Events & Promotions
|
|
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.
May 1212:00 PM EDT
-11:59 PM EDT
Make the most of your break with the most realistic GMAT™ prep. Take up to $700 off select products.
May 1308:30 AM PDT
-09:30 AM PDT
In Episode 4 of our GMAT Ninja CR series, we tackle the most intimidating CR question type: Boldface & "Legalese" questions. If you've ever stared at an answer choice that reads, "The first is a consideration introduced to counter a position that...- May 14
08:30 AM PDT
-09:30 AM PDT
Most GMAT test-takers are intimidated by the hardest GMAT Verbal questions. In this session, Target Test Prep GMAT instructor Erika Tyler-John, a 100th percentile GMAT scorer, will show you how top scorers break down challenging Verbal questions..
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.
It can be inferred from the passage that which of the following, if true, would be most damaging to the conclusion that expectation influences taste?
A. A nationwide survey later found that older adults already expect vinegar to improve the flavor of cola.
B. In a parallel study that substituted vanilla for vinegar as the “secret ingredient,” participants showed the same preference pattern reported in the original experiment.
C. Chemical analysis confirmed that the tiny amount of vinegar used did not measurably alter the cola’s pH or sweetness.
D. When the experiment was repeated and every participant was told in advance which cola contained vinegar, roughly 60 percent still preferred the vinegar cola, the same proportion as in the blind-tasting group.
E. Follow-up trials with chocolates labeled “premium” produced stronger flavor-intensity ratings than unlabeled chocolates.
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.
It can be inferred from the passage that which of the following, if true, would be most damaging to the conclusion that expectation influences taste?
A. A nationwide survey later found that older adults already expect vinegar to improve the flavor of cola.
B. In a parallel study that substituted vanilla for vinegar as the “secret ingredient,” participants showed the same preference pattern reported in the original experiment.
C. Chemical analysis confirmed that the tiny amount of vinegar used did not measurably alter the cola’s pH or sweetness.
D. When the experiment was repeated and every participant was told in advance which cola contained vinegar, roughly 60 percent still preferred the vinegar cola, the same proportion as in the blind-tasting group.
E. Follow-up trials with chocolates labeled “premium” produced stronger flavor-intensity ratings than unlabeled chocolates.
03 Apr 2026, 21:53
Kudos
Bookmarks
Explanation:
A) Reveals a demographic difference but doesn’t negate the effect within the studied 18-35 group; the passage already notes age-range limits.
B) Shows the pattern generalizes to another ingredient; that supports rather than weakens the expectation effect.
C) Indicates vinegar doesn’t change objective chemistry, but the result could still arise from expectation; does not contradict the conclusion.
D) The passage’s conclusion rests on differences across groups that had different expectations. If all groups show the same preference (around 60 % favoring the vinegar cola) regardless of whether they were warned beforehand, expectation clearly had no effect, directly undermining the claim
E) Provides additional evidence that labeling (expectation) changes perceived taste, which reinforces the conclusion.
A) Reveals a demographic difference but doesn’t negate the effect within the studied 18-35 group; the passage already notes age-range limits.
B) Shows the pattern generalizes to another ingredient; that supports rather than weakens the expectation effect.
C) Indicates vinegar doesn’t change objective chemistry, but the result could still arise from expectation; does not contradict the conclusion.
D) The passage’s conclusion rests on differences across groups that had different expectations. If all groups show the same preference (around 60 % favoring the vinegar cola) regardless of whether they were warned beforehand, expectation clearly had no effect, directly undermining the claim
E) Provides additional evidence that labeling (expectation) changes perceived taste, which reinforces the conclusion.
