Science and Critical Thinking Exam 1 UNO Professor James Wilson

probability of coincidence

given enough attempts something unlikely will happen

pseudoscience

A collection of beliefs mistakenly regarded as being based on the scientific method

straw man

A fallacy that occurs when a speaker chooses a deliberately poor or oversimplified example in order to ridicule and refute an idea.

What is "truth" and how might it change?

A parable of truth (the duck example) -Truth can be a little different for everyone (relative to individuals and societies)

Fruitfullness

predicting new and unknown facts

How does light as a feather/stiff as a board work?

- Index fingers are strong ones (your hands can hold 11 pounds)

3 major assumptions of universe

- the universe has a determinate structure - we can investigate that structure - our knowledge is available to everyone

Afferent vs efferent nerves

-Afferent bring sensory information -Efferent nerves carry the response from the brain to the body

What is confirmation bias and how can it change your beliefs

-Confirms beliefs (may or may not be real evidence)

Major tenets of the Baloney Detection kit

-Independent Confirmation of Facts - Encourage Debate on Evidence - Authority Carries no Weight in Argument - Consider Multiple Working Hypotheses - Don't be Attached to One Explanation Just Because It's Yours - Quantify Your Explanation - Insist on a Complete Chain of Evidence -Occam's Razor - Can Explanation be Falsified?

What is the difference between knowledge, belief, and evidence?

-Knowledge is something we know-can be proven - Belief is something we hold onto with or without proof -Evidence is the supporting stuff that can make beliefs true or false

What is Troxler's effect? How does it apply to the Bloody Mary fable?

-Neurons adapt to detect movement and stimuli -When you look at or feel something for so long, you start to become immune to that stimuli and start looking for new ones (bloody Mary explained)

Know the major functions of important sections of the brain:

-Parietal Lobe: 3D space orientation of body, integrates sensory information -Prefrontal Cortex (PC): deciding opposites -Anterior Cingulate Cortex (ACC): Determines "correctness" -Brainstem: autonomic function -Cerebellum: balance, body coordination -Diencephalon: -Homeostasis, melatonin

How does a nerve function

-Resting state of the nerve -What ion is responsible for the action potential -Action potential -Generation of the action potential

How does the brain use Cognitive Heuristics to help itself?

-Rule of thumb, mental method of solving problems -Distorts reality to fit a preconceived idea

probability of impossible event

0

probability of certain event

1

non sequitur

A statement that does not follow logically from evidence

paradigm

A typical example, pattern, or model of something

What makes an assumption absurd, and what are the most common absurd assumptions?

Absurd assumptions are things like "We make our own reality" or "truth doesn't matter as long as something is meaningful to you"

argument from authority

An argument that concludes something is true because a presumed expert or witness has said that it is

post hoc

Assuming that because B comes after A, A caused B.

What is the autonomic vs voluntary nervous systems and what do they control?

Autonomic is out of your control and voluntary is in it

major sections of the brain

Cerebrum: voluntary thinking Frontal lobe: thinking Parietal lobe: sensory and tactile Sensory and Motor cortex: body sensation and reaction/control

What is the function of the three major sections of the inner ear

Cochlea- Detects sounds Semi-circular canals- Detects motion Macula- Detects gravity

What are the functions of the major components of the eye?

Cornea- protective covering Pupil- let in the light Lens- can change shape and focus light Retina- generate clear picture Optic Nerve- provide information to the brain

observational selection

Counting the hits and forgetting the misses

appeal to ignorance

Credibility measured not in terms of evidence in favor, but as lack of evidence against

How does a Ouija board work?

Distribution of work -Troxler's Effect

statistic of small numbers

Failing to understand that statistics can be reduced for ease in reading, but that they don't mean what they literally say

What is inattentional blindness?

Failure to notice an unexpected stimulus

Who is the first person documented to use the scientific method?

Francis Bacon

Father of modern science?

Galileo

What evolutionary benefits does patternicity give to a species

Helps us to develop pattern that help us to survive by learning what works/is true and what doesn't work/is false.

What is locus of control and how does it relate to patternicity

How much control of the environment we feel we have, relates to patternicity bcwe adapt and try to change our environment to fulfil forms of paternity. Ex: We developed the sweettooth when sweets were rare but now we changed the environment and they are no longer rare.

100th monkey hypothesis

If enough monkeys know something, they all will (even if none of the monkeys saw the behavior)

Is anything possible?

NO

Short term vs long term

Only looking at a subset of data instead of the entire set

moon illusion

Our brain changes the perception based off of rules and experience that it has from life.

What are the 4 basic methods that humans have for "knowing" things?

Personal Experience / Trial and Error Oral Tradition Written Communication Modern Scientific Method

supernatural

Phenomena that are beyond the laws of nature

paranormal

Phenomena that are supposedly beyond the scope of normal scientific understanding

What happens when you blindfold people using a Ouija board?

