Lecture 4 – The Scientific Process

Vocabulary flashcards covering key terms from the lecture notes on the scientific process, experimental design, data interpretation, and scholarly publishing.

Paradigm shift

A fundamental change in the basic concepts and experimental practices of a scientific discipline.

Hypothesis

An educated guess about what you observed, formed after considering background information.

Inductive reasoning

Reasoning from specific observations to general conclusions.

Observational Experiment

An experiment where you are not in control of all variables and you do not manipulate conditions.

Controlled Experiment

An experiment where you are in total control of each variable and can manipulate how they interact; often includes a control group.

Descriptive Study

A study that describes a phenomenon or observation without manipulating or comparing variables.

Independent Variable

The condition that you deliberately change or compare between groups.

Dependent Variable

The variable you measure that changes in response to the independent variable.

Treatment

The condition applied to a group in a controlled experiment.

Control

The group that receives no active treatment and serves as a baseline for comparison.

Confounding Factors

Variables outside the scope of the experiment that influence the measured outcomes.

Correlation does not imply causation

A reminder that a relationship between variables does not prove that one causes the other.

Sample size

The number of observations or tests in a study; larger samples improve representativeness.

Replication

Repeating the experiment or measurements to estimate variability and increase confidence.

Reproducibility

The ability to repeat the study and obtain the same results using the same methods.

Statistical significance

A result unlikely to occur by chance, indicating a real effect under the study conditions.

P-value

The probability of observing the data (or more extreme) if the null hypothesis is true.

Journal Article Structure

Typical peer‑reviewed article sections such as Abstract, Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, Acknowledgments, and Funding Source.

Grant proposals

Written plans outlining a research question, why it matters, proposed methods, and funding needs to secure support.

NSERC

Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council; Canadian federal funding for natural sciences and engineering.

SSHRC

Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council; Canadian federal funding for social sciences and humanities.

CIHR

Canadian Institutes of Health Research; Canadian federal funding for health-related research.