Critical Reasoning

An experiment was conducted at a major university to test the effect of prolonged exposure to digital media on cognitive abilities. The experimental group of subjects, which spent a long period of time exposed to various digital media, performed significantly worse on a basic test of cognitive skills than did the control group, which was not exposed to digital media. The psychologists in charge of the study attributed this effect to loss of attention span caused by the fast pace at which information is presented in digital media.

Which of the following, if true, would best support the conclusion that the digital media was responsible for the results of this experiment?


(A) The average consumer of digital media does not spend nearly as much time exposed to it per day as the group in this experiment did.

(B) Older forms of media such as television arguably present information at just as rapid a pace as digital media and have not been found to produce similar results with regard to cognition.

(C) Experts maintain that the prolonged exposure to digital media experienced by the experimental group will not have any permanent effect on their cognitive ability.

(D) The experimental and control groups consisted of subjects who were evenly matched in terms of cognitive ability as a prerequisite of the experiment.

(E) Several months after this experiment, a second experiment was performed which tested the same effect but did not include a control group not exposed to the high volume of digital media.