Events & Promotions
| Last visit was: 27 Sep 2026, 00:07 |
It is currently 27 Sep 2026, 00:07 |
|
|
GMAT Club Daily Prep
Thank you for using the timer - this advanced tool can estimate your performance and suggest more practice questions. We have subscribed you to Daily Prep Questions via email.
Customized
for You
Track
Your Progress
Practice
Pays
Not interested in getting valuable practice questions and articles delivered to your email? No problem, unsubscribe here.
Sep 2701:30 AM EDT
-02:30 AM EDT
At one point, she believed GMAT wasn’t for her. After scoring 595, self-doubt crept in and she questioned her potential. But instead of quitting, she made the right strategic changes. The result? A remarkable comeback to 695. Check out how Saakshi did it.
Sep 2807:00 PM EDT
-10:00 PM EDT
Boost your GMAT score in less than one month in a live online class + 6 months access to TTP OnDemand video courses included! Class starts Mon, Tues, Wed, Thur, Fri Sept. 28, 2026 - Oct. 16, 2027, 7:00pm-10:00pm EST
Sep 2911:00 AM EDT
-01:00 PM EDT
" Description: Top scores are possible when you enroll in a powerful GMAT course, taught live online + 6 months access to TTP OnDemand video courses included! Class starts Tues/Thur Sept. 29, 2026 - Dec. 3, 2026, 11:00am-1:00pm EST
Oct 0102:00 AM EDT
-03:00 AM EDT
Tejas studied hard but kept repeating the same mistakes. After 3 attempts at 645, a focused 4-week strategy helped him identify and fix what was holding him back—leading to a 695 with just 12–15 hours of study per week.
Oct 0107:00 AM BST
-08:00 AM GMT
Welcome to the GMAT Club's Free Interview Prep Event for Top MBA Programs! Buy tickets - Virtual series that’s all set to equip you to -excel in your MBA interviews.
Oct 0301:00 PM EDT
-04:00 PM EDT
Top scores are possible when you enroll in a powerful GMAT course, taught live online + 6 months access to TTP OnDemand video courses included! Class starts Saturdays Oct. 3, 2026 - Dec. 26, 2026, 1:00pm-4:00pm EST
16 Sep 2014, 01:57
Kudos
Bookmarks
Psychologists and marketers alike are aware that product labels can trigger brand loyalty and influence customers’ perceptions of quality. A recent experiment, however, goes beyond loyalty and suggests that expectation can alter the experience of taste itself.
In the experiment, 300 men and women tasted two versions of a beverage each - one a regular cola and the other the same cola with a few drops of white vinegar added. A prior survey had found that most cola drinkers thought vinegar would worsen the taste. Participants were told only that one of the beverages, called “cola extra,” contained an unspecified secret ingredient.
Researchers found that in a blind taste test of 100 people, 60 percent actually preferred the vinegar-enriched “cola extra.” A second group of 100 learned after they had tasted both beverages that vinegar was the secret ingredient; this group preferred “cola extra” by the same percentage. A final group was told before tasting that one of the colas contained vinegar - here, only about one-third of respondents favored “cola extra.”
These results echo earlier work in sensory neuroscience: functional-MRI studies show that when wine drinkers are told a bottle is expensive, activation in reward-related gustatory regions rises even though the wine is identical. Marketing researchers likewise observe that labeling chocolates or coffees as “premium” consistently heightens reported flavor intensity. Taken together, such findings suggest that expectation can penetrate beyond conscious belief and modulate the neural coding of taste.
Because the cola experiment sampled mostly habitual cola drinkers aged 18-35, future research should test other age groups and less familiar beverages to see whether the effect generalizes.
Which of the following would be the most logical first sentence for a paragraph that immediately follows the passage?
A. Consequently, marketers should begin advertising all new beverages as containing a mysterious “secret ingredient.”
B. These findings therefore call for follow-up studies that vary both age range and beverage familiarity to test whether the expectation effect truly generalizes.
C. Indeed, the experiment proves that neural imaging is required whenever researchers investigate subjective experiences such as taste.
D. Although vinegar is not traditionally used in soft-drink formulation, recent flavor-engineering breakthroughs make such combinations feasible.
E. By contrast, studies in visual perception indicate that expectation has no measurable influence on sensory processing.
