Lecture 5

Question 1

Meta-analyses

Answer 1

Relatively new approach to testing hypothesis by the aggregation and analysis of research studies

Question 2

Observational/Experimental vs. Meta-analysis

Answer 2

Single study; you design and execute, application to world likely limited, circumstances of study likely important
vs.
Many studies; you collect results from many studies, application to world more broad, circumstances of individual studies less important

Question 3

How to do a meta-analysis

Answer 3

1. Carefully determine your response variable and what you are testing
2. Set constraints on search criteria
3. Use journal citation search engines to identify and collect relevant studies
4. Extract relevant data from paper and compile into database
5. Use standardize metrics to quantitatively analyze results
6. Compare results to prediction to reach conclusion

Question 4

Meta-analyses Positives vs. Negatives

Answer 4

Positives:
- powerful and robust (based on many studies)
- wide scope (high applicability)
- can account for many confounding variables
- can be inexpensive
Negatives:
- uncontrolled variables can be problematic
- not feasible for many questions due to lack of information
- can be difficult to standardize results among many studies
- publication bias

Question 5

Basic Science

Answer 5

• contributes to general knowledge and an understanding of nature and its laws
• motivated simply by curiosity
• little or no concern about value of results for humans

Question 6

Applied Science

Answer 6

• does not typically add to general understanding of the world
• uses knowledge and information to address specific problems
• motivated by desire to improve technology

Question 7

Basic vs. Applied

Answer 7

Tesla = classic scientific method approach with hypotheses and tests
Edison = Doesn’t care why trials don’t work. Just keep running tests until something positive happens.

Question 8

Is there a difference?

Answer 8

No. The scientific method is the same regardless of the questions its being applied to answer. It’s how the results are being used (or not used) that differs between the two approaches

Question 9

What is a Scientific Theory?

Answer 9

A hypothesis that is widely accepted by the scientific community (NO)
A logically self-consistent framework that explains of a related set of natural or social phenomena
(Theory is a hypothesis generating machine)

Components
- Axioms and Laws: self-truths and first principles
- Theorems: truths derived from axioms
- Scope: Range of observations the theory is trying to explain
- Evidence: All information that either supports or doesn’t support the theory
Link these components together and you have a theory. Notice that theory provides the logical basis to explain a body of related knowledge. This then serves to produce testable hypotheses

Question 10

Criteria to Judge Theories

Answer 10

• Consistency
• Parsimonious
• Useful
• Testable
• Correctable and dynamic

Question 11

What are the primary theories in biology?

Answer 11

• Information (Genetics)
• Information change through time (Evolution)
• Internal and external regulation (Physiology)
• Interactions among organisms (Ecology)