Evaluation---Scientific Diciplines

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Evaluation---Scientific Diciplines

by amysky_0205 » Tue Jan 22, 2013 6:46 am
In many scientific disciplines, scientists generally do not do highly creative work beyond the age of forty, a tendency that has normally been taken to show that aging carries with it a loss of creative capacity. However, by the age of forty most scientists have been working in their chosen field for at least fifteen years, so an alternative explanation is that spending too long in a single field reduces the opportunity for creative thought.

Investigating which of the following would be most useful in choosing between the competing explanations described above?

A. Whether among those scientists who do highly creative work beyond age forty a large proportion entered their field at a considerably later age than is common
B. Whether scientists' choice of research projects tends to be influenced by their own belief that their most creative work will be done relatively early in their career
C. Whether scientists who are older than forty tend to find more satisfaction in other activities, such as teaching and mentoring, than they do in pursuing their own research
D. Whether funding agencies are more inclined to award research grants to scientists who are veterans in their field than to scientists who are relative newcomers
E. Whether there is significant variation among scientific fields in the average age at which scientists working in those fields are at their most productive

OA: A

Can someone explain?
I chose B instead of A....
Source: — Critical Reasoning |

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by Tommy Wallach » Tue Jan 22, 2013 9:52 am
Hey Amysky,

This is interesting. I know this question (it's in the OG), but this isn't the question that's typically asked on it. Where did you find this?

Anyway, this passage presents two possible explanations for a phenomenon:

Phenomenon: Scientists GENERALLY don't do creative stuff after 40

Explanation #1: Aging makes you less creative.
Explanation #2: Being in a field too long makes you less creative.

We need some answer that helps us decide between these two explanations.

(A) If the majority of scientists who do creative stuff after 40 are new to their respective field, that would support the second explanation. If they aren't, it would support the first one.

(B) Imagine you had an answer to this question. Yes, scientists choose research projects based on the fact that they probably won't do creative stuff late in life. So is it aging or being in the field too long that is causing that problem. Who knows?

(C) This is totally out of scope. Even if they enjoy other stuff more, we don't know whether it was aging or being in the field too long that caused them to burn out.

(D) This is irrelevant, too. This is just about money.

(E) Again, whether there's variation in age or not, we still don't know what is causing the change in productivity.
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by amysky_0205 » Wed Jan 23, 2013 1:21 am
Tommy Wallach wrote:Hey Amysky,

This is interesting. I know this question (it's in the OG), but this isn't the question that's typically asked on it. Where did you find this?

Anyway, this passage presents two possible explanations for a phenomenon:

Phenomenon: Scientists GENERALLY don't do creative stuff after 40

Explanation #1: Aging makes you less creative.
Explanation #2: Being in a field too long makes you less creative.

We need some answer that helps us decide between these two explanations.

(A) If the majority of scientists who do creative stuff after 40 are new to their respective field, that would support the second explanation. If they aren't, it would support the first one.

(B) Imagine you had an answer to this question. Yes, scientists choose research projects based on the fact that they probably won't do creative stuff late in life. So is it aging or being in the field too long that is causing that problem. Who knows?

(C) This is totally out of scope. Even if they enjoy other stuff more, we don't know whether it was aging or being in the field too long that caused them to burn out.

(D) This is irrelevant, too. This is just about money.

(E) Again, whether there's variation in age or not, we still don't know what is causing the change in productivity.


Hi Tommy,

tks for ur reply in advance.

I got this question from internet.
I think someone must change this answer choices some how.

(: