A question about a study tests what you can conclude from the groups' results. Read the words leading into the blank to see whether you need a conclusion, a prediction, or a limit. Then name each group and what happened before and after the change being tested. Compare both groups, because something they share can't explain a difference between them. Don't claim more than the study shows, since wrong answers often stretch the results beyond what the researchers tested.
Hints
- Hint 1
Before planting, how did camera detections in the two sets of gaps compare? Find each group's starting point.
- Hint 2
Check what happened without planting a year later. Did detections change the same way in both sets of gaps?
Step-by-step
Compare the gaps over time
Step 1Identify the groups
Before planting, cameras in both kinds of gaps recorded similar numbers of pine martens, so the groups began at about the same level. What did the biologists change? They added shrubs to half the gaps and left the rest unchanged. The blank asks what this comparison suggests, so the change being tested is shrub planting.
- Step 2
Read the difference
A year later, marten detections had increased in the planted gaps, while they had remained about the same in the unchanged gaps. Why does the unchanged group matter? It shows that detections didn't rise in both groups. The increase was tied to shrub planting, rather than a change shared by both groups.
- Step 3
Draw a supported conclusion
What do the detections suggest about whether shrubs would help the animals move through the area? More detections suggest greater use of the planted routes. The choice saying planting likely made the restored gaps more appealing travel routes links shrubs to that use without claiming certainty. Choice A.