In the experiment, 300 men and women tasted two versions of a beverage each - one a regular cola and the other the same cola with a few drops of white vinegar added. A prior survey had found that most cola drinkers thought vinegar would worsen the taste. Participants were told only that one of the beverages, called “cola extra,” contained an unspecified secret ingredient.
Researchers found that in a blind taste test of 100 people, 60 percent actually preferred the vinegar-enriched “cola extra.” A second group of 100 learned after they had tasted both beverages that vinegar was the secret ingredient; this group preferred “cola extra” by the same percentage. A final group was told before tasting that one of the colas contained vinegar - here, only about one-third of respondents favored “cola extra.”
These results echo earlier work in sensory neuroscience: functional-MRI studies show that when wine drinkers are told a bottle is expensive, activation in reward-related gustatory regions rises even though the wine is identical. Marketing researchers likewise observe that labeling chocolates or coffees as “premium” consistently heightens reported flavor intensity. Taken together, such findings suggest that expectation can penetrate beyond conscious belief and modulate the neural coding of taste.
Because the cola experiment sampled mostly habitual cola drinkers aged 18-35, future research should test other age groups and less familiar beverages to see whether the effect generalizes.
Which of the following would be the most logical first sentence for a paragraph that immediately follows the passage?
A. Consequently, marketers should begin advertising all new beverages as containing a mysterious “secret ingredient.”
B. These findings therefore call for follow-up studies that vary both age range and beverage familiarity to test whether the expectation effect truly generalizes.
C. Indeed, the experiment proves that neural imaging is required whenever researchers investigate subjective experiences such as taste.
D. Although vinegar is not traditionally used in soft-drink formulation, recent flavor-engineering breakthroughs make such combinations feasible.
E. By contrast, studies in visual perception indicate that expectation has no measurable influence on sensory processing.
16 Sep 2014, 01:57
Kudos
Bookmarks
Official Solution:
Psychologists and marketers alike are aware that product labels can trigger brand loyalty and influence customers’ perceptions of quality. A recent experiment, however, goes beyond loyalty and suggests that expectation can alter the experience of taste itself.
In the experiment, 300 men and women tasted two versions of a beverage each - one a regular cola and the other the same cola with a few drops of white vinegar added. A prior survey had found that most cola drinkers thought vinegar would worsen the taste. Participants were told only that one of the beverages, called “cola extra,” contained an unspecified secret ingredient.
Researchers found that in a blind taste test of 100 people, 60 percent actually preferred the vinegar-enriched “cola extra.” A second group of 100 learned after they had tasted both beverages that vinegar was the secret ingredient; this group preferred “cola extra” by the same percentage. A final group was told before tasting that one of the colas contained vinegar - here, only about one-third of respondents favored “cola extra.”
These results echo earlier work in sensory neuroscience: functional-MRI studies show that when wine drinkers are told a bottle is expensive, activation in reward-related gustatory regions rises even though the wine is identical. Marketing researchers likewise observe that labeling chocolates or coffees as “premium” consistently heightens reported flavor intensity. Taken together, such findings suggest that expectation can penetrate beyond conscious belief and modulate the neural coding of taste.
Because the cola experiment sampled mostly habitual cola drinkers aged 18-35, future research should test other age groups and less familiar beverages to see whether the effect generalizes.
Which of the following would be the most logical first sentence for a paragraph that immediately follows the passage?
A. Consequently, marketers should begin advertising all new beverages as containing a mysterious “secret ingredient.”
B. These findings therefore call for follow-up studies that vary both age range and beverage familiarity to test whether the expectation effect truly generalizes.
C. Indeed, the experiment proves that neural imaging is required whenever researchers investigate subjective experiences such as taste.
D. Although vinegar is not traditionally used in soft-drink formulation, recent flavor-engineering breakthroughs make such combinations feasible.
E. By contrast, studies in visual perception indicate that expectation has no measurable influence on sensory processing.
A) This option Jumps to a marketing prescription the author never endorses. B) The passage’s final sentence identifies two limitations: 1) narrow age range and 2) use of a familiar beverage, and then suggests future research. Choice (B) picks up that thread, making it the most coherent option as the next theme/sentence to continue. C) This option overstates the necessity of fMRI; the passage merely notes supportive imaging evidence. D) This option shifts to product-development details, not to the research agenda highlighted in the passage. E) This option actually contradicts the passage’s theme that expectation can influence multiple sensory domains.
