The Scientific Method and The Hierarchy Of Evidence

Question 1

What is science?

Answer 1

The intellectual and practical activity encompassing the
systematic objective study of the structure and behaviour of the physical and natural world through observation and experiment

Question 2

List some adjectives used to describe scientists.

Answer 2

Objective
Well-informed
Tenacious
Open-minded
Skeptical
Data-driven
Flexible

Question 3

What does objective mean?

Answer 3

Objective: not influenced by personal feelings or opinions in considering and representing facts

Question 4

What does subjective mean?

Answer 4

Based on or influenced by personal feelings, tastes, or opinions

Question 5

Give an example of something that is objective.

Answer 5

The patients temperature is 39.1 degrees Celsius

Question 6

Give an example of something that is subjective.

Answer 6

I really like that song

Question 7

Define skepticism.

Answer 7

An attitude of doubt or a disposition to incredulity either in general or toward a particular object

Question 8

Define credulity

Answer 8

Readiness or willingness to believe especially on slight or uncertain evidence

Question 9

What is cynicism?

Answer 9

A mistrust of the motivations behind a statement

Question 10

What is falsifiability?

Answer 10

Falsifiability defines the testability of any scientific hypothesis
In other words, it must be possible to test it, if it is to be accepted

Question 11

Give an example of a statement that is unfalsifiable.

Answer 11

There is a china Teapot (too small to be seen by a

telescope) in an ellipitcal orbit around Pluto

Question 12

What is dogmatism?

Answer 12

Basing conclusions on authority rather than logic

Question 13

Give an example of a dogmatic statement.

Answer 13

How do we know the earth is round? -> my parents told me (not because of photographs from space etc.

Question 14

List the seven steps in the scientific method.

Answer 14

Problem/Question
Observation/Research
Formulate a Hypothesis
Experiment
Collect and Analyze Results
Conclusion
Communicate the Results

Question 15

What is a hypothesis?

1/2

Answer 15

A testable‚ tentative answer to a question

A testable statement accounting for a set of observations

Question 16

What is a scientific theory?

Answer 16

A Scientific Theory is a well-substantiated explanation of some aspect of the natural world, based on a body of facts that have been repeatedly confirmed

Question 17

Give three examples of scientific theories.

Answer 17

Theory of evolution
Theory of gravity
Germ theory of disease

Question 18

What are the two main types of error?

Answer 18

Type 1: Believing a falsehood (false positive)

Type 2: Rejecting a truth (false negative)

Question 19

Give an example of a type 1 error.

Answer 19

A rain dance will bring rain - False, but relatively benign

Question 20

Give an example of a type 2 error.

Answer 20

That rustling in the bushes is not a poisonous snake

- False, and deadly

Question 21

List the different data types.

Answer 21

Quantitative

Qualitative

Question 22

What is quantitative data?

Answer 22

Information about quantities

Question 23

What is qualitative data?

Answer 23

Descriptive, subjective or difficult to measure

Question 24

Give an example of a type of information that is not data.

3

Answer 24

Anecdotal evidence is not data

Using personal experience or an isolated example instead of a valid argument, especially to dismiss statistics.

“They say smoking kills but my grandfather smoked 60 a day and lived to 90

Question 25

List in descending order the hierarchy of evidence. | 7

Answer 25

Meta analysis and systematic reviews Randomised controlled trials Cohort studies Case-control studies Cross-sectional studies Animal trials and in vitro studies Case reports, opinion papers, and letters

Question 26

List some examples of non scientific evidence.

Answer 26

Youtube videos Gut feelings Some guy you know Personal anecdotes

Question 27

What are Case-reports, opinion papers & letters? | 2

Answer 27

Usually formed/published by experts in the field. May be based on a single patient/experiment.

Question 28

What are Animal trials & In-vitro (in glass) studies? | 2

Answer 28

Studies performed on isolated microorganisms, cells or biological molecules outside of their normal context or... Studies performed in animals as a substitute for human subjects. Remember – mice and humans are different!

Question 29

What are cross-sectional studies? | 2

Answer 29

Cross sectional studies determine the prevalence of a particular trait in a particular population at a particular time. These studies are observational only.

Question 30

What are case-control studies? | 2

Answer 30

Case-control studies are also observational, and they work somewhat backwards from how we typically think of experiments. They start with the outcome, then try to figure out what caused it. e.g. Gather people that have had heart attacks, and then look at their diets retrospectively

Question 31

What are cohort studies?

Answer 31

In a cohort study, you take a group of people who do not have the outcome that you are interested in (e.g., heart disease) and who differ (or will differ) in their exposure to some potential cause. Then, you follow them for a given period of time to see if they develop the outcome that you are interested in

Question 32

What are randomised control trial. | 3

Answer 32

The gold standard of scientific research. Gather subjects that are as similar as possible, divide into groups. Give one group a placebo, the other a treatment. Ideally they should be double-blinded.

Question 33

Give an example of a randomised control trial.

Answer 33

A drug trial

Question 34

Explain the process of a randomised drug trial. | 4

Answer 34

Randomly split a group of patients into equal numbers– same sex ratio, age, no confounding factors etc. Give one group the drug and one group a placebo N.B. Doctor does not know which group is which Patient does not know which group they are in After some time, measure the effects

Question 35

What are meta-analysis? | 2

Answer 35

These are not experiments themselves, but rather are reviews and analyses of previous experiments. Meta-analyses combine the data sets from multiple papers and run a statistical analyses across all of them

Question 36

Give an example of a group which organises meta-analysis.

Answer 36

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