lecture 7.3

Question 1

self explanation effect

Answer 1

With respect to learning, generating explanation to oneself or to other facilitates the integration of new information into existing bodies of knowledge and can lead to deeper understanding

Question 2

Understanding

Answer 2

involves grasping why or how something came about or is the way that it is. This makes it possible for us to intervene on the owrld and to anticipate what will happen next

Question 3

illusion of explanatory depth

Answer 3

believeing you understand the world more clearly and in greater detail than they actually do

Question 4

example of explanatory depth

Answer 4

Experimental data suggests that people are often mislead into judging bad psychological explanations as better than they really are when accompanied by completely irrelevant neuroscientific information. This seductive allure of neuroscientific explanations might interfere with peoples ability to critically evaluate the quality of an explanation. Coupled with an illusion of explanatory depth, this interference can have negative practical efects when, for example, it is exploited by advertisements for brain training that promise brain enhancements proven by neuroscientists.

Question 5

nomological conception of explanation

Answer 5

According to this concept a scientific explanation references a law that can account for the phenomenon to be explained.

proposes that explanations are arguments that appeal to general scientific laws to derive statements about the occurrence of the phenomena we want to explain

Question 6

genuine laws of nature are frequently said to possess most or all of the following features

Answer 6

non trivial

general

true

Exceptionless

Based on evidence

Explanatory

systematic

precise

predictive

Question 7

pattern conception

Answer 7

explanations fit particular statements about phenomena into a more general framework of laws and principles

Has been called unification conception of explanation since the number of assumptions and beliefs required to explain phenomena decreases when an explanation is provided. Phenomena and laws as well are unified by uncovering the basic patterns that govern them

The ideas behind the nomological and pattern conceptions of explanations is that explanations make phenomena less surprising by referencing laws or by showing how they fit into a wider pattern

Question 8

Effects

Answer 8

Many laws and patterns in phenomena are also called effects

Question 9

Causal conception

Answer 9

explanations appeal to causes that bring about the phenomenon to be explained. The causal conception seems to account well for many explanations in science, including especially in fields that do not deal with laws

Question 10

Mechanistic

Answer 10

the search for causal mechanisms seem to play an especially important role in some parts of the social and life sciences