Pseudo Exam 1

What are the 3 key elements of scientific altitude?

• being curious

• being skeptical - questioning

• having humility

What are the warnings signs of pseudoscience?

• stagnant (little to no change over time)

• confirmation over refutation

• overreliance on ad hoc hypothesis

• reversed burden of proof

• evasion of peer review

• obscurantist language

• overreliance of testimonials, anecdotes

• absence of boundary conditions (anyone can do it)

• absence of connectivity

What is demarcation problem?

• a philosophical question about where to draw the line between science and pseudoscience

What is the Muller-Lyer Illusion used to demonstrate?

• the issue with anecdotes and testimonials

What is parapsychology?

• a hyphen field and is not well integrated with other areas

What is unorthodox?

• novel phrase or ideas that are radically different (may face particularly strong skepticism)

What are the 3 possible harms of pseudoscience?

• can cause damage and pain directly

• may lead to opportunity costs

• can degrade confidence in science and research

What is ideomotor phenomenon?

• an individual makes involuntary physical movements in response to ideas, thoughts, and expectations

What is evidence?

• includes data used to support a claim

What is the strength of subjective data?

• low standard

• low credibility

• testimonials

• anecdotes

• marketing data

What is the strength of objective data?

• high standard

• high credibility

• systematic review papers

• meta-analyses

What are two broad ways to categorize methods of research?

• descriptive (observational)

• Experimental

What is a hypothesis?

• generate a testable question about behavior

What is Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Theory?

• people should have basic need met (physiological, safety, etc) before they are motivated for spiritual needs (self-esteem, love)

What are correlational designs?

• descriptive research

• examine how strong a relationship is between two (or more) variables

• role: determine strength of relationships to help with predictions about behaviors/events

What does a positive correlation mean?

• direction of change is the same

• as one measure increases, the other also increases

What does a negative correlation mean?

• direction of change is different

• as one measure increases, the other decreases

What does a Zero correlation mean?

• change in one has no clear directional change in the other

What is the Correlation coefficient?

• statistical value

• range from -1 to +1

• closer to 1 = the stronger the relationship

What do experiments determine?

• determine causation

• experiments permit cause-and-effect inferences

• experiments studies create events/differences and measure subsequent effects

What is confounding?

• variables “mixed in” with the independent variable that make it hard to know what caused the outcome

What is single blind test?

• the participants do not know if they are in the experimental group of the control group

What is double blind test?

• neither the participants nor the researchers know what group the participants are in

What do scientist consider to be more objective, qualitative or quantitative?

• quantitative

What are the 2 key features of data?

• central tendency

• variability

What is central tendency?

• the “middle” of the data

• mean - the average

• median - the middle when arranged from smallest to largest

• mode - the most common value

What is variability?

• the spread of the data

• range - the difference between the smallest and largest

• standard deviation - how spread out the data is from the mean

What is a skew?

• the presence of distortion or asymmetry in a data set

What is the dodo bird verdict?

• claim all therapies work equally well

What is re-birthing therapy?

• a technique that uses restraint and taunting to '“break down” a child - stimulates the “birthing process” based in attachment theory and psychoanalytic theory ideas

What is superstition?

• a belief or practice resulting from ignorance, fear of the unknown, trust in magic, or chance, or a false conception of causation

• cemented for cultural or individual factors (ex. #4 is unlucky in china, four-leaf clover is lucky)

What 2 other factors play a role in superstition?

• socialization and acculturation

How does superstition relate to pseudoscience?

• beliefs inconsistent with science that may persist based upon cognitive biases and emotion

• more likely to be harmless

• reveal natural biases in human cognition and emotion

What is parapsychology?

• the scientific study of interactions between living organisms and their and their external environment that seem to transcent the know physical laws of

What is spiritualism?

• psychic ability, like communicating with loves ones who had passed or seeing into the future

What is the Zener Shape Experiment?

• the sender will transmit the shape to be received

• Shermer and 34 others were the receivers in the room

• Shermer surveys the room to discover the distribution topic of scores matches a patter for results by chance

What is “bottom-up” perception?

• Goes from stimuli “up” to interpretation in the brain

What is the “top down” perception?

• having a pre-existing expectation that impacts how we perceive stimuli

What is pareidolia?

• the tendency to impose meaningful interpretation or features on ambiguous stimuli, like seeing faces on a tree

What is Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP)?

• claim that electronic recording devices capture audio of human live-voices interpreted as paranormal and as evidence for supernatural beings

What is Auditory Pareidolia?

• unprimed, naive listeners report illusory mechanical noises, natural noises, tones, and human voices interpreted with noise files

What is the Frank statement?

• affirmed the industry’s concern about public health and their belief that their products were no injurious to health

What are some tactics cigarrete companies would use to prove they are good?

• use gurus

• fund studies that go against them to make it seem like they are “good”

• biased journaling

What is the Diagnosis of Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD)?

• AUD may be diagnosed based on the presence of the following symptoms over the past 12 months.

• mild: 2-3 symptoms

• moderate: 4-5 symptoms

• severe: 6+ symptoms

What is the National Survey on Drug use and health (NSDUH)?

• a public health survey that attempts to quantify how many people in the USA (12+ year old, not instutionalized) experience mental health and access to treatment concerns

What is comorbid?

• occurring with another condition in the same period

What are the 4 controversial treatments associated with AUD?

• The Johnson Method

• Alcoholic Anonymous (AA)

• Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE)

• Controlled drinking

What is the Johnson Method?

• affected person is lured to a meeting under false pretenses

• confronted by family members about the negative effects of their alcohol use

• give consequences if treatment is not accepted

Why was the Johnson method ineffective?

• stagnant and creates opportunity cost

• exaggerated claims of effectiveness

• nonrandom assignment, small sample sizes

What is the Alcoholics Anonymous (AA)?

• established in 1930s: one of the oldest and most popular mutual help organizations

• spiritual and sponsorship components

• not a formal treatments per se- implementation may vary widely by group

Is controlled drinking pseudoscientific?

• not considered pseudoscientific

What is a falsifiable claim?

• a claim that can be tested and potentially proven false through observation or experimentation

What is Illusory Correlation?

• seeing false associations

What is availability heuristics?

• memorable things seem more likely

The two hemispheres of the brain are?

• left and right

What is the Corpus Callosum

• a band of nerve fibers that allows for neural communication between hemispheres

What is neuroplasticity?

• creation of new synapses, pruning of synapses that are no longer used, changes in glial cells, and even the birth of new neurons.

The left hemisphere controls what part of the body? What about the right?

• left hemisphere - right body

• right hemisphere - left body