Exam Flashcards
Scientific method (def)
approach to knowledge acquisition that seeks to ensure our understanding is based on evidence
Descriptive science
Recognizing patterns in your suuroundings
Hypothesis-testing science
Concerned with testing one or more casual explanations for an existing pattern
Induction
Use patterns to produce a general statement or conclusion
Hypothesis
Casual explanation of a given pattern (can’t be proven only refuted)
Prediction
Statement of what will be observed under specific conditions
Deduction
Using a set of general statements to come to a logical conclusion (source of predictions)
Observational studies
Not interfering but recording observations/ measurements/ characterizations
Manipulative studies
Researcher changes a variable and compares it to a control treatment, or one or more other treatments with different manipulations of same variable.
Inferential strength
Measure of how strongly results support conclusions
Confounding variables
Separate often unknown variable that may be responsible for observed pattern
Control
Experimental procedure or treatment designed to minimize effects of confounding variable
Extrapolation
Drawing conclusion from studies on a model system that assumes that the model system =actual system, more extrapolation=lower inferential strength
Statistical hypothesis testing
Determining if the pattern in the results is real
4 criteria for knowledge acquisition
- Rational
- Skeptical
- Objective
- Methodologically materialistic
Pseudo-science
Studies that seek only to confirm beliefs
Scientific theory
Hypothesis that has been vigorously tested
Aristotle
A linear sequence of life in increasing complexity
John Wray
First classification of plants
Carl Linnaeus
Taxonic system where all organisms are arranged hierarchical groupings