lecture 3&3b

Question 1

scientific findings arent supposed to be accepted based on

Answer 1

who the scientist is or who is funding the research

Question 2

what is discovery science

Answer 2

science that is describing nature based on qualitative date (no experiments)

Question 3

what is hypothesis based science

Answer 3

science that explains nature using quantitative data (using experiments)

Question 4

what are the seven steps of the scientific method

Answer 4

1. make observations
2. ask questions
3. form a hypothesis
4. make a prediction
5. test the prediction (plan and perform experiments to collect data)
6. interpret data
7. draw conclusions

Question 5

what is a hypothesis

Answer 5

educated guess/tentative explanation

Question 6

a hypothesis must be

Answer 6

falsifiable (can be right or wrong)

Question 7

should you say that the hypothesis is right

Answer 7

no you have to say that the data supports the hypothesis

Question 8

what is a theory

Answer 8

a well sustained explanation for a set of verified hypotheses

Question 9

independent variable

Answer 9

variable being manipulated

Question 10

dependent variable

Answer 10

variable that is being tested

Question 11

control variable

Answer 11

variable that is the same in the experimental and control group

Question 12

control group

Answer 12

group that is used to compare to the experimental group (doesn’t get treatment)

Question 13

how do we avoid biases

Answer 13

neither the researchers or groups know who got the drugs or the placebo

Question 14

what is a replicate and why is it important

Answer 14

experiment being done multiple times to see the variability in the data obtained and to verify the experiment

Question 15

how do ethics play into science

Answer 15

don’t change data, write everything down to allow reproduction and take care of living things and avoid contamination of viruses

Question 16

what are descriptive statistics*

Answer 16

stats that describe your data and tell you what is going on in your experiment

Question 17

what are the measures of central tendency*

Answer 17

mean, median, mode

Question 18

what is the mean*

Answer 18

average

Question 19

what is the median*

Answer 19

the middle value/midpoint

Question 20

what is the mode*

Answer 20

the most common number in the data set

Question 21

how do you know that you have a normal distribution*

Answer 21

the graph is symmetrical
the mean, mode and median are identical

Question 22

what happens when the mean is standardized to 0*

Answer 22

the majority of the data points should be grouped around the average

Question 23

what is the drawback to taking the mean*

Answer 23

outliers will skew the average

Question 24

what does having the data points bunched together vs spread out mean*

Answer 24

when bunched together: there is low variability
when spread out: high variability

Question 25

what is the variance*

Answer 25

relative distance between the data points and the mean (s^2)

Question 26

what is the standard deviation*

Answer 26

how far apart numbers are in the sample (SD)

Question 27

what is the main advantage of the sd compared to s^2*

Answer 27

sd is in the same units as the thing youre measuring

Question 28

what is standard error*

Answer 28

how accurate the results of your sample are compared to the general population (SE)

Question 29

what are inferential statistics*

Answer 29

stats that use collected data and make inferences about the field

Question 30

what are the two types of hypotheses*

Answer 30

null and alternate

Question 31

what is a null hypothesis*

Answer 31

opposite of alternate hypothesis hypothesis you are testing with stats "there will be no difference"

Question 32

what is an alternate hypothesis*

Answer 32

opposite of null hypothesis tests your prediction

Question 33

what are the two types of the alternate hypothesis*

Answer 33

non-directional and directional

Question 34

what is a non-directional hypothesis*

Answer 34

predicts that there will be a difference but wont state the direction or magnitude of the difference

Question 35

what is a directional hypothesis*

Answer 35

predicts that the difference will be bigger or smaller

Question 36

what is alpha*

Answer 36

the level of significance of data/estimate of the probability that the result has occurred by accident or chance

Question 37

what is the value of alpha that we will use*

Answer 37

0.05 or 5%

Question 38

what is the p-value*

Answer 38

probability that you get your sample result assuming that the null hypothesis is true

Question 39

what happens when the p-value is smaller than alpha*

Answer 39

the data supports the alternate hypothesis

Question 40

what happens when the p-value is bigger than alpha*

Answer 40

the alternate hypothesis is most likely untrue