Lecture 3: The scientific method and skill research

Question 1

What is the scientific method

Answer 1

a sequential process used in the quest for knowledge in the study of any science field.

Question 2

What is the sequence of the scientific method

Answer 2

1. research question
2. hypothesis
3. collect data
4. analyze data
5. test hypothesis

Question 3

Define theory

Answer 3

human-made structure whose purpose is to explain how various phenomena occur

• often result in models
• made to be disproven

Question 4

What is hypothesis testing

Answer 4

involves forming a specific question (from a theory prediction), and answering it using the scientific method

Question 5

What is correlation research

Answer 5

• establishes relationships between variables
• variables are not manipulated by the experimenter
• correlation does not imply causation

Question 6

What is the pearson product-moment correlation coefficient (r)

Answer 6

a statistic that represents the linear dependency of two variables
- ranges from -1.0 to +1.0 where -1.0 represents a perfect negative correlation and +1.0 represents a perfect positive correlation

Question 7

What does it mean if “r” is low

Answer 7

• little to no linear relation

- there may be a relationship between the variables (ex. confounding variables) but it is not linear.

Question 8

What is data point proximity

Answer 8

the closer the points to the line of best fit, the stronger the relationship between the tasks

Question 9

What does the sign of r mean (positive or negative)

Answer 9

the directionality of the relationship

Question 10

What are the two different properties of correlation

Answer 10

1. strength: the magnitude of r

2. direction: the sign of r

Question 11

Why do we generally use r-squared

Answer 11

It gives us a percentage of commonality between two tasks.

Question 12

What are the two forms of variance that can be interpreted from correlation

Answer 12

1. explained variance

2. unexplained variance

Question 13

What is explained variance

Answer 13

• r-squared
• a coefficient of determination
• variance in one variable is explained by the other variable

Question 14

What is unexplained variance

Answer 14

• k-squared (1 - r-squared)
• everything that is not r-squared
• the proportion not explained by the correlation between the two variables

Question 15

what three types of error are commonly used to measure certainty in discrete skills

Answer 15

1. absolute
2. constant
3. variable

Question 16

What is constant error

Answer 16

Both magnitude and directionality are taken into account. Complete multiple repeated tasks and calculate the average of how much each trial deviates from a target

Question 17

What is absolute error

Answer 17

Only measures the magnitude of how much each trial deviates from a target, then calculate the average

Question 18

What is variable error

Answer 18

looking at how much each individual data point deviates from the average performance