Critical Reasoning

The growing popularity of computer-based activities was widely expected to result in a decline in television viewing, since it had been assumed that people lack sufficient free time to maintain current television-viewing levels while spending increasing amounts of free time on the computer. That assumption, however, is evidently false: in a recent mail survey concerning media use, a very large majority of respondents who report increasing time spent per week using computers report no charge in time spent watching television.

Which of the following would it be most useful to determine in order to evaluate the argument?

A. Whether a large majority of the survey respondents reported watching television regularly
B. Whether the amount of time spent watching television is declining among people who report that they rarely or never use computers
C. Whether the type of television programs a person watches tends to change as the amount of time spent per week using computers increases
D. Whether a large majority of the computer owners in the survey reported spending increasing amounts of time per week using computers
E. Whether the survey respondents’ reports of time spent using computers included time spent using computers at work


QA l8r...!!!

Should be E.

Answer to E if yes, strengthens the conclusion.
if no, weakens the conclusion.

All other choices are not affected in this way.

agree with (E), but what's the conclusion here?

aj5105 wrote:agree with (E), but what's the conclusion here?

the conclusion is "That assumption, however, is evidently false"

geet wrote:The growing popularity of computer-based activities was widely expected to result in a decline in television viewing, since it had been assumed that people lack sufficient free time to maintain current television-viewing levels while spending increasing amounts of free time on the computer. That assumption, however, is evidently false: in a recent mail survey concerning media use, a very large majority of respondents who report increasing time spent per week using computers report no charge in time spent watching television.

Which of the following would it be most useful to determine in order to evaluate the argument?

A. Whether a large majority of the survey respondents reported watching television regularly
B. Whether the amount of time spent watching television is declining among people who report that they rarely or never use computers
C. Whether the type of television programs a person watches tends to change as the amount of time spent per week using computers increases
D. Whether a large majority of the computer owners in the survey reported spending increasing amounts of time per week using computers
E. Whether the survey respondents’ reports of time spent using computers included time spent using computers at work


QA l8r...!!!

IMO E.

Why not (A)? Consider: "That assumption, however, is evidently false: in a recent mail survey concerning media use, a very large majority of respondents who report increasing time spent per week using computers report no charge in time spent watching television."

If watching TV regularly is not on the table for consideration, then the survey is irrelevant. Therefore, we need to know how much time they spend watching TV in the 1st place before digging deeper.

I feel strongly that A is the answer. Anyone else agree?

ogbeni wrote:Why not (A)? Consider: "That assumption, however, is evidently false: in a recent mail survey concerning media use, a very large majority of respondents who report increasing time spent per week using computers report no charge in time spent watching television."

If watching TV regularly is not on the table for consideration, then the survey is irrelevant. Therefore, we need to know how much time they spend watching TV in the 1st place before digging deeper.

I feel strongly that A is the answer. Anyone else agree?

"regularly" is not relevant here..the correlation is between the total time spent watching tele and using computers .. it doesn't matter whether they watch it regularly or not.. This is out of scope

@tohellandback -I see the point you make but remember the 1st sentence references a 'decline' in TV watching. 'Regularly' will only be out of scope if 'decline' had not been referenced i.e. some respondents stated that they spent 0 hours watching TV. If this were the case then increased computer use would not change 0 hours of watching TV - Does that make sense

I freaking HATE THE GMAT!!! ARGHHH!!

Someone post the answer already!

ha ha ha

its an OG12 question. the OA is E. i chose A. FML.

Can someone please tell what is wrong with D ?

assumption: using free time on computers leads to less free time for TV watching.

i guess "using free time on computers" is vital here.
D talks about increasing amount of time on computer. doesnt say whether computers were used in free time

scoobydooby wrote:assumption: using free time on computers leads to less free time for TV watching.

i guess "using free time on computers" is vital here.
D talks about increasing amount of time on computer. doesnt say whether computers were used in free time

Hi scooby,

I might be misunderstanding it. But IMO D should be kicked out based on the following reasoning...

Kindly tell do you concur with me....If not I would be really thankful to you if you shall point out what point I am missing here.

I guess D talks about "computer owners".....nowhere in the original argument it talks about owners...it only talks about usage of computer => decrease in TV viewership.

now in the survey this owner group may be 0.01% of total i.e. minority....so based on minority we can not make general solution....so answer to question of option D will be insufficient in itself.....

But owner group may be even 100%.....i.e. complete majority.....so this groups opinion is representative of total groups view....so answer to question of option D will be sufficient.....Just like DS questions ( sufficient/not sufficient )

Since we do not have any info about how much percentage computer owners as a total of group comprise....so I guess due to this D is wrong....

gmat_dest wrote:Should be E.

Answer to E if yes, strengthens the conclusion.
if no, weakens the conclusion.

All other choices are not affected in this way.

Can someone please explain how answer No weakens the conclusion in E ? I am able to figure out how answer Yes strengthens....but could not figure out how No...weakens....

goelmohit2002 wrote:

gmat_dest wrote:Should be E.

Answer to E if yes, strengthens the conclusion.
if no, weakens the conclusion.

All other choices are not affected in this way.

Can someone please explain how answer No weakens the conclusion in E ? I am able to figure out how answer Yes strengthens....but could not figure out how No...weakens....

If the survey respondents' using computers don't include time spent using computers at work, it means that there was probable no increase in the amount of free time people spend using computers and thus the inverse relationship between the amounts of free time on the computer and the amounts of time watching TV is undermined. E undermines the relationship stated in the first sentence of the argument.

I guess here both Yes and No for answer to question of E...strengthens....

Please tell where is the flaw in my reasoning....

Expectation : Increase in Computer work => decrease in TV viewership.

Assumption1: People watch TV in free time.
Assumption2: People will use computer in free Time.

Fact1 = There is increase in Computer work.
Fact2 = There in no change in TV viewership.

Conclusion: Based on fact1 and fact2.....the expectation is false.

Option E
=========
Whether the survey respondents' reports of time spent using computers included time spent using computers at work
a) Answer: Yes
Thus it shows that people are using computers primarily at work and not in free time. Thus despite increase in usage of computers.....TV viewership may remain same.

b) Answer: No
Thus it shows that people are using computers from the other free time and not from the time that they use for watching TV in free time. Thus despite increase in usage of computers.....TV viewership may remain same.

Thus IMO both yes and No are strengthening the conclusion.