Purdue PSY 203 Exam #1

definition and limitations: authority

definition: someone influential says so

limitations: if the authority figure declines questions, thought is put to a halt

definition and limitations: common sense

definition: what everyone knows (or should know)

limitations: often contradictory and confirmation bias

definition and limitations: intuition

definition: feeling of knowing

limitations: conformation bias, overconfidence, & hindsight bias

definition and limitations: rationalism

definition: knowledge from reasoning/logic (by deduction)

ex: 1) 2.0 needed to graduate 2) person graduates thus person had at least a 2.0

limitations: logically valid argument does not equal accurate knowledge

definition and limitations: empiricism

definition: knowledge acquired through experience/observation

limitations: personal experiences are ignored in science because its selective and subject to: confirmation bias, availability heuristic, placebo effects

confirmation bias

tendency to focus on (remember) things that fit (support) your current beliefs

availability heuristic

tendency to over estimate the frequency of unusual or memorable events

what problems do anecdotes/testimonials pose?

they are selective & subject to confirmation bias, availability heuristic, placebo effects

what are the distinctive characteristics of the scientific method?

-solvable problems

-systematic empiricism: structured data collection

-publicly available information: replication + peer review

-claims and predictions falsifiable

systematic empiricism

-data collected to remit evaluation of a claim or hypothesis

-structured data collection

replication

provide sufficient information so others can reproduce your methods (and potentially your results)

placebo effect

tendency to report that it works because you expect it

falsification

research strategy that emphasizes putting theories to the test by trying to disprove or falsify them

characteristics of pseudoscience

-adopts scientific language

-if challenged, divert by shifting burden of proof

-argues by exclusion = something currently unexplained

-complains of shunning because not mainstream

-misuses rules of evidence

what does "publicly available information" entail?

replication and peer review

institutional review board (IRB)

review proposals for conducting human research

what are the levels of IRB review?

-exempt: no (or minimal) risk

-expedited: minimal or low risk/stress

-full: high risk; use of vulnerable populations

institutional animal care and use committees (IACUCs)

review proposals for conducting non-human vertebrate animals

what are the three r's of ethically responsible animal research?

reduction: use small number of animals as possible

refinement: use methods that minimize pain

replacement: use invertebrates, computers, etc. instead

what are the two general guidelines for the ethical treatment of human research participants?

1) right to safety: freedom from physical harm

2) right to respectful treatment

voluntary participation

not coerced; free to withdraw

informed consent

know what participation will entail prior to decision (consent) to participate

the right to privacy entails what?

confidentiality and anonymity

debriefing

information about study provided after participation or after study's completion

dehoaxing

revealing any deception

desensitizing

discuss participants behavior with him/her and any negative reactions

what is the difference between confidentiality and anonymity?

confidentiality: data of personal, identifiable nature not made public without consent

anonymity: identity unknown or data and identity kept separate

fraud vs. plagiarism

fraud: making up or doctoring data

plagiarism: representing someone elses work as if it is your own

what are the three basic assumptions of science?

uniformity in nature: events are orderly and "lawful"

determinism: what we observe reflects cause-effect relations

discoverability: can identify causes of phenomena of interest

how does science achieve objectivity?

1) generate idea (hypothesis) about why something occurs

2) test hypothesis by collecting (new) data

3) evaluate hypothesis by seeing if your data "fit"

induction vs. deduction

induction: specific observation -> general statement

deduction: general statement -> specific observation

hypothesis

specific predictions derived from a theory

if x, then y

confirmation or confirming evidence

if x, then y / observe y

disconfirmation or disconfirming evidence

if x, then y / observe ~ y

why is disconfirming evidence better than confirming evidence?

-confirming evidence NEVER proves the hypothesis

-disconfirming evidence can rule out an explanation or hypothesis

fallacy of affirming the consequent

1) if x, then y

2) observe y

3) x (is true)

"all cats have 4 legs, i have four legs, therefore I am a cat" says dog

strong inference

data that simultaneously confirm one hypothesis and disconfirm another

if x, then y

if z, then ~ y

serendipity

accidental or unexpected finding

zeignarik effect

remember incomplete or interrupted actions/tasks

applied vs. basic research

applied: has immediate application or relevance to real-life problems and their solutions

basic: test hypotheses, identify important variables, establish general principles

attributes of "good" theories

testable

precise

parsimonious: fewer the # of assumptions/concepts, the better

translational research

applies findings from basic research and aims to "translate" findings into applied research

assent

is give assent is to say "yes"

participant crosstalk

a tendency for people who have participated in a research study to inform future participants about the true purpose of the study

mundane realism

-the degree to which an experiment mirrors real-life experiences

-considered less important than experimental realism

experimental realism

-the depth to which participants become involved in the experiment

-considered more important than mundane realism

quantitative vs. qualitative research

quant: results are presented as numbers and typically in the form of descriptive and inferential stats

qual: characterized by a narrative analysis of information

theory

set of general principles or formal model describing a set of mechanisms that explains existing data, brings together diverse phenomena, and generates testable predictions

parsimony/parsimonious

describing a theory that includes the minimum number of constructs and assumptions in order to explain and predict some phenomenon adequately

construct

theoretical concept that ties together different observations

operational definitions

-defining something in terms of how you measure it, or how you produce it

-needs to be specific and not vague

converging operations

results from different operational definitions that point to the same conclusion

what are the two major characteristics of meaningful measurements?

reliability: consistent and repeatable

validity: actually measures what is supposed to measure

statistical vs. experimental reliability

statistical: relatively free of measurement error (uncontrolled factors)

experimental: replicable

what are the three different types of replication?

direct: exact duplication of a prior study

systematic: similar study but with some minor or irrelevant feature(s) changed

conceptual: study using different manipulation or response measure (i.e., different operational definition)

what are the three different types of validity?

content: do measures make intuitive sense?

criterion: measure correlates well with other measures of the same construct (how well would this measure "predict" this similar measure)

construct: does it actually measure what we are interested in?

discriminant validity

implies that certain other measures are unrelated to the construct

what are the four characteristics of "good: observations?

structured

well-defined

precise

free of bias

floor effects vs. ceiling effects

floor: scores are so low overall, cannot be any lower

ceiling: scores are so high overall, cannot be any higher