12 Days of Christmas GMAT Competition - Day 1: Art critic: In a recent

Question

12 Days of Christmas GMAT Competition with Lots of Fun

Art critic: In a recent study, people were asked to rate how realistic they found depictions of horses created by expert artists. Equestrians—people who ride horses, and so are very familiar with their shape and proportion—almost always rated the depictions of horses made by expert artists as significantly less realistic than did the rest of the group. A similar phenomenon likely explains why even expert artists have noted the difficulty in creating depictions of human hands that audiences find realistic: People are intensely familiar with the shape and proportions of human hands.

Which of the following would be most useful to evaluate the art critic’s conclusion?

(A) Whether the people rating artwork in the study included expert artists
(B) Whether expert artists consider horses at least as difficult to realistically depict as hands
(C) Whether the shapes and proportions of human hands are much less varied than the shapes and proportions of horses
(D) Whether some people, such as certain doctors or surgeons, are more familiar with the shapes and proportions of hands than is the rest of the population
(E) Whether, for the few depictions in which there was no disparity in the ratings made by equestrians and the rest of the study participants, the artists were also equestrians

Bunuel · Accepted Answer

Manhattan Prep Official Explanation

Step 1: Identify the Question

The word  evaluate  in the question stem indicates that this is an  Evaluate the Argument  question.

Step 2: Deconstruct the Argument 
 
The author first describes a study in which people very familiar with horses thought that artists’ depictions of horses were less realistic than did people not familiar with horses. The author extrapolates from that study to draw a conclusion about a different phenomenon: Artists generally struggle to make depictions of hands that look realistic to people because (according to the author)  people are intensely familiar with the shapes and proportions of human hands . The author thinks our familiarity with hands makes it hard for artists to depict hands realistically.

Step 3: Pause and State the Goal 
 
The author makes two assumptions: First, that the reason equestrians rated the horse art as less realistic was specifically because they were so familiar with horses. And second, the author assumes that this same phenomenon would also apply to human hands, though the study did not address hands. The right answer choice would evaluate one of these assumptions. For example, perhaps there is a reason to think hands would not be subject to the same issue, and there is another reason artists find them difficult to realistically depict—possibly they are just really hard to draw.

Step 4: Work From Wrong to Right

(A) Whether expert artists were or were not included, the results of the study are the same: Familiarity with horses tends to result in rating depictions of them as less realistic. This choice does not address  why  this is the case or whether hands would be any different.

(B) The opinion of expert artists regarding the difficulty of depicting horses compared with the difficulty of depicting human hands is irrelevant because it does not explain why the trend revealed by the study is true, nor does it address whether it is appropriate to assume something similar would occur with hands. Whether expert artists consider horses less, equally, or more difficult to depict than they do human hands, it is still the case that those who are more familiar with horses tend to rate depictions of horses as less realistic.

(C) Whether the shapes and proportions of human hands are  much less varied  or more varied than are the shapes and proportions of horses, the outcome is the same: It’s not clear whether hands would be subject to the same phenomenon horses are, when depicted in art. The author explicitly mentions that humans are  intensely familiar with the shape and proportions of human hands . The question is whether such familiarity results in depictions of hands seeming less realistic to the audience.

(D) It would be helpful to know if people especially familiar with human hands found depictions of them less realistic than did the general population. This would show that hands are subject to the same phenomenon horses are. But this choice does not indicate how such “hand experts” might rate artistic depictions of human hands—it’s possible that they would give the same ratings as non-hand-experts.

(E) CORRECT.  This answer suggests a possible qualification to the general pattern established in the study. If people familiar with horses tended to rate their depictions as more accurate  when the artist was also particularly familiar with horses , the study would suggest that it is not audience familiarity on its own that tends to result in a depiction looking less realistic, but a significant gap in familiarity between artist and audience. This would weaken the critic’s claim; since all people, artists and audience alike, are said to have  an intense familiarity with the shape and proportion of hands , such a gap in familiarity (between artist and audience) would be greatly diminished or even eliminated. There would need to be another reason that people find depictions of hands unrealistic besides people’s familiarity with their shape and proportion—perhaps hands are just very hard to draw.

On the other hand, if people familiar with horses rate their depictions as inaccurate even when the artist is also especially familiar with horses, the critic’s argument would be strengthened, as this would eliminate a possible explanation for why hands might not be subject to the phenomenon found in the study.

TBT · Answer

Conclusion is : The more familiar a person is the less realistic he finds the depictions

Ans : E
If the statement answers yes: the conclusion fails because if the others who found no disparity were also Equestrians then the above correlation cannot be true.
If the statement answere no: the conclusion holds.

thisisit25 · Answer

Conclusion: When someone is familiar with something, they will find a depiction of the same thing less realistic.
Premise(s): Equestrians with horses, general people with human hands.

Which of the following would be most useful to evaluate the art critic’s conclusion? --> depending on how these options go, our conclusion can be strengthened or weakened.

(A) Whether the people rating artwork in the study included expert artists
- Even if they were, the fact remains that equestrians rated the depictions differently. This option does not say whether the equestrians were expert artists or the other group or anyone.

(B) Whether expert artists consider horses at least as difficult to realistically depict as hands
- If they do consider horses as difficult to draw as human hands, the difference in rating still persists. If they don't, we still have the rating difference. The ease of creating the depiction matters less, and the final depiction's rating matters more.

