LIFESCI 2A03 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Type I And Type Ii Errors, Ice Cream Headache, Null Hypothesis

• School: McMaster University
• Department: Life Sciences
• Course: LIFESCI 2A03
• Professor: Charmaine Ferguson

Document Summary

Hypothesis: proposal or explanation, a statement or idea which gives explanation to series of observations. Leads to predictions about result of intervention. Good hypothesis must be based on a good research question, it should be simple, specific and stated in advance. Scientific hypothesis: a proposal that makes a prediction. Application of scientific method allows to test the hypothesis. Deductive reasoning: going from theory to, hypothesis, observation, to confirmation. Starts from a general statement/hypothesis and examines possibilities to reach a specific logical conclusion. Inductive reasoning: going from observation, to pattern, to tentative hypothesis, to theory. Contradictory observation can cause us to know for certain that hypothesis is incorrect. Accumulation of supporting experimental evidence will strengthen a hypothesis but will never let us know for certain that the hypothesis is true. Tate(cid:373)e(cid:374)t of (cid:862)(cid:374)o effect(cid:863) or (cid:862)(cid:374)o differe(cid:374)ce(cid:863) Hypothesis that there is no significant difference between two sets of results.