Deck 19: Critical Thinking in the Natural Sciences

Question 1

A natural science research team presented arguments explaining which factors it regards as relevant and exactly why each of the factors is potentially relevant to the hypothesis being investigated. This explanation represents which step in the scientific investigation?
(a) Design a procedure to ensure that the data gathered will reveal the full range of possible observations.
(b) Conduct the study or the experiment and gather the data.
(c) Critique the findings.
(d) Identify all the factors related to the hypothesis and the phenomenon of interest that it will be important to measure, control, or monitor.

Answer 1

D

Question 2

A natural science research team presented an explanation of the design of its study beginning with the idea that two events or factors are not related. The team then designed an experiment to try to show that this notion was mistaken. What strategy were the scientists using?
(a) Testing the null hypothesis
(b) Confirmatory factor analysis
(c) Speculation and intuition
(d) Observation and description

Answer 2

A

Question 3

Which factor are natural scientists focusing on when they build new instruments to search in previously unexplored places for evidence of physical mechanisms that may or may not exist?
(a) How to spend grant money before the budget year ends.
(b) How to impress their colleagues.
(c) How to generate new knowledge.
(d) How to win a Nobel prize.
(e) How to show that empirical reasoning is superior to comparative reasoning.

Answer 3

C

Question 4

Which factor are natural scientists focusing on when they ask "Why?" questions?
(a) Causal relationships
(b) Personal motivations
(c) Evolutionary goals
(d) Vested economic interests
(e) Divine purposes

Question 5

A natural science research team identifies and describes the limitations of the completed study. Identify and describe any limitations of the completed study. The team goes on to describe how these might be handled in a future study and why the additional research would be valuable in its own right. This represents which step in the scientific investigation?
(a) Design a procedure to ensure that the data gathered will reveal the full range of possible observations.
(b) Conduct the study or the experiment and gather the data.
(c) Critique the findings.
(d) Identify all the factors related to the hypothesis and the phenomenon of interest that it will be important to measure, control, or monitor.

Question 6

Natural science is self-corrective and open to independent replication and evaluation. Nevertheless, the critical thinking skill of self-regulation cannot help self-monitor and self-correct for which of the following?
(a) Biased thinking, erroneous snap judgments, and misapplication of cognitive heuristics.
(b) Initially interpreting an observed phenomenon or test result with an insufficient attention to detail.
(c) False positives (finding what is not there) and false negatives (not finding what is there) in the results.
(d) Failure to take into account all of the factors which influence the phenomenon under investigation.
(e) Social media reactions by people who may be offended, upset, or angry with the findings.

Question 7

Good scientific investigators always start with a ______________. They use their critical thinking skills to decide what kinds of evidence and methods would be most relevant. They then proceed in a fair-minded, systematic, and accurate way.
(a) question
(b) point of view
(c) hypothesis
(d) budget
(e) ax to grind

Question 8

A natural scientist asks, "What do these unexpected sparkles of light clustered here by this bolder on this photograph of the surface of Mars mean? Which critical thinking skill does this question manifest?
(a) Inference
(b) Interpretation
(c) Evaluation
(d) Self-Regulation

Question 9

The theory of spontaneous generation can be confirmed by the birth of flies on raw meat left exposed to the open air for several days. Why is that not sufficient to confirm that spontaneous generation is true?
(a) Because the theory is contrary to natural law.
(b) Because the theory was already known to be consistent with prevailing opinion.
(c) Because the theory can be disconfirmed by preventing flies from laying their eggs on the meat.
(d) Because the theory can still be ridiculed in the media as Medieval superstition.

Question 10

Which factor are natural scientists focusing on when they make predictions about natural phenomena?
(a) How to impress their colleagues.
(b) How to prevent or bring the phenomena about.
(c) How to get funding for future research.
(d) How to provoke religious terrorists.

Question 11

What name do we give to the systematic empirical inquiry into the causal explanations for the observed patterns, structures, and functions of natural phenomena from the subatomic to the galactic in scope?
(a) Philosophy
(b) Communication
(c) Management Information Systems
(d) Social Science
(e) Natural Science

Question 12

A natural science research team identifies all the ways that the data being gathered might be discounted as irrelevant or as misleading, and then take steps to guard against the these problems with data collection occurring. This represents which step in the scientific investigation?
(a) Design a procedure to ensure that the data gathered will reveal the full range of possible observations.
(b) Conduct the study or the experiment and gather the data.
(c) Critique the findings.
(d) Identify all the factors related to the hypothesis and the phenomenon of interest that it will be important to measure, control, or monitor.

