Critical Reasoning

A toy company's engineering department developed a new model of its computerized storyteller lacking educational features present in the earlier model, which was still being produced. During the first year of production of the new model, while both models were being sold, the newer model of the storyteller sold much better than the older model. The CEO of the toy company concluded that educational features were not important in consumers' decisions to purchase the storyteller.

Which of the following, if true, would most seriously weaken the CEO's conclusion?


A)Both institutions such as children's hospitals and private individuals purchase storytellers from this toy company.

B)Many customers consider the new storyteller educational because of certain features, which requires children to learn new skills in order to use it.

C)Many customers of this toy company also purchased computerized storytellers from toy companies that did provide educational features in their new storytellers.

D)The new storyteller can be used by all age groups of children that could use the earlier model of the storyteller.

E)There was no significant difference in price between the newer storyteller and the older model.



[spoiler]could some one please point out a flaw in my reasoning and show me how B is better than c ?

B gives the possibility that consumers purchased toys from the stated toy company because the company incorporated some special features that attracted the buyers , and not because the educational features were not important in consumers' decisions to purchase the storyteller.Since, consumers of this toy company also purchased computerized storytellers from toy companies that did provide educational features in their new storytellers clearly indicates that educational features in the toys were important to the consumers and that is the reason they visited other toy companies that contained the features.[/spoiler]

The CEO's conclusion is that consumers of the new storyteller did not value educational features in their purchasing decisions.

B shows that consumers actually DID consider educational features. Because the storyteller required children to learn new skills, the consumers saw educational value in purchasing it.

C does not give us the motivation of consumers for purchasing storytellers from other companies. These other storytellers did have educational features, but consumers may have purchased them because of price, availability, ease of use, or any number of reasons that have nothing to do with the educational features themselves.

I reject C as it was concerned with storytellers of other companies whereas the qs was about educational features of the toy sold by one particular company. I considered it out of scope. Is my thinking correct?

B) seems to be the best choice!!

Bill@VeritasPrep wrote:The CEO's conclusion is that consumers of the new storyteller did not value educational features in their purchasing decisions.

B shows that consumers actually DID consider educational features. Because the storyteller required children to learn new skills, the consumers saw educational value in purchasing it.

C does not give us the motivation of consumers for purchasing storytellers from other companies. These other storytellers did have educational features, but consumers may have purchased them because of price, availability, ease of use, or any number of reasons that have nothing to do with the educational features themselves.

Actually, I think C told us that customers did buy other companies' storytellers because it has educational features - not because of "other" features. The main reason to leave C out is OUT OF SCOPE.

netham wrote:

Bill@VeritasPrep wrote:The CEO's conclusion is that consumers of the new storyteller did not value educational features in their purchasing decisions.

B shows that consumers actually DID consider educational features. Because the storyteller required children to learn new skills, the consumers saw educational value in purchasing it.

C does not give us the motivation of consumers for purchasing storytellers from other companies. These other storytellers did have educational features, but consumers may have purchased them because of price, availability, ease of use, or any number of reasons that have nothing to do with the educational features themselves.

Actually, I think C told us that customers did buy other companies' storytellers because it has educational features - not because of "other" features. The main reason to leave C out is OUT OF SCOPE.

We're told that customers bought storytellers from companies that offered educational features in their newest models, but we're not told that the educational features were the motivating factor for the purchase. More generally, if I buy a product with feature x, without additional info, it's impossible to know if feature x is why I made my purchase, or if the product just happened to have this feature, and in actuality, I was motivated by other aspects of the product.