In a comprehensive 2021 consumer behavior analysis, marketing researcher James Chen examined various psychological factors influencing purchasing deci...

Let's begin by understanding the meaning of this sentence. We'll use our understanding of pause points and segment the sentence as shown - understanding and assimilating the meaning of each segment bit by bit!

Sentence Structure

• In a comprehensive 2021 consumer behavior analysis,
  • marketing researcher James Chen
    • examined various psychological factors influencing purchasing decisions
    • and found
      • that participants who made impulse purchases
        • consistently scored high [?] the sensation-seeking personality scale.

Understanding the Meaning

Let's start reading from the beginning:

'In a comprehensive 2021 consumer behavior analysis'

• This sets up the context - we're talking about a thorough study from 2021 about how consumers behave.

'marketing researcher James Chen examined various psychological factors influencing purchasing decisions'

• James Chen (a marketing researcher) looked at different psychological factors
• These factors influence how people make decisions about buying things.

'and found that participants who made impulse purchases'

• He discovered something about a specific group of people in the study
• These were the people who made impulse purchases (buying things on a whim, without planning).

Now we reach the blank: 'consistently scored ____ the sensation-seeking personality scale.'

This is where we need to fill in the blank. Let's look at our choices:

• Choices A and B offer punctuation marks (colon and period)
• Choices C and D offer the preposition "on" (with D adding a semicolon)

To see what works here, let's understand what this phrase is telling us!

'consistently scored high [something] the sensation-seeking personality scale'

• The participants scored high...
• ...in relation to "the sensation-seeking personality scale" (which is a measurement tool psychologists use)

What do we notice about the structure here?

We need to connect the verb "scored high" with what they scored high in relation to - the scale. In English, when we talk about performance on a test, scale, or assessment, we use a specific preposition:

• We say "score high ON a test"
• We say "rank high ON a scale"
• We say "perform well ON an exam"

The preposition "on" is the conventional way to express this relationship.

Punctuation marks don't work here because:

• A period would break this into two sentences, but "the sensation-seeking personality scale" isn't a complete sentence - it's a fragment with no verb
• A colon would suggest what follows explains what "high" means, but the scale doesn't explain "high" - it's what they scored high on
• A semicolon would try to separate two independent thoughts, but "the sensation-seeking personality scale" isn't independent - it's the object of the preposition we need

So we need: Choice C - "high on"

This creates the natural, idiomatic expression: "scored high on the sensation-seeking personality scale."

GRAMMAR CONCEPT APPLIED

Using Conventional Prepositions with Verbs of Performance

Certain verbs in English require specific prepositions to convey their meaning correctly - this is called idiomatic usage (conventional expressions in grammar terms). When we talk about performance, scoring, or ranking in relation to tests, scales, or assessments, we use the preposition "on":

Pattern: [verb of performance] + [level/degree] + on + [assessment tool]

Examples:

• The students scored high on the math exam
• (not "scored high: the math exam" or "scored high. The math exam")
• She ranked first on the leadership assessment scale
• (not "ranked first: the leadership assessment scale")
• They performed well on all three tests
• (not "performed well. All three tests")

In this question:

• Verb of performance: "scored"
• Level: "high"
• Assessment tool: "the sensation-seeking personality scale"
• Correct form: "scored high on the sensation-seeking personality scale"

The preposition "on" creates the idiomatic expression that English speakers use naturally to connect performance verbs with the tools or scales being measured. No punctuation mark can substitute for this conventional preposition.