Question 13

A natural scientist identifies the causal factors which contribute to rising sea levels and describes the ways in which those causes interact. Which critical thinking skill is the scientist most exhibiting?
(a) Interpretation
(b) Self-Regulation
(c) Analysis
(d) Explanation

Question 14

Solid scientific findings that are not consistent with prevailing theories are characterized as?
(a) Metaphysics
(b) Anomalous
(c) Nonsense
(d) Subjective
(e) Mistaken

Question 15

With ever more powerful explanatory theories, natural scientists are seeking explanations that fulfill the standards that all scientific theories strive to meet. Specifically large explanatory natural science theories strive to be: Testable, Comprehensive, Productive, Parsimonious, and ______________.
(a) Affordable
(b) Balanced
(c) Heuristic
(d) Optimistic
(e) Consistent

Question 16

Which of the following is a natural science question?
(a) Should our state decriminalize casino gambling and off-track betting?
(b) Ought parents to permit their teenage children to gamble online?
(c) Is it morally acceptable for a wealthy family to lose thousands gambling at resort casinos?
(d) What motivates people to engage in these different forms of gambling: lottery, casino, and online?
(e) Can we design encryption and firewall systems which ensure that the state's online lottery servers will be protected from computer hacking?

Question 17

If the arguments presented are sound, then the conclusions reached by natural scientists correctly using empirical research methods and appropriately analyses can be described as ______________.
(a) tautological
(b) valid
(c) warranted
(d) questionable
(e) absurd

Question 18

Natural science research is best described as the scientific study of ______________.
(a) all natural phenomena and their causes
(b) ideals and principles that guide human behavior
(c) semantic structure of language that supports valid inference
(d) divinely inspired spiritual teachings and moral guidance of sages
(e) human society and interpersonal relationships

Question 19

A robust ____________ demands that empirical demonstration should pervade scientific thinking.
(a) overconfidence
(b) lack of confidence
(c) skepticism
(d) cynicism
(e) emotionality

Question 20

Natural science inquiry is characterized by which kind of reasoning?
(a) Heuristic
(b) Comparative
(c) Empirical
(d) Valid
(e) Ideological

Question 21

In both the original Cosmos TV series and in the 2014 remake the narrators spoke about how wondrously diverse and complex the universe was. They found trying to explain natural phenomena empirically to be captivating and even inspiring. So, is it fair to say that scientists mostly make random observations?

Question 22

What are natural scientists trying to do when they converting a statement like "It is unnatural for a same sex couple to raise a child" into a statement like this "Among species of mammals and birds where mated pairs engage in raising the young, there are no instances of male-male or female-female pairs raising young."?

Question 23

Since scientific findings are relevant to the development of governmental policy, why should policy recommendations come after the findings are produced?

Question 24

Explain what it means to say that natural scientists constitute a large, varied, and complex language community.

Question 25

Organizations with particular economic or political interests often fund natural science research. Is it reasonable, therefore, to say that the research cannot be trusted because the organization that funded the research had a vested interest in X, whatever policy, economic result, or interest X might be?

Question 26

What does "true to a scientific certainty" mean?

Question 27

When a natural scientist asks a "Why?" question the scientist is seeking an explanation that is the fruit of empirical reasoning applied to a potentially _______________ hypothesis about the causal factors that produce the phenomenon or pattern of events.

Question 28

As interesting as natural science research may be in its own right, it offers little of practical value in terms of real-world applications.

Question 29

Scientific theories which integrate all of the accepted facts and findings about the patterns evident in natural phenomena from different scientific disciplines are valued as ___________________.

Question 30

Taking "global warming" as an example, how would a natural science research team frame a research question that does not call for a policy position, or for a dogmatic and confrontational debate, or for finger-pointing and blaming.

Question 31

What is the scientific standard called "testability" that is applied to the evaluation of scientific theories?

Question 32

Scientific theories which are not needlessly complex, but instead provide the simplest, most concise representation possible of the admittedly complex phenomena under investigation are valued as ___________________.

Question 33

They are only theories, after all; there is always a chance that they could be mistaken. So why do natural scientists have such bold confidence in theories like gravity and evolution?

Question 34

What is the scientific standard called "comprehensiveness" that is applied to the evaluation of scientific theories?

Question 35

What is the common theme running through all the natural science fields, disciplines, and professions?

Question 36

Scientific theories which suggest new directions and new hypotheses for research that go beyond a restatement of initial findings and theories that potentially enable investigators to strengthen explanations and make well-founded predictions about the patterns evident in natural phenomena as ___________________.

Question 37

The term __________ is used to name or describe the testable hypothesis that two events, factors, or phenomena are not related.

Question 38

One of the greatest aids to objectivity which natural scientists have as they ask questions, make inferences, and explain natural phenomena is that the scientists and all of their equipment are part of the natural world they are studying.

Question 39

Natural scientists gather empirical data and use critical thinking to analyze, explain, and predict natural phenomena.

Question 40

What is a Type I error and what is a Type II error? Give an example using an over-the-counter pregnancy test.