Q15 - carpal tunnel syndrome

[ohthatpatrick]

Question Type:
Explain the Discrepancy

Stimulus Breakdown:
CTS is often caused by typing on a keyboard.
Among people who do similar amounts of typing, the ones with less control over their own work were three times more likely to get CTS.

Answer Anticipation:
GIVEN THAT the two groups did the same amount of typing
WHY IS IT THAT the ones with less control were more likely to get this nerve disorder?

Correct Answer:
B

Answer Choice Analysis:
(A) Inapplicable. We're comparing groups that did the SAME amount of typing.

(B) Yes! This allows us to explain why people with less control were more likely to get CTS, a nerve disorder.

(C) This doesn't distinguish between the "more control" / "less control" groups.

(D) This reinforces the surprise but doesn't explain it.

(E) Opposite! This introduces a distinction, but it makes it seem like the "more control" group would be more likely to develop CTS.

Takeaway/Pattern: It's a fairly simple prephrase to tease out: why does less control lead to more CTS? The main challenge with the correct answer is that they stopped referring to carpal tunnel specifically and instead referred to nerve disorders in general (which is just code for "including CTS")

#officialexplanation

[schwingrocker]

Can someone explain why D is wrong?

[dkim923]

Because who cares about the people who rarely use keyboards?
I thought it was due to the fact we are trying to explain the discrepancy between those who do "similar amounts of typing" thus making information about office workers who rarely use it as irrelevant?

Someone please correct me if I am wrong.

[timmydoeslsat]

You are absolutely correct. We are talking about similar levels of typing. What does differ among the two groups is not the typing but rather the reporting of control.

[sejin.park.214]

Is A wrong on the basis of the clause "similar amounts of typing" in the stimulus while the AC says "significantly less typing"?

[timmydoeslsat]

That is correct. We would not be addressing the issue presented with those of similar amounts of typing.

[msslater]

Look at the other AC's


A) 2 reasons: (1) The stimulus is talking about "those who do SIMILAR amounts of typing" not those who do significantly LESS typing as A states. and (2) The argument uses languages that states: "Workers REPORTING the least control..." versus A: "Have the least control" - A very subtle change in wording that drastically affects the validity of the AC.

B) CORRECT. Feeling a lack of control over one's own work --> ^More Emotional stress --> ^More likely to get nerve disorder. Weak AC but nothing wrong, keep it and move on to other AC's.

C) This AC has nothing to explain the differing results of the two groups of workers. How does everybody using the same keyboard explain the discrepancy? Doesn't reconcile the claims--cross off.

D) Like previously stated, we don't care about people who rarely use keyboards. The argument is only talking about people who do use keyboards. Out of SCOPE.

E) Out of Scope. What kind of repetitive motions? They could be blinking their eyes every 5 seconds as a repetitive motion. Doesn't suggest hands and wrists as stated in the argument...therefore Out of Scope and/or UNSUPPORTED. Additionally, look at the Word choice "Have the most control" is not the same as "reported the most control."

Hope that helps, feel free to add/explain things where I may have missed.

[kyuya]

I only found (A) and (B) to be attractive answer choices here, but I'll go through them all. This question bothered me because I did not read carefully enough to distinguish (A) from (B) properly. I will explain below, perhaps others made the same mistake.

- less control = more carpal tunnel syndrome than more control, but they do the same amount of typing. How can we explain this?

Maybe the people with less control do other things that cause carpal tunnel? After typing is only one activity that may aggravate it. The actual correct answer is much more subtle than this but it sufficient as a substitute for a weakener question.

(A) wrong because the stimulus explicitly states that we are only talking about those who do similar amounts of typing. Even though this may be a minority since those who have the most control over their work typically do less typing, the sentence in the stimulus "among those who do similar amounts of work" makes this answer choice irrelevant.

(B) Here is the right answer, and it is a bit weak and weird, but its correct. Provides a distinction between less control / more control that makes those with less control more likely to get nerve disorders (remember, carpal tunnel is a nerve disorder).

(C) Doesn't distinguish any groups. This would be true for both groups, and is therefore irrelevant.

(D) Who rarely use keyboards? This is a group we don't care about. Remember, the stimulus is only concerned about a group of workers that types about the same amount, and is less / more likely to have control over their work.

(E) This actually makes things worse, not explaining the situation. If this were true, then it would make it more odd those with less control get carpal tunnel more.

However, it is also wrong because of the same reason (A) is wrong. WIth the words "tend to", it is not really guaranteed that those in the said study of the stimulus fall into this group, which makes that an assumption. (B) requires no such assumption, so it is a better answer choice.

[TurkeyJerky]

Nobody's I saw really explained it the way I thought it out so here's my humble addition. Maybe it'll help someone that just wasn't getting it.

For Disagreement questions you need to remember your METHOD. 1st. Find the conflicting premises. 2nd Formulate a question that would address these two seemingly conflicting facts.

In this stimulus the conflicting facts are:

1. Carpal tunnel syndrome is OFTEN caused by repetitive motions like typing on a keyboard.

2. Among people who do similar amounts of typing, those who REPORT the LEAST amount of control over their work had 3x risk of devoloping carpal tunnel than those who REPORTED the MOST control.

Now let's formulate our question.

So why do those who report the least control have 3x more risk of carpal tunnel than those who report the most control even though they are typing the same amount?

Wrong choices:

(A) this is talking about 'workers who have the most control over their work.' Our question is about workers who typed in similar amounts and their REPORTED control. Perhaps our workers actually do have control they're just misjudging themselves and are misreporting their control.
(C) Doesn't address the two types of people mentioned in our stim.
(D) Mentions workers who 'rarely' use a keyboard. That's not who we're talking about. Although this does seem to corroborate our evidence. So maybe this strengthens the stimulus but it doesn't resolve/explain it.
(E) Would actually seem to be a weakener.

Correct answer: (B) 'Feeling' matches the stim's 'reported' and it goes on to describe the 'nervous disorder' which is also mentioned in the stim.