Self-study
Four randomly chosen market research companies each produced population estimates for three middle-sized cities; the estimates of each company were then compared with those of the other companies. ███ ██ ███ ██████ ███ ██████████ ██████ ████████████ ███ ███ ████ █████████ ██ ███████ ██████████ ███ ██ █████████ ██████████ ██ ████ █████ ██████ ██████ ████ ███████ ██ ████████ ████████ ███ ███ █████ █████ █████ ███ ███████ ████████ █████████ ██████ ███████ ████ ███████ ██ ████████
Synthesizing The Claims
Here's a low-res summary of the claims in this stimulus:
- Domain: Middle-sized cities
- 4 companies estimating the current and future populations of 3 cities
- 2 cities stable population; 1 city rapidly growing
- Companies' estimates for the stable cities were basically all the same, current and future
- Companies' estimates for the growing city varied wildly
6.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ █████ ████ ████ ███████ ███ █████████ ██ ███ ███████ ██████████ ██ ███ ███████ ███████ ████ ██████ ████ ████ ███ ███████ ██████████ █████████ ███ ███ ███ █████ ███████
a
Population changes over ████ ███ ████ ███████ ████ ███ ████████ ██ ███████ ██ ███ ███████ ███████ ████ ████ ██ ███ ███ █████ ███████
If we had some reason to think the different companies based their estimates on different districts, (A) would be correct.
b
The population of ███ ███████ ███████ ████ ██ ██████████ ███████ ██ █ ██████ ██ █ ████ █████ █████
If we had some reason to think one or more companies relied on birth rate more heavily than the others in their estimates, (B) would be correct.
c
The population of ███ ███████ ███████ ████ ███ █ █████ ███████ ███ ████ ███ ███████████ ██ ██████ ██ ███ ███ █████ ███████
If we had some reason to believe the various companies treated age differently as a factor in their estimates, (C) would be correct.
d
All population estimates ██ ███ ███████ ███████ ████ ████ ████████ █████ ██ ██████████ ███ ███████ ███████████ ██ ███ ████████ █████████ ███ ████ ██ ██████ █████ ██████████
If we had some reason to believe the various companies calculated district-level populations differently from one another, (D) would be correct.
e
Whereas the companies ████ █████████ ███████ ███ ██████████ ███ ███████ ██████████ ██ ███ ███████ ███████ █████ ███ █████████ ████ ███ ████ ██████ ███ ███ ███ █████ ███████
Different methodologies would explain different outcomes, especially since (E) also establishes that they used the same outcomes for the cities in which they generated similar outcomes.