Planchette moves in ways that do not make sense

How was patternicity expressed in humans during Kiochi Ono's experiments?

Points delivered on variable schedule to human in box with levers-Humans developed superstitions for "gaining"points-Superstition took longer to develop than pigeons, but was harder to break

What is the most important question? Why? Haha, see what I did there? Yeah, that's some witty humor right there.

Question of WHY is most important because it is the basis for understanding, without why the beliefs are arbitrary

Scientific Method Steps

Question, Research, Hypothesis, Experiment, Analyze the Data, Conclusion

Only reliable method humanity has to find true answers to how universe works

Scientific method

What is pareidolia?

Seeing a vague stimulus as something it is not (seeing objects in clouds, etc)

SS --> IRM--> FAP

Sign stimulus, innate releasing mechanism, fixed action pattern baby bird pecking red dot on beak to make mom throw up

Excluded Middle/False dichotomy

Simplifying an argument to only two choices, when there may be several possible choices

What is self-justification bias and how can it affect our beliefs?

Tendency to rationalize decisions after the fact to convince ourselves that we did the best thing possible

What is hindsight bias and how can it affect our beliefs

Tendency to reconstruct the past to fit the present knowledge

What is confirmation bias and how can it affect our beliefs

Tendency to seek out confirmatory evidence or reinterpret disconfirming evidence

Critical thinking

The ability re-construct and understand a reasoned argument

essentialism

The belief that objects and people have an essence that makes them what they are and can be transmitted from objects to people

law of identity

You are identical to yourself

law of contradiction

You cannot have a property and not have that property at the same time

Ad hominem

a fallacy that attacks the person rather than dealing with the real issue in dispute

ad hoc hypothesis

a hypothesis added to a theory in order to save it from being falsified

What does the parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous system control?

all autonomic system

begging the question

assuming the answer

appeal to ignorance

based on the assumption that whatever has not been proven false must be true

argument from adverse conditions

claiming that if an argument is not followed then serious consequences will happen

problems associated w perception

color, size

special pleading

creating a special condition to keep general argument alive

What problems can arise from incorrect patternicity?

develop patterns we think are true but really aren't - venemous/poisonous coloration - human sweet tooth

What is availability error and how can it change your beliefs?

distortion of one's perceptions of reality due to the tendency to remember one alternative outcome of a situation much more easily than another. ex. gamblers

law of the excluded middle

either true or its not

probability of event calculation

event divided by total number of outcomes

3 important aspects of science

falsifiable repeatability conclusions are tentative

sensed presence and when does it occur

feeling that there is another entity present occurs in cold, sleep deprivation, injury, dehydration, hunger, darkness, monotony

Process used to examine claim in everyday life?

formula for inquiry

hard wired vs learned patternicity

hard wired- insticts EX. breast feeding, face recognition learned - u fukin learn it lol

What is the "God helmet" and what effects might it produce in the human brain?

helmet with electromagnets to affect the Temporal Lobes and can produce: out of body, presence of entity, and color/sound hallucination

agenticity

infusing meaning and intention into patterns

How did Galileo change our understanding of the solar system?

learned that Earth orbited around sun, planets don't orbit around us

What is the Caputo Effect? How does it apply to the Bloody Mary fable?

mirror imaging of face changes overttime

Conservatism

new hypotheses must work in framework of past knowledge

lunar effect

not real, shit based on moon phases

forer effect

people are willing to agree with the results of a personality test, especially when the statements were positive, vague, and un-personalized

subjective validation

person will consider a statement or another piece of information to be correct if it has any personal meaning or significance to them.

testability implies ____ in the system

predictability

Major Sensory Receptors

pressure heat cold pain

Patternicity / Association learning

process of finding meaningful patterns in both meaningful and meaningless connections

How does nerve reaction time differ between true and false statements?

reaction time for TRUE answers are faster than FALSE answers

What do the rod and cone cells of the eyes do

responsible for seeing color

Problems with science

scientists are close minded scientists are human and prone to human errors science forces their beliefs on others science is just a faith

What happened to Galileo for solar system discoveries?

sentenced to life in prison by Catholic church

Occam's Razor

simpler explanations are often the right one

Social Darwinism

survival of the fittest (belief whites are better)

slippery slope

taking argument to fullest possible example: exaggeration

Scope

the amount of diverse phenomena explained by a hypothesis

What is the Baloney Detection Kit, and who described it in the first place?

tools for evaluating claims, Carl Sagan

Supernormal paternicity and example

when normal system is hijacked - female body shape: big boobs, hour glass figure, full lips.. fix w plastic surgery

Under what condition does paternicity evolve in a species

when the false negative is greater than the false positive