Answer D: Here, "to create" suggests that the goal of producing emotional reactions is to create physiological responses.

That leaves A, the correct answer.

Addendum 1. I began by asking "What creates responses?" This common-sense question is usually adequate to match a verb to its subject. Sometimes you'll have a couple of reasonable answers, and you'll have to look more closely at the grammar. The verbs in relative clauses--noun-modifying clauses that start with "that" or one of the "wh-" words, "which," "who/m," "when," "where"--actually modify the relative pronouns that precede them, but those relative pronouns are themselves singular or plural depending on the nouns to which they refer. The long and short of it is that you're probably better off with the common-sense question than with the subtle grammatical question here.

Addendum 2. With few exceptions, relative clauses modify the nouns or noun phrases they touch. In this question, "that...create...responses" touches the noun "individual," but it also touches the noun phrase "emotional reactions in an individual," that is, the noun "reactions" plus the adjective "emotional" plus the prepositional phrase "in an individual." That whole phrase, or if you prefer the noun at its heart, is modified by the relative clause. Frankly, I think that it's a little clumsy here, and I might have had a bit of trouble had I started with the modifier issue.

A it is. Emotional reactions in an individual that - here emotional reactions is followed by a prepositional phrase so that will not modify the noun in prepositional phrase but will modify whatever comes before prepositional phrase.

Concept tested: Constructions, Parallelism, Meaning
Difficulty: Hard
Illustration:
E. Who, referring to individuals, is not responsible for psychological responses
D. this means lying produces the responses. Incorrect
C. this means that the individuals are creating psychological responses. Incorrect.
B. creates is singular while the subject (emotional reactions) is plural
A. Correct

Tip: verb+ING when follows a noun without a comma MUST modify that noun.
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Concept tested: Constructions, Parallelism, Meaning
Difficulty: Hard
Illustration:
E. Who, referring to individuals, is not responsible for psychological responses
D. this means lying produces the responses. Incorrect
C. this means that the individuals are creating psychological responses. Incorrect.
B. creates is singular while the subject (emotional reactions) is plural
A. Correct

Tip: verb+ING when follows a noun without a comma MUST modify that noun.
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Hi Skag55

Let me try this question.

First, meaning is KEY. what creates unconscious physiological response? an individual OR emotional reactions? Clearly, the latter - emotional reactions - does because it follows the structure: lying --> emotional reactions that make a person express --> unconscious physiological response.

Note:"that" does not follow "touch" rule here. It's quite rare in GMAT, because normally "that" modifies the closest noun. The question, however, addresses the meaning rather than grammar rule.

[i]The use of lie detectors is based on the assumption that lying produces emotional reactions in an individual that, in turn, create unconscious physiological response.

A) that, in turn, create unconscious physiological responses.
Correct.

B) that create unconscious physiological responses in turn.
Wrong. "in turn" should be placed after "that" to make the sentence logically.

C) creating, in turn, unconscious physiological responses.
Wrong. "creating" modifies "an individual" --> wrong meaning.

D) to create, in turn, physiological responses that are unconscious.
Wrong. Meaning is awkward: lying produces emotional reactions to create unconscious responses <-- wrong.

E) who creates unconscious physiological responses in turn.
Wrong. "who" modifies "an individual" --> changes meaning --> wrong.

Hope it helps.

Can someone clarify this please? (hopefully once and for all! )[/quote]

The use of lie detectors is based on the assumption that lying produces emotional reactions in an individual that, in turn, create unconscious physiological response.
A) that, in turn, create unconscious physiological responses.
B) that create unconscious physiological responses in turn.
C) creating, in turn, unconscious physiological responses.
D) to create, in turn, physiological responses that are unconscious.
E) who creates unconscious physiological responses in turn.

Please can some one explain why is that referring to reactions and not individual ?
Doesn't that refer to the imediate preceding noun ?

Please help !

Three reasons:
i) that cannot refer to people (for the most part, that can only refer to non-living things)
ii) If that refers to individual, then the verb would be creates (and not create), though one could argue that there is a Subject-verb disagreement in the original sentence
iii) Logically, it is the emotional reactions (and not individual) that creates unconscious physiological response.

p.s. Our book EducationAisle Sentence Correction Nirvana lays down a simple framework to determine what that modifies, it application and examples in significant detail. If you can PM you email-id, I can send you the corresponding section.
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I am unable to understand, what is "that" referring to, is it referring to lying produces emotional reactions in an individual or to emotional reactions. And the reasoning behind that.

THAT and WHICH are noun modifiers. They modifies preceding noun ,but in few cases they can modify slightly far away noun.
For eg.,

The new motor act that allows drivers not to carry DL all the time was enforced yesterday. : In this sentence THAT modifies preceding noun The new motor act and explains that.

