Topic 1- Scientific Method Flashcards
Define Science
The intellectual and practical activitiy encompassing the systematic study of the structure and behaviour of the physical and natural world based on experimentation and observation
Biology
The science of life
Scientific Method
An approach to knowledge acquisiton that seeks to ensure that our understanding is not shaped by personal beliefs or biases, but rather is based on evidence.
Simply put: Knowledge aquisition of our understanding based off of evidence and not personal beliefs/biases
Two types of science: Descriptive
Seeks to characterize ‘patterns’ (describe the physical and/or natural world)
Two types of science: Hypothesis testing
Concerned with testing one or more explanations for an exisiting pattern (explain observations of the physical and/or natural world)
Induction
-reasoning from the specific to the general
-bottom-up
Deduction
- reasoning from general premises to specific conclusions
-top-down
Two types of study: Observational
Researcher observes/measures/characterizes, but does not alter the system
Two types of study: Manipulative
(aka an ‘experiment’) - The researcher changes something and compares what happens to a control (unmanipulated) treatment or one or more other treatements with different values of the manipulated variable.
-alters the system
Inferential strength
a measure of how strong your results support the conclusion.
Which study has greater inferential strength and why?
Manipulative studies have greater infrential strength than observational studies because it has better control for confounding factors.
Confounding factor
A seperate, often unknown facotr that may be responsible for the observed pattern.
Extrapolation
Assume that the model system behaves similarly to the actual system of interest
Statistical inference
is used to determine whether predicted patterns are observed.
Pseudo-science
Studies that seek only to confirm beliefs not science