(C) Whether the shapes and proportions of human hands are much less varied than the shapes and proportions of horses
- They may be less or more varied, even then the final depictions are rated less realistic.

(D) Whether some people, such as certain doctors or surgeons, are more familiar with the shapes and proportions of hands than is the rest of the population
- This can be the case but we do not know whether only surgeons were looking at the depictions of hands. The paragraph simply talks about "people" generally.

(E) Whether, for the few depictions in which there was no disparity in the ratings made by equestrians and the rest of the study participants, the artists were also equestrians
- If Artists are also equestrians, then they would also be very familiar with horses, and if there is no disparity in ratings for those artists, then it must mean that equestrians will rate a depiction favourably if it is actually realistic -- goes against the conclusion that they will always rate it less realistic because they are too familiar with it. Conclusion weakens.
- If Artists are not equestrians, then the conclusion stands.

Correct answer: E

Attempted this as a part of the Christmas challenge (answers not revealed yet). Let me know if there is an error.

pintukr · Answer

Art critic: In a recent study, people were asked to rate how realistic they found depictions of horses created by expert artists. Equestrians—people who ride horses, and so are very familiar with their shape and proportion—almost always rated the depictions of horses made by expert artists as significantly less realistic than did the rest of the group. A similar phenomenon likely explains why even expert artists have noted the difficulty in creating depictions of human hands that audiences find realistic: People are intensely familiar with the shape and proportions of human hands.

Which of the following would be most useful to evaluate the art critic’s conclusion?

(A) Whether the people rating artwork in the study included expert artists
(B) Whether expert artists consider horses at least as difficult to realistically depict as hands
(C) Whether the shapes and proportions of human hands are much less varied than the shapes and proportions of horses
(D) Whether some people, such as certain doctors or surgeons, are more familiar with the shapes and proportions of hands than is the rest of the population
(E) Whether, for the few depictions in which there was no disparity in the ratings made by equestrians and the rest of the study participants, the artists were also equestrians

Here, the conclusion of the Argument highlights that if the persons assessing a particular art work were 'strongly' familiar with the depicted art work, they will rate the art work as 'less realistic' even when created/ made by expert artists. However, those unfamiliar ie, the rest of the group will rate the art work as realistic.

The second premise regarding the depictions of human hands also alludes to the same conclusion.

Extending the same argument, it can be inferred that if the expert artists (for depictions of horses) are themselves equestrians , they will create art work as fully realistic, and will asSess the art work accordingly as realistic ie, in line with the rest of the study participants. Hence, there will be no disparity in the ratings made by equestrians and the rest of the study participants (as referred to in the Option (E))

Option (E) is the correct answer.

Ver23 · Answer

Was confused between D and E. Went with D.
D) at first i found irrelevant, but thought may it implies that like equestrians are more familiar with horses' shapes and proportions , similarly Surgeons / doc might be.

E i could not understand.

ReedArnoldMPREP · Answer

Hi there! I created this question. I hope you found it a good, if difficult, brain teaser. You would be surprised to know how much time and discussion goes into creating a question!

E is suggesting that the reason equestrians rated most depictions of horses as less realistic is *not*, in fact, because they are familiar with the shapes and proportions of horses, but because there is a *disparity* between them and most artists. E introduces the possibility that, when artists were also equestrians, equestrians and non-equestrians thought their depictions of horses were realistic. This hints that it's not 'familiarity' that makes horse depictions less realistic, but a 'familiarity gap' between audience and artist. But with hands, there is no 'familiarity gap.'

Imagine if, in the study, everyone, artist and audience, was an equestrian. E introduces the possibility in that case that the horse depictions would have been deemed more realistic by everyone, even though everyone is familiar with them. Well, everyone is also familiar with hands... but we *know* they look unrealistic to audiences. E hints that 'familiarity' with horses isn't really what causes depictions to be rated as less realistic, so it would make it less likely that 'familiarity with hands' is what causes their depictions to be seen as less realistic.

gullyboy09 · Answer

Hi  IanStewart  can you help me with this question? First of all I might not be getting exactly what is the argument here. IMO, for option E, there are a few cases where even non-equestrian is able to paint in a way that it receives same ratings from both the groups, it's still fine because it's only "few". Argument is already based on "almost always", so even if 95/100 cases are where there is a difference in rating, author is right to make a conclusion about the other (hand depiction) case, and he himself mentioned almost always and not always. Again, I might be making some silly argument as I am not fully getting the passage here.

IanStewart · Answer

It is not an official question, and I wouldn't worry about non-official Verbal questions at all, from any source. This question doesn't work as an evaluation question (it needs to be a strengthen or weaken question), in part because learning that E is false doesn't help us at all -- perhaps there were just no horse-riding artists in the study. Even if we learn E is true, it does not tell us what the OA claims it tells us. Just because there is "no disparity" in the ratings does not mean all the ratings are uniformly high -- they could all be low, or some low, some high, or all middling. And less important, but objectionable to me, is the underlying assumption throughout the question that "expert artists" are the ones who make the most "realistic" paintings. By that standard, sure, Gerhard Richter is an expert artist, but Monet or Van Gogh or Rothko are apparently not. Anyway, the language and setup here would need to be tightened up a lot for this question to make sense, in my view.

12 Days of Christmas GMAT Competition - Day 1: Art critic: In a recent

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