Mobile application developers often create apps with one primary function but discover that additional features contribute significantly to user engag...
GMAT Information and Ideas : (Ideas) Questions
Mobile application developers often create apps with one primary function but discover that additional features contribute significantly to user engagement. Gaming apps typically focus on entertainment, productivity apps emphasize efficiency, and social media apps prioritize connection. However, analyzing the success of the meditation app Headspace, Kim and colleagues found that while the app was designed primarily to teach mindfulness techniques, its progress tracking and achievement system also functioned as a habit formation tool. The researchers conclude that Headspace's rapid user growth resulted from this dual functionality: providing both meditation instruction and behavioral reinforcement for consistent practice.
Which finding, if true, would most directly support Kim and colleagues' conclusion?
Users who access Headspace's progress tracking features show significantly higher retention rates than those who use only the meditation content.
Competing meditation apps without progress tracking systems have lower user engagement despite offering similar meditation content quality.
Headspace's marketing materials emphasize the app's meditation expertise rather than its habit-forming features.
Users report that Headspace's meditation content is more effective than traditional in-person meditation instruction.
Step 1: Decode and Map the Passage
Part A: Passage Analysis Table
| Text from Passage | Analysis |
|---|---|
| "Mobile application developers often create apps with one primary function but discover that additional features contribute significantly to user engagement." |
|
| "Gaming apps typically focus on entertainment, productivity apps emphasize efficiency, and social media apps prioritize connection." |
|
| "However, analyzing the success of the meditation app Headspace, Kim and colleagues found that while the app was designed primarily to teach mindfulness techniques, its progress tracking and achievement system also functioned as a habit formation tool." |
|
| "The researchers conclude that Headspace's rapid user growth resulted from this dual functionality: providing both meditation instruction and behavioral reinforcement for consistent practice." |
|
Part B: Passage Architecture & Core Elements
Main Point: Research on Headspace suggests that apps grow rapidly when they combine their primary function with additional features that serve a different but complementary purpose.
Argument Flow: The passage establishes a general principle about apps succeeding through additional features, then presents specific research on Headspace as evidence, concluding that the app's success came from combining meditation instruction with habit-forming progress tracking.
Step 2: Interpret the Question Precisely
This is a fill-in-the-blank question asking us to choose the best logical connector. The answer must create the right relationship between what comes before and after the blank.
Step 3: Prethink the Answer
- To support the conclusion that Headspace's rapid growth resulted from dual functionality, we'd need evidence showing that the progress tracking component actually contributes to user success beyond just the meditation content alone
Users who access Headspace's progress tracking features show significantly higher retention rates than those who use only the meditation content.
- Shows users accessing progress tracking have higher retention than meditation-only users - directly tests the dual functionality claim within the same app and proves the progress tracking component adds measurable value
Competing meditation apps without progress tracking systems have lower user engagement despite offering similar meditation content quality.
- Compares different apps rather than testing Headspace's specific dual functionality - other variables could explain differences between apps
Headspace's marketing materials emphasize the app's meditation expertise rather than its habit-forming features.
- Focuses on marketing emphasis rather than actual user behavior or growth causes - doesn't address whether dual functionality actually works
Users report that Headspace's meditation content is more effective than traditional in-person meditation instruction.
- Only addresses meditation content quality, ignoring the progress tracking component entirely - doesn't support the dual functionality conclusion