SAT OwlQuestion bank / Rhetorical Synthesis
While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes:
• Psychologist Noor Hamdan studied how background noise affects creative thinking.
• Participants completed creativity tasks in rooms with different noise levels.
• The noise levels were quiet (50 decibels), moderate (70 decibels), and loud (85 decibels).
• Participants performed best at the moderate level, which is about as loud as a busy coffee shop.
• Performance was lowest at the loud level.
The student wants to present Hamdan's main finding. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?
Hamdan studied participants as they completed creativity tasks in rooms that were quiet, moderately noisy, or very loud.
Hamdan found that participants did best on creative tasks at a moderate noise level, about as loud as a busy coffee shop.
The noise levels in Hamdan's study ranged from 50 to 85 decibels.
Psychologist Noor Hamdan studied how background noise affects creative thinking.
Show answer and explanation
Answer: B
A finding is a result. Choice B reports the result: participants did best at a moderate noise level.
Choice A describes the study accurately, but it gives the setup, not what Hamdan found.
Why the other choices are wrong
- A. This describes the study's setup but not its result.
- C. This gives the range of noise levels tested, not the result.
- D. This states the topic of the study without saying what Hamdan found.
Got it wrong? On SAT Owl, Owl looks at the answer you chose and explains the exact mistake, then gives you similar questions until it sticks. Get your predicted SAT score free, or take a free full-length practice test.