Answer: B
Psychologists and marketers alike are aware that product labels can trigger brand loyalty and influence customers’ perceptions of quality. A recent experiment, however, goes beyond loyalty and suggests that expectation can alter the experience of taste itself.
In the experiment, 300 men and women tasted two versions of a beverage each - one a regular cola and the other the same cola with a few drops of white vinegar added. A prior survey had found that most cola drinkers thought vinegar would worsen the taste. Participants were told only that one of the beverages, called “cola extra,” contained an unspecified secret ingredient.
Researchers found that in a blind taste test of 100 people, 60 percent actually preferred the vinegar-enriched “cola extra.” A second group of 100 learned after they had tasted both beverages that vinegar was the secret ingredient; this group preferred “cola extra” by the same percentage. A final group was told before tasting that one of the colas contained vinegar - here, only about one-third of respondents favored “cola extra.”
These results echo earlier work in sensory neuroscience: functional-MRI studies show that when wine drinkers are told a bottle is expensive, activation in reward-related gustatory regions rises even though the wine is identical. Marketing researchers likewise observe that labeling chocolates or coffees as “premium” consistently heightens reported flavor intensity. Taken together, such findings suggest that expectation can penetrate beyond conscious belief and modulate the neural coding of taste.
Because the cola experiment sampled mostly habitual cola drinkers aged 18-35, future research should test other age groups and less familiar beverages to see whether the effect generalizes.
Which of the following would be the most logical first sentence for a paragraph that immediately follows the passage?
A. Consequently, marketers should begin advertising all new beverages as containing a mysterious “secret ingredient.”
B. These findings therefore call for follow-up studies that vary both age range and beverage familiarity to test whether the expectation effect truly generalizes.
C. Indeed, the experiment proves that neural imaging is required whenever researchers investigate subjective experiences such as taste.
D. Although vinegar is not traditionally used in soft-drink formulation, recent flavor-engineering breakthroughs make such combinations feasible.
E. By contrast, studies in visual perception indicate that expectation has no measurable influence on sensory processing.
A) This option Jumps to a marketing prescription the author never endorses. B) The passage’s final sentence identifies two limitations: 1) narrow age range and 2) use of a familiar beverage, and then suggests future research. Choice (B) picks up that thread, making it the most coherent option as the next theme/sentence to continue. C) This option overstates the necessity of fMRI; the passage merely notes supportive imaging evidence. D) This option shifts to product-development details, not to the research agenda highlighted in the passage. E) This option actually contradicts the passage’s theme that expectation can influence multiple sensory domains.
Answer: B
17 Oct 2016, 05:51
Kudos
Bookmarks
In the question V02-22 about inference, it is true that there is a correlation between expectation and taste. What could damage this correlation? What if the experiment is done with a group of people with a biased preference towards vinegar??
In the second paragraph, it is stated that "A previous survey had found that most cola drinkers thought vinegar would worsen the taste". But the passage never says that the 300 participants in the experiment have the same opinion about vinegar worsen the taste. So, What if members of all three test groups have a positive previous preference for the cola with vinegar, then the experiment has proven that expectation has no influence on taste.
I think Option A should be reworded:
A) majority in all three test groups preferred "cola extra" to standard cola, regardless of whether they were told it contained a secret ingredient.
Please, I appreciate in advance your comments about my observation.
In the second paragraph, it is stated that "A previous survey had found that most cola drinkers thought vinegar would worsen the taste". But the passage never says that the 300 participants in the experiment have the same opinion about vinegar worsen the taste. So, What if members of all three test groups have a positive previous preference for the cola with vinegar, then the experiment has proven that expectation has no influence on taste.
I think Option A should be reworded:
A) majority in all three test groups preferred "cola extra" to standard cola, regardless of whether they were told it contained a secret ingredient.
Please, I appreciate in advance your comments about my observation.
17 Oct 2016, 08:48
Kudos
Bookmarks
Rumikido3
"A previous survey had found that most cola drinkers thought vinegar would worsen the taste"...based on this statement you may take it to be true that when a number of cola drinkers are selected, most of them would have the same opinion. The same is true for the 300 participants as well. There is no reason to assume that they are exceptions.
