Chapter 1:
Scientific Thinking
Scientific Thinking
While grabbing lunch, Marcus quickly picks the same sandwich brand he always gets without looking at the nutritional label or price.
What is System 1 thinking?
A basketball fan notices that every time he eats tacos before a game, his favorite team wins, leading him to believe taco consumption influences game outcomes. What is this psychological tendency called?
What is patternicity?
A professor develops a short test to measure student motivation in class. Every time a student takes the test, they get the exact same score. However, a closer look at the questions reveals the test actually measures how tired students are rather than how motivated they are. This test has high _____ but low _____.
What is high reliability but low validity?
Electrical impulses travel along this long, tail-like extension of a neuron to transmit signals away from the cell body toward neighboring cells.
What is an axon?
Checking your phone and seeing a notification or winning a jackpot on a casino slot machine triggers a surge of this neurotransmitter, reinforcing the urge to repeat the behavior.
What is dopamine?
A tech blog claims a new smartphone app eliminates insomnia, but three independent university labs test the app and find no effect on sleep.
What is Replicability?
A nutritionist insists that a high-celery diet cures headaches. Even after showing her ten peer-reviewed studies proving celery has no impact on headaches, she insists her theory is still correct.
What is belief perseverance?
A developmental psychologist sits on a park bench disguised as a parent and records how children share playground equipment, taking care not to interact with them or let them know they are being evaluated.
What is naturalistic observation?
Field sobriety tests ask individuals to walk a straight line and touch their nose because alcohol temporarily impairs this brain structure, which controls balance and fine motor coordination.
What is the cerebellum?
You are hiking when a sudden rustling sound comes from the bushes right beside you. Your heart races, your pupils dilate, and your digestion slows down. This immediate physiological response is triggered by which branch of the autonomic nervous system?
What is sympathetic nervous system?
A mayor claims a new city park reduced local crime. However, local business owners point out that the city also doubled street lighting and police patrols at the same time. The mayor failed to follow this scientific principle.
What is ruling out rival hypotheses?
A politician argues that a new education policy must be effective because 85% of voters in a recent poll support it, confusing popular opinion with objective scientific proof.
What is the bandwagon fallacy?
An investigator measures daily espresso consumption and resting heart rate, finding a correlation coefficient of r = 0.9. What type and strength of relationship does this show?
What is a strong positive correlation?
Multiple sclerosis occurs when the body's immune system accidentally attacks this protective fatty coating around axons, causing neural signals to slow down and degrade.
What is the myelin (or myelin sheath)?
A researcher believes that listening to classical music restructures brain anatomy. She collects functional brain scans from 100 participants, but only highlights and publishes the 5 scans that show increased neural activity while ignoring the 95 scans that showed no change.
What is confirmation bias?
An early psychology lab asks trained observers to describe their immediate, step-by-step conscious sensations while tasting a lemon. This reflects which historic school of thought?
What is Structuralism?
During a heated debate over office policy, Jordan claims his colleagues are swayed purely by emotional politics, while insisting his own views are formed solely by pure logic and facts.
What is the "Not me" fallacy?
In a study on workplace productivity, Group A works in a bright 68°F room while Group B works in a dim 85°F room. Because both lighting and temperature differed between groups, the researchers cannot determine the cause.
What is a confounding variable?
When facing a high-stress situation like giving a high-stakes presentation or escaping danger, the adrenal glands pump this primary stress hormone into your bloodstream to mobilize energy.
What is cortisol?
Receiving chemical orders directly from the hypothalamus, this bean-sized organ sits at the base of the brain and controls the endocrine system by signaling other glands to release their hormones.
What is the pituitary gland?
At a massive stadium concert with 50,000 fans, only 50 people have VIP floor passes. If you guess a randomly picked ticket holder has a regular seat because 99.9% of attendees do, you are relying strictly on this.
What is the base rate?
A psychic claims they can read minds, but when tested in a controlled lab, they state that negative energy from the scientists' recording equipment blocked their powers. This defense violates which principle of science?
What is ad hoc immunizing hypothesizing?
Dr. Evans tests a new anti-anxiety pill. His statistical analysis shows a p-value of .03, meaning there is only a 3% chance the drug's success was due to random luck. To report a statistically significant finding, Dr. Evans must take this action.
What is reject the null hypothesis?
During an action potential, a rapid influx of positively charged sodium ions causes the inside of the neuron to briefly become positively charged relative to the outside. This dramatic shift away from the neuron's negative resting potential is called what?
What is depolarization?
To evaluate a new allergy medication without participant expectations or researcher bias slanting the results, neither the patients nor the doctors giving the pills know who gets the real drug. What design is this?
What is a double blind study design?