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Critical Thinking And The Scientific Method

I have come across an interesting find while looking for something related, which was a copy of a college psych. Textbook (which was used in my class) which had a diagram of how the mind functions, and has ESP? listed among the other processes. For anyone who is interested in a fairly simple yet solid presentation of the concepts of psychology in general, scientific method and critical thinking, and even how they apply particularly to paranormal phenomena (to a small extent), I recommend you check this link out.

There is a brief paragraph on the reasons it isn't necessarily "ok" for people to believe in things, but basically it comes down to the fact that they're not developing any understanding of how to view other things, for their veracity, and also there is always the potential for real danger, perhaps even physical, due to misunderstanding of important concepts or beliefs.

At any rate, this is about psychology in general, critical thinking (and skepticism) especially as it relates to extraordinary claims (such as that of the Clever Hans case, for those of you familiar with it), and also includes a good basic treatment of the concepts of the scientific method.

I think this type of thing, this simple, fundamental but apparently rare bit of knowledge, is what is missing in so many facets of life nowadays - people's understanding and ability to apply critical thinking to situations, to make informed, reasoned decisions with confidence of having the accurate facts to support their conclusions.


Pages 1-4 cover Clever Hans and the application of critical thinking to assess the situation.

Page 21 begins the section on the scientific method.

Page 26 continues with more conditions and effects such as experimenter bias and other "dangers" of observation, in contaminating data.

Google Docs: Psychology: Core Concepts, Discovering Psychology Edition

Method Scientific The Thinking Critical

Acting and thinking: Are they the same for our brain? Neuroscientists have recently put forward an original hypothesis -- all these cognitive functions rely on one central function: emulation. This function creates an abstract dynamic 'image' of movements, thereby enabling the brain to strengthen its motor skills and construct a precise and lasting representation of them. The fronto-parietal network, it is argued, has evolved from a network that only controlled motor skills to a much more generalized system. Source 6v.