PSY240H5 Chapter Notes - Chapter 4: Phineas Gage, Frontal Lobe, Internal Validity
Document Summary
Science= process of understanding world though observation and research. Scientific knowledge= known facts about a subject learned from the scientific method. Falsification= the goal of science is to falsify a hypothesis: no amount of experiments can prove a theory right, but one can prove it wrong. Empiricism= accepting sensory info as valid (observation) Phineas gage= metal rod through his skull through the frontal cortex: survived, affected personality and social skills. Naturalistic observation: non-interference, shows patterns in the world (your mood with different weather-sad when raining, best when you do not know the subject, ca(cid:374)"t explai(cid:374) the fa(cid:272)tors i(cid:374)flue(cid:374)(cid:272)i(cid:374)g observed behaviour. Correlation coefficient= stats to determine is a relationship exists (strength & direction: perfect positive= +1, perfect negative= -1, no correlation= 0. Negative correlation= inverse, one increases, the other decreases. Independent variables influence dependant, random assignment of participants. Validity= if it tests what it is supposed to. Confounding variables= variables that influence the independent variable not chosen by the experimenter.
