Question 109·Easy·Inferences
Psychologist Renée Martinez wanted to know whether taking a short midday nap might influence how well people remember new information. Martinez recruited two groups of volunteers. Both groups spent the morning learning a list of unfamiliar words. After lunch, one group took a 45-minute nap in a quiet room, while the other group stayed awake and quietly read magazines. Later in the afternoon, both groups were tested on their recall of the word list. The group that had napped correctly recalled significantly more words than the group that had not napped.
Based on these results, it can most reasonably be inferred that ____
Which choice most logically completes the text?
For SAT inference questions about experiments, first restate the setup: what was the one key difference between groups and what outcome was measured? Then look for the choice that restates the relationship between that changed factor and the result, using cautious language like “can” or “may,” without introducing new topics the passage never mentioned. Eliminate answers that jump to unrelated conclusions (like sleep habits, test difficulty, or personality traits) or that require information not given in the text.
Hints
Focus on what actually changed between the two groups
Look at what was different between the two groups in the experiment. Both learned words in the morning, but what did only one group do after lunch?
Connect the difference to the outcome
Which group performed better on the memory test, and what did that group do differently earlier in the day?
Avoid adding information not in the passage
Eliminate any answer choice that talks about things the study never measured, such as nighttime sleep or comparing morning and afternoon tests.
Step-by-step Explanation
Restate the experiment in simple terms
First, summarize what happened:
- Both groups learned the same list of unfamiliar words in the morning.
- After lunch, one group took a 45-minute nap and the other group stayed awake and read magazines.
- In the afternoon, both groups were tested on how many words they could recall.
- Result: The nap group remembered significantly more words than the no-nap group.
So the only important difference between the two groups is whether they took a nap or not.
Decide what conclusion is supported (and what is not)
Ask: What does this result show, and what does it not show?
- It does show that, in this experiment, the people who napped after studying remembered more of the words than those who did not nap.
- It does not show anything about:
- Whether reading magazines is more or less stimulating than learning words.
- How much people sleep at night.
- Whether afternoon tests are easier than morning tests (there was no morning test to compare).
So the correct inference must be about the relationship between napping after studying and memory for the new words, and it must not add new ideas not tested in the study.
Match that conclusion to the answer choices
Now compare each choice to the experiment:
- The only choice that directly reflects the experiment’s result, without adding extra assumptions, is the idea that a short nap after studying can help a person remember the information learned earlier.
Correct answer: D) taking a brief nap after studying can improve a person’s ability to remember newly learned material.