What keeps me going on

What keeps me going on

Below are part of the notes for my Research Methodology in Cognitive Psychology a few days back. Dr Dark went through some the basic foundations of what it means to be a scientist. Suddenly, I realise this was the reason why I travelled half the way round the globe to do my Ph.D. Before class started, or even before I departed for the States, I was having my usual doubts and misgivings about spending so much time and effort on studying while all my other friends are working and earning big bucks on their jobs. But first day into class, where I met Jeremiah who came up to talk to me about his research and asked me about my comments, all these started to make sense. And when I sat in Dr Cooper's class (because I was the teaching assistant) listening him giving a lecture to the undergraduates on why research is important, I felt better. Then attending all the seminars where the instructors were telling us about all the exciting new things that I will learn that will be relevant to my future research, I can't help but get excited. Now I'm just waiting to get my hands on some data collection.

To quote from a Guided By Voice's song: I am a scientist, I seek to understand. This might just be my mission statement in life.

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Review of the Scientific Method, Week 1

The scientist wants to understand the nature of the world.

The scientist is ignorant.

Ignorant = (lacks some knowledge)

Uses scientific method to fill the gap.

Simplified overview of the scientific method:

→→ consider observations/data
↑ ↓
↑ develop explanations/theories (inductive inferences)
↑ ↓
↑ develop hypothesis (make predictions deductive inference)
↑ ↓
←← perform test (collect observations/data)

Although a scientist's explanation can be wrong, the scientific method is self-correcting over time.

Assumptions of the scientific method:

1. Assume the reality of the universe.

Alternative is solopsism—the universe is created by you. If there is no real world, then there is no need to try to understand it.

2. Assume that the unverse is orderly because it follows causal laws.

If there is no order (no causal relationships, then there is nothing to be learned.

3. Assume that can learn about the universe from taking small unbiased samples

This is the basis of statistics. We can NOT observe the population, so there is no other choice. Another part of this statistical reasoning is the assumption of probabalistic determinism—when this occurs, that usually follows; in other words, the causal relationships are not 100% deterministic.

4. Humans are capable of understanding the universe.

a. Although the human perceptual system can be fooled,
it MUST be trusted. It is the only way we have to know about the world.

b. Although the human memory system is not perfect, it MUST be trusted. Learning is the discovery of orderliness in the universe. Order can only be seen by comparing across remembered experiences.

c. Deductive and Inductive Reasoning are to be trusted. The scientific method is to induce an explanation from the data, to deduce an hypothesis from the explanation.

The Three Rules of the scientific method:

1. The principle of public observability.

The only allowable data are empirical observations (publicly observable events). Allowable data must (in principle) be observable by anyone.

2. Only "solvable" problems are studied.

A problem is solvable if the question it poses can be answered yes or no by making empirical observations.

3. All concepts, terms, or phenomena must be operationally defined.

An operational definition specifies exactly what is meant by the term.
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