L04 - Scientific and Experimental Methods Flashcards
What did the Breitenberg vehicles prove?
Simplicity of circuit does not rule out that it does not have any experience
Yes, we do put everything inside the robots (we build it)
It does not rule out the chance that it may still be conscious
What is Ockham’s Razor?
Law of parsimony
Given several explanations for a phenomenon, the simplest one should be accepted.
What is the Central Tendency?
where scores seem to cluster together (central point of distribution)
What is Variability?
Help summarize a group of individual cases with single number compared to a cluster of scores
Degree to which scores are dispersed in distribution
High variability – Dispersed scores/close to extremes
Low variability – More similar scores
What is Internal and External validity?
External validity – To what degree do your results apply to situations outside of the experiment’s nature?
Internal validity – Quality of the experiment. How well was the experiment done?
More control over internal validity, but the more controlled the experiment, the more artificial it becomes, the less external validity stands.
What is Logical empiricism?
Assumed that science can rest on a secure base of pure, objective empirical observations that are independent of the observer and of theory: what truly exists can actually and accurately be discovered by human observation
What is Reductionism?
a
What is Reverse reductionism?
Simple systems with sensors, motors, connections between them, and simple linear functions that described define the relationship between sensor and motor. The behaviour of the vehicle can be fully described with these four components.
From a reductionist perspective, this is the full mechanistic
description of the behaviour
A problem for reductionism is emergent behaviour: complex dynamic systems can be described by simple linear functions, but the arising (emergent) behaviour may be unpredictable
The reductionist approach might miss something; on the other hand, it does not add what cannot be described (“Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent”; Wittgenstein, Tractatus Logicus Philosophicus) – is there fear or not?
What is the difference between RATIONALISM VS. EMPIRICISM ?
“Psychology has a long past, but a short history” (Hermann Ebbinghhaus)
Psychological inquiry may be as old as humanity, at least as old as recorded history. Questions about the nature of the mind, memory, learning, thinking, perception have been advanced over millennia. In this sense, psychology has a long past.
Rationalism: For the most part, psychological questions were framed and pursued within the framework of rationalism – using reason & logical arguments was thought best to find the correct answers about the nature of mind. Rationalism argues that observation not only is unnecessary, but potentially misleading.
For example, using reason, Aristotle argued that the brain was part of the cooling system of the body.
Empiricism: Hypotheses and theories about the nature of mind need to be confirmed or disconfirmed by observation. There are several empirical methods permitting proper observation, descriptive methods as well as experimental methods.
As an empirical science, psychology has a short history
What is the difference between INDUCTIVISM vs FALSIFICATIONISM ?
Classic Method:
Inductivism. Several observations are used to induce theories, which are used to deduce hypothesis, leading to more observations, eventually to arrive at laws.
Example: observing sufficient white swans might lead to law that “ALL SWANS ARE WHITE”.
Falsificationism (Popper’s suggestion). A statement (hypothesis) that is capable of being refuted is deduced from a theory. Tests are designed to refute the predictions (falsification), not to confirm a theory.
Theories allow for an infinite number of predictions. It is impossible to confirm all of them.
But if one prediction is falsified, then theory is wrong.
Therefore, falsificationism allows for a strict testing of theories.
If a prediction of a theory is falsified, theory can be changed and tested
again
What is the HAWTHORNE EFFECT?
Being observed changes the behavior of the participants
What is the Expectancy effect ?
A form of reactivity that occurs when a research subject expects a given result and therefore unconsciously affects the outcome, or reports the expected result.
What is Milgram experiment ?
“student” (confederate) in a room and participant is told to shock them when they get wrong answers and when they want to stop, the authorities (the scientists) tell them to keep going. Little do they know, this experiment is actually on them.
What is Correlation Research?
Correlational studies explore how variables are naturally related, describing and predicting relationships between the variables.
Correlational studies cannot detect causal relationships between
the variables
Correlational studies allow making predictions, and these predictions can be tested in controlled experiments to search for causal relationships between identified variables and observational outcomes
What is the Third variable problem
This is a basic problem of all correlational studies. The relationship between the two measured correlated variables might be dependent on a third, not measured, variable.
