test 1 Flashcards
A set of methods designed to describe and interpret
observed or inferred phenomena, past or present, and aimed at
building a testable body of knowledge open to rejection or
confirmation
If there is no way to test a claim, then it falls outside the scope
of it, and always might.
Science
not referring to things that we know to be true with 100% certainty but instead referring to conclusions that are confirmed to such an extent that it would be reasonable to offer provisional agreement, and unreasonable to deny agreement
Fact
a testable statement that accounts for a set of
observations. It should express something
unambiguous enough that it is clear how you might go about
testing it in order to confirm or disconfirm it.
Hypothesis
once a hypothesis is well enough established, we refer to it
scientifically as a _____.
Law
something that tends to be broader in scope
than hypotheses and laws - it is a set of well-tested and
well-supported hypotheses and laws, which in combination
explain many more events, and make many more predictions,
that the hypotheses or law as on their own .
Scientific theory
process of using data, observation, experiments,
or tests to confirm the truth or justification of a hypothesis
Verification:
process of testing and proving a hypothesis wrong
Falsification
Any system that tries to explain physical phenomena but cannot be
proved by the scientific method.
Pseudoscience
shows that people have
the tendency to accept highly generalized descriptions as
accurate. People take notice of, and overvalue, apparently
confirming instances of apparently plausible hypotheses, and
discount or ignore evidence that runs contrary to what we’re
invested in believing.
References: Critical Thinking, Science and Pseudoscience, p.35-36
Forer effect (aka the Barnum effect):
Finding the boundary or differentiating
criteria between science and pseudoscience is known as the
__________ ________
Demarcation Problem
Practice of
taking a press release
and repurposing it
without ever reading the
study in question
Churnalism
Conflicts of interest, anecdotal evidence, technical jargon, sample size, cherry picking, sensationalism and control groups
Seven Sins of churnalism
Principle in which you consider various explanations (or
hypotheses) for an observed phenomenon and then select the one
that involves the fewest number of additional assumptions or
other complications
Notion of choosing the most parsimonious explanation
Occam’s Razor
is an error or mistake in
reasoning, but one that takes a certain defined form.
Fallacy
logical fallacy that occurs when someone
claims something is true because a famous or powerful person
said it.
Appeal to Authority:
is when the arguer attacks the person and not the
argument. literally means “against the person.” It
can be effective, but it is fallacious.
Ad Hominem
involves attributing cause and
effect relationship without adequate evidence
Post Hoc
are predictable patterns of judgmental
derivation that occur in specific situations, which can cause
inaccurate interpretation or perception of information
Cognitive biases
are mental shortcuts or rules of thumb that
significantly decrease the mental effort required to solve
problems or make decisions
Mental heuristics
habit of noticing evidence that confirms
something we already believe, and not noticing evidence that
complicates the picture of disproves our belief
Confirmation bias
tendency to stick with an initial belief,
even after receiving contradictory or disconfirming information
about that belief
Belief perseverance
occurs when we overestimate how confident we
are in an outcome after the outcome is already known
Hindsight bias
can be thought of as a form of
stereotyping, of taking a particularly salient feature of
someone or something and overgeneralizing it inappropriately
Representative Heuristic
when we make judgments about how
likely something is to occur based only on how easily it is
brought to mind
Availability Heuristic:
