Whaddya Know

1
Whaddya Know?
Indicate whether you think each of the following
statements is true or false

• 1. The more confident a person is of what he
  remembers, the more confident we can be that his
  memory is accurate
• 2. Experienced therapists, applying their
  clinical insight, are better than laypersons at
  predicting whether a person will be violent in
  the future.
• 3. We can best understand what a person does by
  knowing her or his underlying personality
  characteristics.
• 4. Subliminal stimuli, on tape or flashed on a
  movie screen, can march past our conscious minds
  to affect us unconsciously.
• 5. Trust your feelings they never lie. We may
  have our facts wrong, but we cannot be wrong
  about what we are feeling.
• 6. A young person who is outstanding academically
  is likely to be shy, non-athletic, socially
  inept, and generally nerdy.

2
Chapter 1Testing Our Ideas

• Research tests our ideas and improves them
• Science tests conclusions against facts
• Different than appeals to authority, common
  sense, personal experience or intuition
• Problem Fraudulent, Bad, or No research at all
• Research Consumers vs. Scientists
• Applied and Basic Research

3
Look See

• Yellow Fever example
• Autism
• How do ideas change?

4
What Do We Think and Why?

• Sea of Information
• How do we tell whether something is true?
• Ask What is this claim or conclusion based on?

5
If you are told something is so, ask

• How do you know? Or why do you think so?
• IF you get an answer (reasons) then ask Are the
  reasons good reasons?

6
Ways of Knowing--Backing up what we say (Reasons)

• Authority
• Common Sense
• Personal Experience
• Intuition

7
Authority

• So and so says its so and he/she ought to know
• My mother saidmy father saidthe experts say
• Scientists sayResearchers say

8
Common Sense

• Everybody knows
• Its obvious

9
Common Sense

• 1. The more confident a person is of what he
  remembers, the more confident we can be that his
  memory is accurate
• 2. Experienced therapists, applying their
  clinical insight, are better than laypersons at
  predicting whether a person will be violent in
  the future.
• 3. We can best understand what a person does by
  knowing her or his underlying personality
  characteristics.
• 4. Subliminal stimuli, on tape or flashed on a
  movie screen, can march past our conscious minds
  to affect us unconsciously.
• 5. Trust your feelings they never lie. We may
  have our facts wrong, but we cannot be wrong
  about what we are feeling.
• 6. A young person who is outstanding academically
  is likely to be shy, non-athletic, socially
  inept, and generally nerdy.

10
Personal Experience

• Its true if it fits my experience
• I dont agree with that. It doesnt fit my
  experience.

11
Problems with Personal Experience

• Problem of sampling bias
• Problem of Observer bias
• Problem of Confounded Variables

12
Intuition

• I just know that this is true
• But what about my intuition versus yours
• Whose intuitions do we trust?
• Intuition and Scientific thinking are not
  incompatible

13
How do you know? Or Why do you think so?

• So and so says its so and she ought to know
• Everyone knows that
• My Experience tells me that

14
How does a scientist know or justify conclusions?

• A conclusion is established that has been tested,
  not once but many times against established facts
• Tested under conditions that could have shown it
  to be false (Falsifiability Criterion)
• Conclusions always tentative gt So far

15
Built-in Error Correction

• The strength of the Scientific Method
• This is what makes science unique
• Permits us to know when we are wrong

16
A General Principle

• If we test our ideas, we can know when we are
  wrong. And if we know when we are wrong, we can
  correct our mistakes.

17
So, if we ask a scientist Why do you think so?

• Because the idea has been tested against the
  facts and stood up to the test
• Because of research that has demonstrated such
  and such

18
Okay, conclusions based on tests, but

• Are the scientists reasons good ones?
• Were the tests (studies) good tests?
• Were these tests designed properly
• Were the tests really tests of your conclusions
  at all?
• Problem of adequate tests and what conclusions we
  can draw from them

19
Life would be simple if

• One could assume that all research is good
  research
• When someone says Studies show
• The studies exist and that they do in fact
  show
• Unfortunatelyits not that simple

20
Research Good, Bad, and Bogus

• Fraudulent Research
• Subliminal Advertising
• Incompetent Research
• Autism research
• Therapeutic success stories
• Self-help books

21
Why Study Research Methods?

• Research Producers Scientists
• Research ConsumersProfessionals
• Everyone
• Problems and pitfalls of research

22
Basic versus Applied Research

• Basic Research--goal of understanding--basic
  principles underlying class of events
• Applied Research--practical problem in mind
• Cross Talk

23
The Research Adventure

• Critical Eye--practical benefits
• Interesting
• Detective story, a mystery to be solved

24
SATs on the way Up?
25
Gene Links Stress, Depression
26
Coffee Good For You