涛涛-3-18

The growing popularity of computer-based activities was widely expected to result in a decline in television viewing, since it had been assumed that people lack sufficient free time to maintain current television-viewing levels while spending increasing amounts of free time on the computer.  That assumption, however, is evidently false:  in a recent mail survey concerning media use, a very large majority of respondents who report increasing time spent per week using computers report no charge in time spent watching television.

Which of the following would it be most useful to determine in order to evaluate the argument?

1. Whether a large majority of the survey respondents reported watching television regularly
2. Whether the amount of time spent watching television is declining among people who report that they rarely or never use computers
3. Whether the type of television programs a person watches tends to change as the amount of time spent per week using computers increases
4. Whether a large majority of the computer owners in the survey reported spending increasing amounts of time per week using computers

   e. Whether the survey respondents’ reports of time spent using computers included time spent using computers at work

Please explaint the reasoning for E,

in my view, if it concludes the time during working, it will not affect the time watching TV at home. if it doesn't, the respondent reply that there's no change, even they spend more time w/computer.

how will this undermine the conclution. Faint! 3ks

conclusion:
        The growing popularity of computer-based activities was widely expected to result in a decline in television viewing

assumption:  people lack sufficient free time to maintain current television-viewing levels while spending increasing amounts of free time on the computer

it assumes that people's free time is fixed, so if people want to increase their time spending on computer, they must do so at the expense of time spending on television.
but people can use computer in time rather than their free time, eg. working time. if they increase their time spending on computer during their working time, then their time for television will not be reduced.
so we need to know whether the time spent during work is taken into consideration by surveyees.