In an experiment, chimpanzees of a certain species gave researchers to

Question

In an experiment, chimpanzees of a certain species gave researchers tokens from a bucket in exchange for grapes. For presentation of a grey token, the chimpanzee who presented it got one grape; while presentation of red token brought two grapes; one grape for that chimpanzee and another grape for an unfamiliar chimpanzee visible through a screen. The chimpanzees usually choose the red tokens. The researchers concluded that chimpanzees of that species are motivated by the desire to help other chimpanzees as well as themselves.

Performing one or more experiments to answer which of the following question would contribute most to evaluate the interpretation given to the experiment described above?

A. Do chimpanzees of the same species as those in the experiment described above tend to prefer grapes over other fruits?

B. If the chimpanzees were given more grapes for each color of token, than were given for those colors in the experiment described above, would the pattern of outcome be changed?

C. Would using apes of a species different from the chimpanzees in the experiment described above give a different result?

D. Which color preferences, if any, are found among chimpanzees of the same species as those in the experiment described above?

E. Is the apparently altruistic behavior among chimpanzees in the experiment described above instinctive or learned?

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D

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rn1112 · Accepted Answer

In an experiment, chimpanzees of a certain species gave researchers tokens from a bucket in exchange for grapes. For presentation of a grey token, the chimpanzee who presented it got one grape; while presentation of red token brought two grapes; one grape for that chimpanzee and another grape for an unfamiliar chimpanzee visible through a screen. The chimpanzees usually choose the red tokens. The researchers concluded that chimpanzees of that species are motivated by the desire to help other chimpanzees as well as themselves.

Pre-thinking . Here, the conclusion of the argument presented in the stimulus is : 'chimpanzees of that species are motivated by the desire to help other chimpanzees as well as themselves'. If there is some other factor, which led to the chimpanzees of theat species choosing red tokens, it will weaken the conclusion. However, if there is no other factor, then the conclusion is strengthened.

Performing one or more experiments to answer which of the following question would contribute most to evaluate the interpretation given to the experiment described above?

A. Do chimpanzees of the same species as those in the experiment described above tend to prefer grapes over other fruits?
 Choice amongst 'grapes' and 'any other fruit' doesn't affect the conclusion, as other fruit may elicit altogether different response from the chimpanzees.

B. If the chimpanzees were given more grapes for each color of token, than were given for those colors in the experiment described above, would the pattern of outcome be changed?
 If the grapes are increased to >=2 in both cases, it will be difficult to evaluate the motivation amongst 'self-oriented' or 'altruistic behaviour'.

C. Would using apes of a species different from the chimpanzees in the experiment described above give a different result?
 The conclusion specifically mentions / is valid for 'chimpanzees of that species'. An out of scope option.

D. Which color preferences, if any, are found among chimpanzees of the same species as those in the experiment described above?
 If 'Red' is the preferred colour of the chimpanzees of that species, the conclusion regarding 'altruistic behaviour' exhibited by chimpanzees of that species will no longer be valid.  In line with our Pre-thinking.

E. Is the apparently altruistic behavior among chimpanzees in the experiment described above instinctive or learned?
 The conclusion doesn't find out the origin for the behaviour of the chimpanzees of that species. Hence, an Irrelevant option.

(D) will be the correct option.

KarishmaB · Answer

It's a useful to evaluate question. I propose creating a visual image or running a movie of the events in your mind for clarity. Upon reading the argument, this is what I am visualising - There are some chimps in an enclosed area and they have a bucket of grey and red tokens. When one chimp picks a grey token and gives it to a researcher, the researcher gives him 1 grape. When one chimp picks a red token and gives it to a researcher, the researcher gives him 1 grape and gives 1 grape to another chimp (who is not known to this chimp) but in another enclosed area such that there is a glass door between the two areas i.e. the point is that this chimp who gave the red token can see the result of his action - he gets a grape and another chimp gets a grape too. They found that chimps usually pick and give red tokens. Hence the conclusion of the study - chimpanzees of that species are motivated by the desire to help other chimpanzees as well as themselves. Now we need to evaluate whether these chimps are actually motivated by altruistic desire. Are they picking red tokens because they want others to get grapes too? Or is there some other reason behind picking red tokens? A Do chimpanzees of the same species as those in the experiment described above tend to prefer grapes over other fruits? Other fruits i.e. some other reward is irrelevant. Point is that grapes are a reward, that's all. B If the chimpanzees were given more grapes for each color of token, than were given for those colors in the experiment described above, would the pattern of outcome be changed? Again a bigger reward is irrelevant. The point we are trying to figure out is whether they are picking red tokens because they want to help others get rewards too - whatever the reward may be. C Would using apes of a species different from the chimpanzees in the experiment described above give a different result? Irrelevant. We are concluding about the chimps of this species and trying to evaluate that conclusion. Using a different species will not help us evaluate our conclusion about this species of chimps. D Which color preferences, if any, are found among chimpanzees of the same species as those in the experiment described above? This is useful. We know that the chimps are picking red tokens mostly. What if they have a preference for the colour red? They may be picking up red usually because chimps of this species like the red colour. In that case our conclusion may fail.They may not be picking the red tokens to help other chimps but simply because they like red. Hence, it is useful to find out whether these chimps have any colour preference and if yes, what it is. E Is the apparently altruistic behavior among chimpanzees in the experiment described above instinctive or learned? It doesn't matter whether it is natural or learned. We are concluding that they have altruistic tendencies. How they acquire it is outside our scope. Answer (D) I discuss how to solve useful to evaluate questions here: https://youtu.be/1JtHjH1lWZc

