SAT Question 7dab4d5d: Command Of Evidence answer and explanation

Choice C is the best answer because it describes data from the graph that support Jan Packer and colleagues' conclusion about the effect of leave time on the attentiveness of university employees. According to the text, the researchers' study design included a group of employees who took no leave, a group who took 2–4 days of leave, and a group who took 1–5 weeks of leave. The participants who took leave were tested for attentiveness one week before their leave (the first test administration), one week after their return to work (the second test administration), and two weeks after their return (the third test administration). The participants who took no leave were tested three times at random. The graph shows that at one week after their return to work, participants who took only 2–4 days of leave had an average attentiveness score of between 540 and 600, while participants who took 1–5 weeks of leave had an average score of between 480 and 540. At two weeks after their return to work, those who took only 2–4 days of leave had an average score of between 480 and 540, while those who took 1–5 weeks of leave had an average score of approximately 480. In other words, the graph shows that on both post-leave testing dates, participants with longer leave times had lower average attentiveness scores than those with shorter leave times. Since attentiveness is an indicator of cognitive functioning, these data confirm Packer and colleagues' conclusion that longer leave times might not confer a greater cognitive benefit than shorter leave times do.