24 DEC 2016 by ideonexus
Number Scrabble: Numerical Tic-Tac-Toe
In psychological research on problem-solving, sometimes the game of Tic-Tac-Toe is employed, which, though very simple to learn and play, still offers sufficient problems to the investigator in that it is not at all clear what heuristics are used by the subjects, except avoiding the winning move of the opponent. The same is apparently true for the isomorphic game of Number Scrabble, which is based on the fact that there exists a 3 X 3 magic square, of which rows, columns, and main diagonals a... 1 
notes
notes| 4 | 3 | 8 |
| 9 | 5 | 1 |
| 2 | 7 | 6 |
04 JUN 2012 by ideonexus
Science Teaches Humility
Science even more than the Gospel teaches us humility. She cannot look down on anything, she does not know what superiority means, she despises nothing, never lies for the sake of a pose, and conceals nothing out of coquetry. She stops before the facts as an investigator, sometimes as a physician, never as an executioner, and still less with hostility and irony. 1 notes
notesEven more so than the gospel.
30 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
The Method of Multiple Working Hypotheses
It will be observed that the distinction [between hypothesis and theory] is not such as to prevent a working hypothesis from gliding with the utmost ease into a ruling theory. Affection may as easily cling about a beloved intellectual child when named as a hypothesis as if named a theory, and its establishment in the one guise may become a ruling passion very much as in the other. The historical antecedents and the moral atmosphere associated with the working hypothesis lend some good influen...Folksonomies: hypothesis confirmation bias
Folksonomies: hypothesis confirmation bias
1 notes
notesBy maintaining many hypotheses, the scientist does not fall in love with one over the others and fall into the trap of confirmation bias.
30 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
Time is Essential for Research
Time... is an essential requirement for effective research. An investigator may be given a palace to live in, a perfect laboratory to work in, he may be surrounded by all the conveniences money can provide; but if his time is taken from him he will remain sterile. 1 notes
notesQuoting Walter Bradford Cannon.
30 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
Discovery is the Greatest Possible Reward in Life
The indescribable pleasure—which pales the rest of life's joys—is abundant compensation for the investigator who endures the painful and persevering analytical work that precedes the appearance of the new truth, like the pain of childbirth. It is true to say that nothing for the scientific scholar is comparable to the things that he has discovered. Indeed, it would be difficult to find an investigator willing to exchange the paternity of a scientific conquest for all the gold on earth. An... 1 notes
notesAny scientist who would trade it for all the gold in the world is working in the wrong profession.
23 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
Technical Terminology Raises the Bar to Entry into a Subject
The increasing technicality of the terminology employed is also a serious difficulty. It has become necessary to learn an extensive vocabulary before a book in even a limited department of science can be consulted with much profit. This change, of course, has its advantages for the initiated, in securing precision and concisement of statement; but it tends to narrow the field in which an investigator can labour, and it cannot fail to become, in the future, a serious impediment to wide inducti...Folksonomies: terminology lexicon
Folksonomies: terminology lexicon
1 notes
notesBut the advantage is that it makes it easier for those working in the subject to be more precises.
13 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
Hypothesis is a Tool for Finding New Facts
Hypothesis is the most important mental technique of the investigator, and its main function is to suggest new experiments or new observations. Indeed, most experiments and many observations are carried out with the deliberate object of testing an hypothesis. Another function is to help one see the significance of an object or event that otherwise would mean nothing. For instance, a mind prepared by the hypothesis of evolution would make many more significant observations on a field excursion... 1 notes
notesIt is used to think up new experiments, things to try. Armed with the hypothesis of Evolution, the naturalist has insights into what to look for in fossils and nature.
