1. PSYC 3450 Experimental Psychology
Course Instructor: Alla Chavarga

2. Course Syllabus Syllabus review On the importance of emails Attendance
Required Textbook
Attendance
Course Format: Lecture & Lab

3. CHAPTER 1 Scientific Thinking in Psychology
Why take this course?
How do we come to know things?
Science as a way of knowing
Psychological Science vs. Pseudoscience
Goals of Research

4. Why take this course? Learn how to do research in Psychology
Process vs. content
Informed and critical consumption of information
Responsibility as a clinician
How to Get into Grad School 101

5. How do we come to know things?
I know three things:
Correlation does not prove causation.
Socrates has ten fingers.
The sun will come up tomorrow.
Authority
Reason
(a priori)
Experience
(a priori)
Empiricism

6. How do we come to know things?
Empiricism – the process of learning things through direct observation or experience, and reflecting on those experiences.
Sounds legit. What could be wrong about this method?
Social Cognition Biases
Belief perseverance – the tendency to hold on to a belief, even in the face of contradictory evidence.
Confirmation Bias – tendency to seek out information only in support of belief, ignoring contradictory information.
Availability heuristic – tendency to overestimate the frequency with which unusual or memorable events occur

7. Science as a way of knowing
Scientific Method - the most reliable way to develop a belief; independent of pre-existing bias and opinion.
Hypothesis  Experiment  Conclusion
Assumptions
Determinism
Discoverability
All events have causes.
Statistical determinism.
Through systematic observation, these causes can be found.

8. Science as a way of knowing
Scientific methods are characterized by objectivity.
Scientists need not be perfect; their results simply need be publicly verified and replicated.
Specific, detailed descriptions of method.
Scientists are data-driven.
Science produces tentative conclusions.
Science asks answerable questions.
Science develops theories that can be disproven.

9. Psychological Science vs. Pseudoscience
Pseudoscience: any field of inquiry that appears to be scientific but is based on inadequate scientific methods and typically produces false conclusions.
May seem convincing! Anecdotal evidence; effort justification
Sidesteps disproof

10. Science as a way of knowing
Some important concepts:
Hypothesis
Theory – a set of statements that summarize what is known about some phenomenon and propose working explanations for those phenomena.
IVs
Falsification

11. The Goals of Research
Description
Prediction
Explanation
Application