A graph question asking for support tests whether the numbers show every part of a claim. Read the claim first and split it into parts, including any words about where an effect should be strongest. Then read the title, axes, and key to identify the groups and units. Compare the groups within each category, then compare those gaps across categories. A choice can report numbers correctly and still fail to show all the claim asks for.
Hints
- Hint 1
Read the researchers’ claim, including the words after especially. What are the two parts of the claim?
- Hint 2
Subtract the neutral-cue accuracy from the context-cue accuracy at each blur level.
- Hint 3
Which blur level matches the passage’s description of the most degraded visual information, and how does the gap there compare with the gaps elsewhere?
Step-by-step
Compare the cue advantage
Step 1Find both parts of the claim
The claim joins context cues can improve object identification with especially when the visual information is most degraded. What does each part ask the graph to show? We need to show that cues help people identify objects, and help more when photos are harder to see.
- Step 2
Measure the cue’s advantage
The chart tracks accuracy in percent at each blur level, with dark bars for context cues and light-gray bars for neutral cues. How much do the cues improve object identification at each blur level? Subtract neutral accuracy from context accuracy within each pair: low blur gives 92 − 90 = 2 points, medium gives 78 − 68 = 10, and high gives 55 − 30 = 25. The context-cue advantage grows with blur.
- Step 3
Check where the advantage occurs
Does largest at medium blur match those gaps? No, because 25 points at high blur is more than 10 at medium blur. The phrase only at high blur also fails because context cues help at low and medium blur too.
- Step 4
Judge the benefit, not the score alone
At high blur, both groups’ accuracy was low describes the scores, not whether context helped. The increase from 30% to 55% shows a large benefit despite low scores. The sentence with at all three blur levels and the gap was largest at high blur shows that the cue helps and that it helps most where images are most degraded. Choice A.