© 2001 Dr. Laura Snodgrass, Ph.D.1 Student fears about ideas Not “great” Not original Do we have the equipment? Level of complexity Plan statistics in

© 2001 Dr. Laura Snodgrass, Ph.D. 1

Student fears about ideas

• Not “great”

• Not original

• Do we have the equipment?

• Level of complexity

• Plan statistics in advance

• Feasibility


Where do ideas come from?

• My experiencesFind out why this happens?

Notice peculiarity

Attempts to replicate

Casual discussion of ability of blind

Student Questions

Why women don’t use their spatial ability to solve problems?


Where ideas come from

• Existing theories make testable predictions

• Competing theories

• Investigating functional relationships

• Observation

• Replicate with small changes

• Practical Problems

• Journal articles end with suggestions

• Serendipity


What makes a good hypothesis?

• ROT test

Repeatable

Observable (measurable)

Testable

• Specific and limited to a population

• State a relationship


Which of the following are “good” hypotheses?

• Beagles are smarter than poodles

• The US would not have become involved in WWII if Japan hadn’t bombed Pearl Harbor

• Soccer players are better athletes than football players

• College students consume more beer per person than any other group

• Our actions sometimes reflect conscious intentions, but are usually governed by subconscious urges

• African Violets grow better in filtered than direct sunlight

• Diamonds are a good investment


“good” hypotheses?

• Hondas are better cars than Toyotas

• You learn more when studying for an essay exam than for a multiple choice exam

• Religion makes people happy

• The Oklahoma City bombing was more traumatic than the TWA plane crash

• Ginkgo improves your memory

• Housepets make people feel better.


Theory

Def: Statement about a not directly observable relationship

• Cycle of reasoning

Observation leads to induction leads to theory leads to deduction leads to observation

Induction - takes you from the specific to the general

observe specifics and theorize about what is generally true

Deduction - from the general to the specific

We test theories by making predictions about specifics


Types of theories

• Descriptive - names without explanation

• Analogical - analogy to a physical model

• Quantitative - mathematical or probabilistic relationship


What makes a good theory?

• Accounts for most of the data

• Parsimony - “Occam’s Razor”

the simplest explanation is the best

• Precision

• Testable

• Predictive

• Generalizable


Why use theory?

• Organizes the data

• Provides a framework to explain facts

• Suggests future research• 0

• Provide answers to applied problems

• Generates predictions


Why do a literature search?

• Your experiment may already be there

• Find the methods others have used

What equipment did they use?

Questions about timing

Borrow successful stimuli

Who were their participants

• Look at other people’s failures (can save you time)

• Fit your idea into an organized body of knowledge


How to do a literature search

• Books - good general overview, but can have strong author bias

• Review Articles - Psych Bulletin, Psych Review

• Tree backwards - start with most recent article or textbook and then look up their references

• Psych Lit - computerized search

Documents

© 2001 Dr. Laura Snodgrass, Ph.D.1 Student fears about ideas Not “great” Not original Do we have the equipment? Level of complexity Plan statistics in