Scientific Reasoning Quiz

The Scientific Reasoning Scale was developed by Caitlin Drummond in 2015 and was used to determine specifically how well participants could evaluate the soundness of scientific arguments. The paper is titled “Development and Validation of the Scientific Reasoning Scale” and you can read more about it here

The written explanations are mine though. Let me know if they’re clear or not!

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The Scientific Reasoning Quiz

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In a taste test, a researcher puts Brand A coffee in a cup with white tape on it and Brand B coffee in an identical cup with black tape on it. A lab assistant gives tasters one of the cups, while the researcher watches their facial expressions. True or False? The lab assistant should not watch the cups being filled.

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A researcher finds that American states with larger parks have fewer endangered species. True or False: these data show that increasing the size of American state parks will reduce the number of endangered species.

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A researcher has subjects put together a jigsaw puzzle either in a cold room with a loud radio or in a warm room with no radio. Subjects solve the puzzle more quickly in the warm room with no radio. True or False? The scientist cannot tell if the radio caused subjects to solve the puzzle more slowly.

4 / 11

Two scientists test an anti-acne cream on teenagers with acne. Scientist A wants to give the cream to all the teenagers in the study. Scientist B wants to give the cream to half the teenagers and give a cream without anti-acne ingredients to the other half. True or False? Both ways of testing the cream are equally good.

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A researcher has a group of subjects play a competitive game. Each subject's goal is to make money by buying and selling tokens. Subjects are paid a flat fee for participating in the experiment. True or False? The researcher can confidently state that the behavior in the experiment reflects real-life buying and selling behavior.

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A randomly selected sample of Americans is surveyed about disease A before and after a 6-month media campaign about the disease. Mid-way through the media campaign, a famous celebrity dies of Disease A. The survey data indicate that knowledge of Disease A is higher after the campaign. True or False? The media campaign may not have increased knowledge of Disease A.

7 / 11

Subjects in an experiment must press a button whenever a blue dot flashes on their computer screen. At first, the task is easy for subjects. But as they continue to perform the task, they make more and more errors. True or False? The blue dot must flash more quickly as the task progresses.

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An education researcher wants to measure the general math ability of a sample of high-performing math students. All the students have taken classes in geometry and pre-calculus. True or False? The education researcher can measure general math ability by giving the students a geometry test.

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Researchers want to see whether a health intervention helps school children to lose weight. School children are sorted into either an intervention or control group. True or False? The researchers should assign the overweight children to the intervention group.

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A researcher develops a new method for measuring the surface tension of liquids. This method is more consistent than the old method. True or False? The new method must also be more accurate than the old method.

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Two researchers are developing a survey to measure consumers' feelings about customer service. Researcher A wants customers to rate their agreement with the statement “I am satisfied with customer service” on a 5-point scale, where 1 = strongly agree and 5 = strongly disagree. Researcher B wants customers to rate customer service on a 5-point scale, where 1 = not dissatisfied at all and 5 = highly dissatisfied. True or False? These questions are equally good for measuring how consumers feel about customer service.