AnkurGMAT20 · Answer

chetan2u  @bunnuel please tag this under GMAT Prep Focus. This one is from FE 5.

AnkurGMAT20 · Answer

KarishmaB , can you help decode this argument? I had a hard time understanding this part   one grape for that chimpanzee and another grape for an unfamiliar chimpanzee visible through a screen.  .

Bunuel · Answer

______________________
Added the tag. Thank you!

GmatKnightTutor · Answer

In an experiment, chimpanzees of a certain species gave researchers tokens from a bucket in exchange for grapes. For presentation of a grey token, the chimpanzee who presented it got one grape; while presentation of red token brought two grapes; one grape for that chimpanzee and another grape for an unfamiliar chimpanzee visible through a screen. The chimpanzees usually choose the red tokens. The researchers concluded that chimpanzees of that species are motivated by the desire to help other chimpanzees as well as themselves.

Performing one or more experiments to answer which of the following question would contribute most to evaluate the interpretation given to the experiment described above?

A Do chimpanzees of the same species as those in the experiment described above tend to prefer grapes over other fruits?

B If the chimpanzees were given more grapes for each color of token, than were given for those colors in the experiment described above, would the pattern of outcome be changed?

C Would using apes of a species different from the chimpanzees in the experiment described above give a different result?

D Which color preferences, if any, are found among chimpanzees of the same species as those in the experiment described above?

E Is the apparently altruistic behavior among chimpanzees in the experiment described above instinctive or learned?

The passage talks about how chimpanzees of a certain type could choose to give researchers grey or red tokens from a bucket. That if they gave a grey one, they would get 1 grape (for themselves) and if they gave a red token they would get 1 grape (for themselves) AND 1 grape (for an unfamiliar monkey visible through a screen). Results showed that the chimpanzees ended up giving more red tokens and, because of this, researches think chimpanzees of this species are "motivated by the desire to help other chimpanzees as well as themselves".

Which question would be helpful to know the answer of to help judge this theory?

(D) is the answer. If, for example, red is a color that chimpanzees of this species find attractive (compared to grey), that could be the reason for why they chose to deal with red tokens more in this experiment. The answer to this question therefore could potentially provide a strong alternate explanation for why red tokens were chosen, one that has nothing to do with a motivation to help other chimpanzees.

-contact: gmatknight site | gmatclub dm

Raman109 · Answer

In an experiment, chimpanzees of a certain species gave researchers tokens from a bucket in exchange for grapes. For presentation of a grey token, the chimpanzee who presented it got one grape; while presentation of red token brought two grapes; one grape for that chimpanzee and another grape for an unfamiliar chimpanzee visible through a screen. The chimpanzees usually choose the red tokens. The researchers concluded that chimpanzees of that species are motivated by the desire to help other chimpanzees as well as themselves.

Performing one or more experiments to answer which of the following question would contribute most to evaluate the interpretation given to the experiment described above?

Read the question stem carefully and as Karishma mentioned, visualize it clearly. On presentation of the red card the researcher will hand over one grape to the chimp who handed over the card and the researcher will hand over one grape to other chimp on on the other side of the glass. The researcher is not handing over the 2 grapes to the chimp handing over the red card and then this chimp hands over one grape to other chimp - this is not the intended meaning.

A. Do chimpanzees of the same species as those in the experiment described above tend to prefer grapes over other fruits? - other fruits is out of scope.

B. If the chimpanzees were given more grapes for each color of token, than were given for those colors in the experiment described above, would the pattern of outcome be changed? - if there is more than 1 for the grey card then basically the experiment is rendered useless as in each category both Chimps get some grapes.

C. Would using apes of a species different from the chimpanzees in the experiment described above give a different result?- "apes of a species different from the chimpanzees in the experiment" are out of scope.

D. Which color preferences, if any, are found among chimpanzees of the same species as those in the experiment described above? - red preference will challenge the conclusion, and grey will strengthen the conclusion. ok.

E. Is the apparently altruistic behavior among chimpanzees in the experiment described above instinctive or learned? - irrelevant.

VerbalBot · Answer

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In an experiment, chimpanzees of a certain species gave researchers to

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In an experiment, chimpanzees of a certain species gave researchers to

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