Unit 0 Notes

Three elements of a scientific attitude

Curiosity, skepticism, and being willing to accept that you could be wrong.

Recognizing Bias

The reason why bias exists is because our brains take shortcuts to help us process information quicker, which could cause us to make incorrect conclusions.

Hindsight bias

I knew it all along occurs when, after an event has happened, we believe that we predicted it before hand is misleading, because it makes us overestimate our abilities.

Confirmation bias

The tendency to look for information that confirms our pre-existing ideas or beliefs, instead of objectively evaluating information. This can lead to poor decision, making and can cause polarization by creating echo chambers where opposing views are disregarded.

Overconfidence

Overestimating the accuracy of our knowledge and judgments

Positive correlation

Two variables vary together. An example of this is as gas prices increase, drivers reduce the number of miles that they drive.

Negative correlation

As one variable goes up, the other one goes down. These variables do not vary together. An example of this is as you spend more money you will have less money.

Zero correlation

Variables have no relationship or effect on one another. An example of this is the amount of family members that you have for dictate how many friends you will have.

Note- A correlation coefficient can be used to tell if two variables have a positive(0-1) or a negative correlation(-1-0)

An important thing to note is that correlation does not prove a cause-and-effect relationship, but it may suggest one. There are also maybe third variables, like an extraneous variable, or a confounding variable that will cause the other two variables to relate in some way, but the researcher may be unaware.

The role of theories

A theory will help us organize our observations and make predictions about behavior. It provides a framework for understanding and predicting phenomena.

Hypothesis- A hypothesis is a specific test for prediction that is derived from the theory that provides a clear statement that is testable.

Null hypothesis- No hypothesis suggest that there is no relationship between two variables that are being studied.