The Scientific Method

steven j. barnes

“Science is a way of trying not to fool yourself”

(Richard Feynman)
 • Identify the key features of scientific skepticism.
• Identify and explain the six principles of scientific thinking.
• Explain what a theory is in the scientific method.
• Explain what an operational definition is.

Learning Goals
 • Skills to evaluate claims with an open mind and carefully
• Overcoming our biases
• Six principles…

Critical Thinking Skills

 Ruling out Rival Hypotheses
Important alternate explanations should be considered.

Critical Thinking Skills

 Correlation vs Causation
Can we be sure variable A causes variable B?

A B
A B
A
C
B
Critical Thinking Skills
 Falsifiability
Can the claim be disproven?

Critical Thinking Skills

 Replicability
Possible to duplicate scientific findings?

Critical Thinking Skills

 Replicability

Critical Thinking Skills

 Extraordinary Claims
Is the evidence as convincing as the claims?

Critical Thinking Skills

 Occam’s Razor
Does a simpler explanation fit the data equally well?

Critical Thinking Skills

 Morgan’s Canon
“In no case is an animal activity to be interpreted
in terms of higher psychological processes, if it can
be fairly interpreted in terms of processes which
stand lower in the scale of psychological evolution
and development.” (Morgan 1903, p. 59)

Critical Thinking Skills

 Theories
In everyday language, a ‘theory’ is often synonymous with
‘having a hunch’ about something.

In science, a theory explains events (or behaviors) by

offering up ideas that help organize a set of observations;
in essence, a theory simplifies a set of observations through
explanation.

The Scientific Method

 Theories
An example: Sleep and Memory

The Scientific Method

 Hypotheses
A good theory produces testable predictions--known as
hypotheses.

Back to our example: Our hypothesis might be that if we

sleep deprive people prior to listening to this lecture, they
will remember less.

The Scientific Method

 Operational Definitions
Psychologists use operational definitions when they report
on their studies.

The operational definition defines what the scientist is going

to manipulate or measure.

The Scientific Method

 Operational Definitions
Psychologists use operational definitions when they report
on their studies.

The operational definition defines what the scientist is going

to manipulate or measure.

Back to our example: Our operational definition of ‘sleep

deprived’ might be a reduction of sleep in one night by 3-4
hours.

The Scientific Method