A study question tests whether you can draw a conclusion from a comparison of groups. Read the words before the blank, then name each group and what it showed, keeping survey results tied to what people reported. Ask what differed between the groups, because something shared by both can't explain a difference in their results. Use that difference to predict the smallest supported conclusion. Wrong choices often go past the study by making claims about things it never tested.
Hints
- Hint 1
Look at the two groups of offices. What changed in one group while the other kept its usual décor?
- Hint 2
How did the reported stress compare between the two groups? Use that difference to predict a small conclusion about the change the company made.
Step-by-step
From the groups to a small conclusion
Step 1Name the two groups
Half the offices received several small potted plants, while the rest kept their usual décor. What changed between the groups? Some offices had plants and others didn't, so the blank needs a conclusion based on offices with plants versus offices without them. Let's follow those two groups to the survey three weeks later.
- Step 2
Use the survey result
What did the survey show? Employees in offices with plants reported significantly lower stress than employees in offices without plants. We can predict a small conclusion from that difference: plants may help lower workplace stress. The survey points to a possible benefit, but it doesn't promise that every worker will feel less stressed when plants are added.
- Step 3
Check the choice's wording
The phrase Based on this result limits us to what the company compared. The choice saying that live plants can help reduce workers' stress levels does that: can help allows a benefit without promising one for every worker. Choice D.