Week 1

Question 1

What are the three sources of knowledge?

Answer 1

1. Intuition
2. Authority
3. Science

Question 2

Intuition

Answer 2

Nonconscious emotional information from the body or brain

Question 3

Commonsense (1 pro, 1 con)

Answer 3

Informal beliefs or folkways
Pro: Shared by many
Con: Not based on systematic observation

Question 4

Anecdote (1 pro, 1 con)

Answer 4

Story or example, often biographical
Pro: Proves a “real-world” example
Con: Not based on systematic observation

Question 5

Personal Experience (1 pro, 1 con)

Answer 5

Testimonials, introspective self-reports
Pro: Easily identified with
Con: Often subjective and biased

Question 6

Pro and Con of Authority

Answer 6

Pro: Convenient
Con: Misleading when presumed authority does not have, or claims to have knowledge or experience

Question 7

Confirmation Bias

Answer 7

Tendency to focus on cases that confirm our intuitive beliefs, and not on cases that disconfirm them

Question 8

What is Science?

Answer 8

Application of careful logic and skeptical empiricism to falsifiable questions

Question 9

Falsifiable

Answer 9

Ability to be proven wrong

Question 10

Empiricism

Answer 10

Comparing ideas to observable phenomenon

Question 11

Pseudoscience

Answer 11

Activities and beliefs that are claimed to be scientific, but lack key features of science

Question 12

Scientific Method

Answer 12

Formulate hypothesis - Test hypothesis against observation - Revise hypothesis and start again

Question 13

Theory

Answer 13

Systematic body of ideas that explain and predict observed events

Question 14

Hypothesis

Answer 14

Statement about the natural world that may or may not be true

Question 15

What are the three features of science

Answer 15

Systematic Empiricism
Empirical Questions
Public Knowledge

Question 16

Systematic Empiricism

Answer 16

Learning based on observation

Question 17

Empirical Questions

Answer 17

Questions about the way the world actually is and can be answered by systematically observing

Question 18

Basic Research

Answer 18

For its own sake
Purpose of gaining more detailed and accurate understanding of human behaviour without trying to address any particular practical problem

Question 19

Applied Research

Answer 19

To address a particular problem

Question 20

Skepticism

Answer 20

Pausing to consider alternatives and to search for evidence when there is enough at stake to justify it

Question 21

Tolerance of Uncertainty

Answer 21

The acceptance that there are many things we do not know