Now see this example:

John is student at school in Delhi,which provides special education for disabled students.

Now in this sentence Which modifies school not Delhi because Delhi describes school and can not be placed anywhere else in the sentence.

Same is the case with this problem.
first that is modifying assumption and second that is modifying emotional reactions
Notice that second THAT can not modify "an individual" because this phrase is modifying "emotional reactions" and can not be placed anywhere else in the sentence.

that is used as a relative pronoun here. Since it is a pronoun, it can only refer to nouns. So, that cannot refer to lying produces emotional reactions in an individual, because lying produces emotional reactions in an individual is a clause since it has a verb produces; as I mentioned, that can only refer to nouns/noun-phrases, not to verbs/clauses.

Also, notice that that cannot refer to individual, because when used as a relative pronoun, that cannot refer to people (in this case individual). So basically, that refers to emotional reactions.

p.s. which and that behave very distinctly in this regard. Our book EducationAisle Sentence Correction Nirvana discusses these differences between which and that, their application and examples in significant detail. If you can PM you email-id, I can send you the corresponding section.
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isn't it true that "THAT" can have only singular antecedents and take only singular verbs...when u want to refer to plural antecedents "THOSE" replace "THAT"...

so how is "THAT" here referring to "emotional reactions "....

that is one of the most versatile words in English grammar. It has 3 most prominent avatars:

i) As a relative pronoun, that relates to another noun preceding it in the sentence. Example: The car that is parked in the basement is mine.

ii) As a demonstrative pronoun, that stands for a person, place or thing that must be pointed to. Example: Peter's brother is taller than that of Jack.

iii) As a conjunction, that connects two clauses. Example: He said that he would work hard.

Based on which of the avatars the word that is used as, there are some key differences. One of the differences is: When used as a relative pronoun, that can refer to both singular and plural nouns. So, both the following are correct:

The car that is parked in the basement is mine.
– Relative pronoun that refers to singular noun car.

The cars that are parked in the basement are mine.
– Relative pronoun that refers to plural noun cars.

However, when used as a demonstrative pronoun, that can only refer to singular nouns. So, while the following are correct:

Peter's brother is taller than that of Jack.

Following is not correct (assuming Jack has multiple businesses):

Peter's businesses are doing better than that of Jack.
- Demonsrative pronoun that cannot refer to plural noun businesses

The correct sentence would be:

Peter's businesses are doing better than those of Jack.
- Demonsrative pronoun those will refer to plural noun businesses


p.s. Our book EducationAisle Sentence Correction Nirvana details the various avatars of that, their application and examples in significant detail. If you can PM you email-id, I can send you the corresponding section.
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In this question the noun modifier "that, in turn, create unconscious physiological responses" touches the noun individual. However it is modifying emotional reactions . I am aware that an "of prepositional phrase" is an exception to the touch rule of noun modifiers.
So as per this question ,can i deduce that in general a "the touch rule of noun modifiers" have all prepositional phrases ( as in this question "in an individual ") an exception ?

Hi! there would never be an instance when that, when used as a relative pronoun (as is the case here) refers to people (such as individual).

So, this cannot be considered an exception.
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However, I can´t understand yet why C. is worng.
Is it wrong only because of the missed comma?

hi
C) creating, in turn, unconscious physiological responses
it changes the meaning..
the original sentence says
The use of lie detectors is based on the assumption that lying produces emotional reactions in an individual that, in turn, create unconscious physiological response. here it is emotional rections that is producing physiological responses

The use of lie detectors is based on the assumption that lying produces emotional reactions in an individual creating, in turn, unconscious physiological responses here the act of emotional reactions produced by lying is producing physiological responses
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Could someone explain why the comma in A after "that" is correct? There is a rule, i belive before or after "that" there will never be a comma. Therefore it must be before "that" i guess. I trapped into it and chose B.

Believe it or not, the comma is not after that; the comma is before the phrase in turn. Basically the phrase in turn is just delimited by commas. in turn just acts as a non-essential here.

In such circumstances, you can expect to encounter a comma before that as well. An example that comes to my mind is this: http://gmatclub.com/forum/uninformed-about-students-experience-in-urban-classrooms-118464.html.

While this is not an official example, it illustrates the point because all five options have a comma before that. Again, in this sentence, such as standardized test scores is delimited by commas. So, the comma is actually not before that; the comma is after the non-essential phrase: such as standardized test scores.
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There is a 25% probability that answer choice "A" is correct on the GMAT. This is a logical sentence that lying produces "emotional reactions" which in turn produces the physiological responses. The position of "in turn" is different in the other answer choices which changes the meaning. Hence "A" is the answer.
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