Critical Reasoning

In a study of the effect of color on productivity, 50 of 100 factory workers were moved from their drab workroom to a brightly colored workroom. Both these workers and the 50 who remained in the drab workroom increased their productivity, probably as a result of the interest taken by researchers in the work of both groups during the study.
Which of the following, if true, would cast most doubt upon the author’s interpretation of the study results given above?
(A) The 50 workers moved to the brightly colored room performed precisely the same manufacturing task as the workers who remained in the drab workroom.
(B) The drab workroom was designed to provide adequate space for at most 65 workers.
(C) The 50 workers who moved to the brightly colored workroom were matched as closely as possible in age and level of training to the 50 workers who remained in the drab work-room.
(D) Nearly all the workers in both groups had volunteered to move to the brightly colored workroom.
(E) Many of the workers who moved to the brightly colored workroom reported that they liked the drab workroom as well as or better than they liked the brightly colored workroom.

In my opinion, I would choose D.

A. strengthen the argument, because this statement states that the experiment has same condition for both experimental and control group.

B. out of scope, the space has nothing to do with the interpretation.

C. same reason as A.

E. actually support the conclusion, if this is one of the reason, then the interpretation is probably right, because workers prefer drab room.

edit: damn, I need to read more carefully...

OA is B.
I am not able to understand conclusion. Can someone plz. explain me conclusion specially this line "Both these workers and the 50 who remained in the drab workroom increased their productivity".

The answer should be 'B'.. the conclusion of the argument is "Both these workers and the 50 who remained in the drab workroom increased their productivity, probably as a result of the interest taken by researchers in the work of both groups during the study".... The option B clearly makes it clear that the cause of increased productivity as mentioned in the conclusion is incorrect (i.e weakens the argument), choice B states that the productivity increased because the drab workroom was earlier over occupied and when only 50 remained the productivity of the workers in both the group increased..

In the sentence "Both these workers and the 50 who remained in the drab workroom increased their productivity"... these worker refers to those 50 who were moved to the coloured room.......
in this argument the author concludes that the productivity of both groups of workers increased as a result of the study being conducted......
HTH

k_abhi19 wrote:The answer should be 'B'.. the conclusion of the argument is "Both these workers and the 50 who remained in the drab workroom increased their productivity, probably as a result of the interest taken by researchers in the work of both groups during the study".... The option B clearly makes it clear that the cause of increased productivity as mentioned in the conclusion is incorrect (i.e weakens the argument), choice B states that the productivity increased because the drab workroom was earlier over occupied and when only 50 remained the productivity of the workers in both the group increased..

In the sentence "Both these workers and the 50 who remained in the drab workroom increased their productivity"... these worker refers to those 50 who were moved to the coloured room.......
in this argument the author concludes that the productivity of both groups of workers increased as a result of the study being conducted......
HTH

Thanks for clearing my doubt. Now conclusion is clear and so is the answer.

Answer B seems to be logical one out of other answer choices