Herbed Wellness, a manufacturer of herbal products, wants its new head

Question

Herbed Wellness, a manufacturer of herbal products, wants its new headache remedy to be as effective as possible while using only natural ingredients. A controlled study has found that 58 percent of headache sufferers obtain complete headache relief from a dose of caffeine equivalent to that typically found in a cup of coffee. Therefore, even though the vast majority of its customers are health-conscious avoiders of coffee, Herbed Wellness should add caffeine to its new herbal headache treatment; doing so will prove both efficacious and cost-effective.

The answer to which of the following questions would be most useful in evaluating the claim that caffeine will be efficacious in relieving headaches among Herbed Wellness customers?

A. Is the headache relief provided by caffeine as long-lasting as that provided by over-the-counter drugs such as aspirin?

B. What percentage of the study participants were regular coffee drinkers who suffer from caffeine-withdrawal headaches?

C. Is caffeine less expensive per dose than the individual herbs used in the headache formulation?

D. Does synthetic caffeine qualify as a natural substance?

E. What percentage of Herbed Wellness customers will shun the new headache remedy if it contains caffeine?

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rishabhgmat0908 · Answer

Hi Bunuel
Can you please post the answer of this question

adi007 · Answer

To answer this question – first ask:  what’s the point of contention -   It is the claim that caffeine will be efficacious in relieving headaches among Herbed Wellness customers.
So, even though cost-effective and efficacious is mentioned, we should check  only efficacy  – specifically its efficacy among Herbed Wellness customers.
 
  A  – Not a point of contention and out of scope (it does not prove or disprove whether caffeine is efficacious). 
  B  – If the vast majority of customers are coffee-avoiders, then a high percentage of people in the study got headache relief only because they were experiencing caffeine withdrawal. By giving them caffeine, their withdrawal headache was relieved. This suggests caffeine would  not  be helpful to Herbed Wellness customers (since most of them avoid coffee). This directly addresses whether caffeine will be efficacious in relieving headaches among the company’s customers. 
  C  – Talks about cost, not efficacy. This is a trap since“cost-effective was mentioned in the question stem, but the actual question is about efficacy. 
  D  – Irrelevant. Whether synthetic caffeine qualifies as a natural substance does not prove anything about its efficacy. 
  E  – Irrelevant. Whether customers will shun the product does not prove anything about caffeine’s efficacy in relieving headaches.

UditA1 · Answer

SOLUTION: 
We’re asked:
Which question would be most useful in  evaluating the claim that adding caffeine will be efficacious  in relieving headaches among Herbed Wellness customers?

The company’s reasoning :
 A study: 58% of headache sufferers got complete relief from a typical coffee dose of caffeine. 
 Therefore, even though most of their customers avoid coffee, adding caffeine will still be effective and cost-effective.

The key Assumption here: 
 The customers of Herbed Wellness will respond to caffeine in the same way as the study participants.

Options: 
 A .“Is the headache relief provided by caffeine as long-lasting as that provided by over-the-counter drugs such as aspirin?”
Incorrect, This tells us about duration of relief, but not whether it will work on these customers.

B. “What percentage of the study participants were regular coffee drinkers who suffer from caffeine-withdrawal headaches?” 
Correct. If many participants were regular coffee drinkers, their headaches might be caffeine-withdrawal headaches. Caffeine would naturally relieve those, but Herbed Wellness customers avoid coffee, so they might not benefit as much. And if less participants in study were regular coffee drinkers and caffeine was still effective then for Herbed Wellness customers it will also be effective.
This question directly challenges whether the study results apply to the company’s customers. Highly useful for evaluating efficacy among Herbed Wellness customers.

C.  “Is caffeine less expensive per dose than the individual herbs used in the headache formulation?”
Incorrect, That addresses cost-effectiveness, not efficacy.

D.  “Does synthetic caffeine qualify as a natural substance?”
Incorrect, Irrelevant, Not answering whether it will relieve headaches or not?

E.  “What percentage of Herbed Wellness customers will shun the new headache remedy if it contains caffeine?”
Incorrect, That’s about market acceptance, not efficacy.

Bunuel · Answer

Official Explanation:

B

Step 1: Identify the Question Type

The phrase “most useful in evaluating the claim” tells us that this is a rare Evaluation question. Evaluation questions are very similar to Strengthen/Weaken questions: we must find the answer choice that impacts the validity of the argument’s conclusion. This question specifically asks us to evaluate the claim that caffeine will be effective in relieving headaches among Herbed Wellness customers.

Step 2: Untangle the Stimulus

Evaluation questions are argument-based questions, so we begin by identifying the conclusion and evidence. The conclusion of this argument is the rather lengthy last sentence, but the question stem directs us to a specific piece of that sentence. We are supposed to examine the claim that caffeine will provide effective headache relief to Herbed Wellness customers. For our purposes, then, that claim is the conclusion. The evidence for caffeine’s effectiveness as a headache remedy is the study demonstrating that 58 percent of participants obtained headache relief from an amount of caffeine typically found in a cup of
coffee.

Step 3: Predict the Answer

Whenever an argument contains a study or a sample, we should check to be certain that the sample is representative of the group it is supposed to shed light on. In this argument, the question becomes whether the study participants are representative of Herbed Wellness customers. The only bit of information we have about those customers is that they tend to avoid coffee. Did the study participants also habitually avoid coffee, then? If they did not, their behavior differs from that of Herbed Wellness customers, and the study does not provide us with a proper sample from which to draw a conclusion. It follows that in order to determine whether caffeine will indeed be an effective remedy for Herbed Wellness customers, we need to know whether or not the study participants also habitually avoided coffee.

Step 4: Evaluate the Choices

(B) matches our prediction and is the correct answer. Whether the study participants are representative of Herbed Wellness customers depends on whether they are habitual coffee drinkers. (A) is incorrect because how long the headache relief provided by caffeine lasts is outside the scope of the argument, as are other headache remedies besides caffeine. (C) is incorrect because the question stem directs us to evaluate the claim of caffeine’s efficacy, not its cost-effectiveness. (D) is incorrect because whether the caffeine the company uses is considered “natural” has no bearing on whether it is effective in relieving headaches. Finally, (E) is incorrect because whether customers actually buy the new headache remedy has no impact on its potential effectiveness in relieving their headaches. Choice (B) is the correct answer.

Herbed Wellness, a manufacturer of herbal products, wants its new head

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Herbed Wellness, a manufacturer of herbal products, wants its new head

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