Department Scientific and Critical Thinking Quiz Study Guide 1 What is scientific and critical thinking Critical Thinking A set of skills for evaluating all claims with in an open minded and careful fashion Scientific Thinking A set of skills for overcoming our own biases especially confirmation bias by using thorough persuasive evidence to support a claim A process that implements critical thinking to evaluate scientific claims in the lab and in life o Confirmation Bias that conforms to their pre existing point of view and ignoring contradicting information The tendency for people to seek out information 2 The six principles of scientific thinking from the textbook p23 Emphasis on correlation vs causation and replicability Rule Out Rival Hypotheses In daily life there will be multiple factors influencing every decision every action and every feeling you experience By stating that you got a bad grade on the exam solely because the test was too hard you are not thinking scientifically There may be other explanations for you grade on the exam you didn t study hard enough you didn t pay attention in class you didn t get enough sleep you were distracted by your social life etc o To hone your scientific thinking skills ask yourself Have important alternative explanations for the findings been concluded Correlation Isn t Causation information is the correlation causation fallacy error of assuming that because one thing is associated with another it must cause the other A very common mistake made when interpreting o Before committing the correlation causation fallacy ask yourself Can we be sure the A causes B For a claim to be meaningful it must be falsifiable able to be Falsifiability disproved If a claim isn t falsifiable can t be disproved through an experiment then the claim should not be accepted Although the claim may be true the inability to confirm this information with evidence means that it isn t meaningful scientifically o Before accepting a claim ask yourself Can the claim be disproved Replicability The ability to duplicate a study s findings ideally by independent investigators aka people other than the ones who conducted the original experiment o Before believing a evidence to support a claim ask yourself Is there any other replications of this experiment and if not can the results be duplicated in other studies Extraordinary Claims abducted by an alien may be true one must be able to provide extraordinary evidence to verify that claim Although extraordinary claims such as I have been Occam s Razor o Before accepting someone s outrageous claims that create an interesting story ask yourself Is the evidence as strong as the claim Although complicated answers are sometimes the answer over simple answers simple answers are more commonly found to be the explanation over complicated ones For example you live by yourself and have consistently woke up to realize that food is missing from your fridge so you come to the conclusion that someone is breaking into your home at night and eating your food Once you install cameras to catch the cuprite you realize that you are sleepwalking and eating your own food at night The process of someone breaking into your house repeatedly overnight just to eat the food in your fridge is a more complicated answer than you ate your own food while sleepwalking o Before concluding that a complicated explanation is the answer ask yourself Does a simpler explanation fit the data just as well 3 Measures Importance of describing and evaluating them Reliability and validity as important criteria What are operational definitions Operational Definition A working definition of what a researcher is measuring Example if your measuring the effects of a new anti depressant on depression the dependent variable could be measured by feeling depressed more than 2 hours per day for 4 consecutive days o Since different researches may define the same variables in a different way and therefore may end up with different conclusions specifying exactly how the variables will be measured in an experiment is very important for avoid this error o By creating operational definitions for your experiment you are ensuring that the results are reliable and valid given the guidelines developed Therefore if someone else gets a different result due to a different operational definition your experimental data will not be presumed incorrect just because it was measured differently Consistency of measurement via test retest reliability and Reliability interrater reliability o Test Retest Reliability The ability to achieve the same results across multiple tests over time o Interrater Reliability The ability to achieve the same results when Validity different people conduct the same interview Extent to which a measure assess what it claims to measure 4 Correlation How do you interpret a correlation coefficient including direction and strength Correlation doesn t equal causation Alternative causal explanations for a correlation A B B A 3rd variables Correlation coefficients have 2 factors that need to be examined the direction and the strength o A correlation coefficient or r can be negative positive or zero The coefficient s sign represents the relationship between the 2 factors being examined A positive sign means that as one factor increases the other increases as well or as one factor decreases the other decreases as well Example attendance is usually positively correlated with your grade A negative sign means that as one factor increases the other factor decreases Example partying is usually negatively correlated with your grade A zero correlation means that there is no relationship between the two factors being examined Example what you wear probably isn t correlated to what your grade is in class o A correlation coefficient ranges from 1 0 to 1 0 therefore as the variable gets closer to 1 or 1 the strength of the relationship between the two factors increases Remember that the sign doesn t effect strength only direction Example 0 8 is a stronger correlation than 0 2 Since a third unknown variable can make it seem like factor A causes factor B it must be proven that factor A causes factor B o Cause must come BEFORE the effect o There MUST be a correlation 5 Experiments What are random assignment and manipulation of IV and why do them What is an IV and DV Recognize the difference between a correlational and experimental study Random Assignment Randomly assorting participants into 2
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