Question

In a recent study, each member of two groups of people, Group A (composed of persons sixty-five to seventy-five years old) and Group B (composed of college students), was required to make a telephone call to a certain number at a specified time. The time when each call was initiated was recorded electronically. Group A proved far better at remembering to make a telephone call precisely at a specified time than did Group B. There were fourteen lapses in Group B but only one lapse in Group A. Clearly, at least one type of memory does not suffer as a person ages.

Which one of the following, if all of them are true, is LEAST helpful in establishing that the conclusion above is properly drawn?

(A) There was the same number of people in each group.

(B) The same group of researchers answered the calls made by the callers in both study groups.

(C) Among the college students there were no persons more than forty years old.

(D) Both groups had unrestricted access to telephones for making the required calls.

(E) The members of the two groups received their instructions approximately the same amount of time before they were to make their telephone calls.

Answer 1

Option (E) is the least helpful in establishing the conclusion because it does not address the memory capabilities or the study conditions, unlike the other options which tackle important variables such as group size and access to technology.

Step-by-step explanation:

The question is asking which of the provided options is least helpful for supporting the conclusion that one type of memory does not decline with age, based on a study where older adults were more reliable in remembering to make a phone call than college students. To determine this, one must consider which option does not contribute to validating the study's design or results.

Option (E) is the least helpful because it is irrelevant whether the instructions were received at the same time if we are measuring memory for a specified task, not the time since learning. Options (A), (B), (C), and (D) address potential variables such as group size, operator bias, age range of participants, and access to technology, which are pertinent to the study's validity. Hence, knowing that both groups received instructions at the same time does not directly address memory capabilities or the conditions under which the study took place.