A recent experiment concluded that individuals who have demonstrated

Question

A recent experiment concluded that individuals who have demonstrated low linguistic intelligence tend to score much lower on tests of interpersonal intelligence than do people with normal or high levels of linguistic intelligence. The conclusion derived from this observation was that linguistic intelligence fundamentally contributes to interpersonal intelligence.

The experiment's conclusion would be most seriously weakened if it were true that:

A. following the completion of a pilot study for the experiment, there was a one-year delay before the experiment began

B. people's linguistic intelligence is affected by their level of education

C. stressful events in one's life can first stunt one's interpersonal intelligence and then stunt one's linguistic intelligence.

D. People with low interpersonal intelligence generally have fewer social interactions than people with normal or high linguistic intelligence do

E. on the test of interpersonal intelligence, a few people with high linguistic intelligence had scores that were similar to the scores of people who had normal linguistic intelligence

Ritik25 · Answer

Option C, however I am not completely satisfied by it. If linguistic intelligence fundamentally contributes to interpersonal intelligence then it follows that LI ->~ II. However, in C, the option presented is saying that first II will be impacted and then LI, meaning that for a period of time you can have a high linguistic intelligence without having the requisite interpersonal intelligence which would seemingly be a contradiction to the equation. However just because LI contributes to II, it doesn't mean that it is both a necessary and sufficient condition, i.e. other factors independent of LI may contribute to interpersonal intelligence without immediately hampering LI. Can someone explain and resolve this discrepancy or am I missing something obvious here?

rsvelc · Answer

Can someone explain me why the option E is wrong, because it clearly proves that for interpersonal intelligence test few of the high LI people got similar scores as Normal LI, doesn't that weaken the argument that LI might not be an important factor for II?

Blair15 · Answer

Hey,

So IMHO, this option is incorrect because it talks about only a "few" test takers. On the GMAT words such as "few", "many", "most" , etc hold a lot of value. So we have to see if the argument speaks in the context of only a "few" people or all people in general.
Hope this helps

PRamesh2008 · Answer

A recent experiment concluded that individuals who have demonstrated low linguistic intelligence tend to score much lower on tests of interpersonal intelligence than do people with normal or high levels of linguistic intelligence. The conclusion derived from this observation was that linguistic intelligence fundamentally contributes to interpersonal intelligence.

The experiment's conclusion would be most seriously weakened if it were true that:

A. following the completion of a pilot study for the experiment, there was a one-year delay before the experiment began
 T he duration between experiment and pilot study doesn't affect the conclusion in any manner, as no time relation between Linguistic intelligence and Interpersonal Intelligence is implied in the stimulus..Out of scope

B. people's linguistic intelligence is affected by their level of education
  Irrelevant, as effect of education on Linguistic Intelligence, doesn't affect the causality suggested in the conclusion of the argument

C. stressful events in one's life can first stunt one's interpersonal intelligence and then stunt one's linguistic intelligence.
  The option highlights that the stressful events cause reduction of Interpersonal Intelligence w/o affecting Linguistic Intelligence..which is contrary to the argument's conclusion that Linguistic Intelligence contributes to Interpersonal Inteligence

D. People with low interpersonal intelligence generally have fewer social interactions than people with normal or high linguistic intelligence do
  It highlights the characteristics of individuals with low interpersonal intelligence and low linguistic intelligence..doesn't affect the causality mentioned in the stimulus

E. on the test of interpersonal intelligence, a few people with high linguistic intelligence had scores that were similar to the scores of people who had normal linguistic intelligence 
  slightly weakens the conclusion of the stimulus..however not a better option vis-a-vis Option C

Hope this helps..

AnirudhaS · Answer

I think C says Stressful events can also contribute to Interpersonal Intelligence.

However, the conclusion says Linguistic Intelligence contributes to Interpersonal Intelligence.

So C gives us an alternate explanation to the conclusion.

VerbalBot · Answer

Automated notice from GMAT Club VerbalBot: 

A member just gave Kudos to this thread, showing it’s still useful. I’ve bumped it to the top so more people can benefit. Feel free to add your own questions or solutions.

 This post was generated automatically.

A recent experiment concluded that individuals who have demonstrated

Prep Toolkit

Top 5 GMAT Debrief Videos

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards

GMAT Critical Reasoning (CR) Questions

A recent experiment concluded that individuals who have demonstrated

Prep Toolkit

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards