Catalyst – August 5(4), 2009

1. Catalyst – August 5(4), 2009 Remember, your groups are in rows – remember your seat! • Write down 5 observations about Ms. Stroh. Next, make an inferenceBASED ON THOSE 5 OBSERVATIONS. You have 5 minutes!

2. Today’s Agenda • Catalyst • Hypothesis Notes • Intro to The Stroop Effect Test • Perform The Stroop Effect Test • Independent Work Time: Finish lab report for homework • Exit Question Syllabus Quiz Tomorrow!

3. Exit Questions from Yesterday • In your own words, describe the difference between an observation and an inference. • Label the following statements as either observation (O) or inference (I). Don’t write the statements! • Glue feels sticky. (O) • Michael Jordan was the best basketball player of all time. (I) • Talib Kweli writes beautiful lyrics. (I) • Pickles smell gross! (I) • Christian hears the bell ringing. (O)

4. Today’s Objectives • SWBAT make a quality hypothesis. • SWBAT test a hypothesis in an experiment.

5. Think – Pair – Share • Where have you heard the word hypothesis before? • What does the word hypothesis mean? Go further than just “educated guess.”

6. What’s a hypothesis good for? • Key Point #1: Scientists make hypotheses to answer questions they have about the world. • Remember inferences? • A hypothesis is a type of inference

7. Hypothesis Key Point #2: A hypothesis is an educated, testable guess. • Educated = there’s a reason you guess what you guess • Testable = there’s a way to prove it right or wrong

8. Example 1 • Question: Will Ms. Stroh run faster than her soccer players if she wears her cleats rather than her tennis shoes? • Hypothesis: If Ms. Stroh wears her cleats, then she will run faster than her soccer players. • Is it educated? • Yes! • Is it testable? • Yes!

9. Example 2 • Is this a good hypothesis? • Question: Would Lil’ Wayne be as popular as he is now in the 1970s? • Hypothesis: If Lil’ Wayne was in the 1970s, then he would be just as popular. • Is it educated? • Yes! • Is it testable? • No!

10. Example 3 (T-P-S) • Is this a good hypothesis? • Question: Do students at West Jeff like green or orange more? • Hypothesis: Students at West Jeff like green more. • Is it educated? • No! • Is it testable? • Yes!

11. Example 4 (T-P-S) • Is this a good hypothesis? • Question: Do people prefer Pepsi or Coke? • Hypothesis: Everyone prefers Pepsi over Coke….duh! • Is it educated? • ??? • Is it testable? • No!

12. What is this woman thinking?!?! What would happen if you ate this ice cream? Why is this man happy?

13. Example 5 (T-P-S) • Question: Will using pheromone cologne allow one man to attract more women? • Come up with a hypothesis with your group. • Remember…. • It must be educated • It must be testable

14. Example 6 (On your own!) • Question: Does listening to classical music improve student’s performance on tests? • Come up with a hypothesis on your own.

15. Stroop-a-doop • When you first learned to tie shoelaces, you needed to carefully think through each step of the process. • Now, you probably do not even seem to think about the steps but simply initiate a series of movements that seem to proceed without any further influence. This is called automatization. (Think: automatic) • Many behaviors can become automatized: typing, reading, writing, bicycling, piano playing, driving, etc. • To explore properties of automatized behaviors, cognitive psychologists often put observers in a situation where an automatized response is in conflict with the desired behavior • The Stroop effect • Stroop (1935) noted that test subjects were slower to identify red ink when it spelled the word blue

16. Stroop-a-doop: Roles • In this lab, there are 4 positions: • Time Keeper • Test Subject • Test Proctor • Signal Giver • Each person will get an opportunity to be each role!

17. Stroop-a-doop: Let’s model this • I need 4 volunteers!

18. Matching Color RED BLUE YELLOW YELLOW GREEN RED

19. Non-Matching Color RED BLUE YELLOW YELLOW GREEN RED

20. Stroop-a-doop: Class Discussion • What was measured in this experiment? • Dependent variable: time • What was intentionally changed in this experiment? • Independent variable: ink color, matching or non-matching • What things were held constant in this experiment? • Was your hypothesis right or wrong?

21. Exit Questions • What are the characteristics of a good hypothesis? • Write a quality hypothesis using the following question: • Will Ms. Stroh’s students achieve higher mastery of GLEs than Mr. LY’s students if they pay attention in class everyday?

22. Group Chat • What was the dependent variable in this lab? • HINT: What did I measure?

23. Group Chat • What was the independent variable? • HINT: What did I change?

24. Group Chat • Discuss what is wrong with this conclusion: • Jeremiah took 8.5 seconds to go through the non-matching list. Therefore, it takes longer to go through the non-matching list than the matching list.

25. Group Chat • Was there a control in this experiment? Why was it necessary?

26. Independent time • Each person must turn in a lab report on the Stroop experiment.

27. Exit Questions • Why are controls necessary in valid scientific experiments? • If I am testing whether I score more points if I am wearing my Air Jordans in an experiment, what would be a good control group?