This document provides an overview of the scientific method as it applies to the field of psycholinguistics. It begins by defining psycholinguistics as aiming to understand how language is acquired, processed in the mind, and differs from animal communication systems. The scientific method is then described as involving observing phenomena, formulating hypotheses, experimentally testing hypotheses, analyzing results, and reporting findings. The results either support a hypothesis or lead to reformulating it for further testing. Key aspects of the scientific method discussed include defining variables, developing experiments, using statistics, considering all factors, and being open to revising theories based on evidence. The document presents the scientific method as the systematic approach used in psycholinguistics to further understanding of language.

1. The Scientific Method Applied
to Psycholinguistics
LCD 105 – Class 4 – Professor Nathacia

2. Before we begin…
Let’s look back last week.

3. (i) In what extent this language is different from animal
communication systems?
• Formal: Creativity; Generative (system designed to be fruitful)
• Biological: Genetics (FOXP2); language physiology (visual,
hearing, and vocal apparatuses, brain); exaptation;
• Psychological: Recursion; complexity; memory.
(Human) Language: three aspects

4. Summary
» To be able to study such a complex object as Language, we need to
assume a point of view;
» The point of view is made based on what our goals are;
» Psycholinguistics aims to understand and explain how language is
acquired, how we process language in our minds, and how our
language is different from other animals systems of communication;
» Therefore, we have an approach to language focused on the formal,
the biological and the psychological aspects of language;
» Based on those, Language is an abstract structured system in the
mind, a faculty of the mind, specifically human;
» Language system is a structure generator;
» Language structure is articulated and organized in levels;
» Each level has its distinctive units and system specifications to
organization of the structure;

5. Let’s start our new journey!

6. What is Science?

8. What is the origin of science?
And the origin of scientific thought?
“The start of all sciences is the
amusement of things be as they are.”
- Aristotle

9. Science?
Humans have this hunger for knowledge.
What are we?
Why are we here?
Wiki?Youtube?
Questioning is the best way to get to knowledge.
All sorts of questions have been done by all
societies: the answers vary through History

10. Philosophy seeks an answer to validate as the
Truth.
Philosophers are those who haven’t lost the
ability to be amazed by the things: virgin eyes
make us apt to questioning.
“I think; therefore I am”: Thinking = to judge, to
establish new connections, to seek for solutions
(rationalize).
Science and philosophy

11. What is Truth?

12. Truth: is defined by its lastingness
through time. (History)
Truth or Absolute Truth?

17. • Until 600 b.C., all questions from human kind
were answered mythically.
• A myth is a tale of divine figures (or spiritual
entities, or of an upper nature) that aims
explaining why life is as it is.
• Oral Tradition.
The Myth era

18. “In the beginning, there was just water. All the animals lived above it and
the sky was overcrowded. They were all curious about what was beneath
the water and one day Dayuni'si, the water beetle, volunteered to explore
it. He explored the surface but could not find any solid ground. He
explored below the surface to the bottom and all he found was mud
which he brought back to the surface. After collecting the mud, it began
to grow in size and spread outwards until it became the Earth as we
know it.
After all this had happened, one of the animals attached this new land to
the sky with four strings. The land was still too wet so they sent the great
buzzard from Galun'lati to prepare it for them. The buzzard flew down
and by the time that he reached the Cherokee land he was so tired that
his wings began to hit the ground. Wherever they hit the ground a
mountain or valley formed.
The animals then decided that it was too dark, so they made the sun and
put it on the path in which it still runs today.”
Myth of Creation – Cherokee - http://www.crystalinks.com/nativeamcreation.html
The Myth era

19. • Divine acts upon nature.
• Knowledge leads to control and manipulate nature.
• The wizard => link between nature, humans and spirits
• The World is controlled by super natural forces (that can be
found in animals, plants, wind, etc).
• These supernatural forces are guided or manipulated by
super natural entities (spirits).
• Knowledge = Power
The Myth era

20. • WRITING -> It has raised questioning upon
myths, and it has shaken myths' truth value;
more fidelity on transmitting information.
• Critical distancing and greater discussion
upon issues.
• Mythological knowledge ====> Knowledge
built from experience and reasoning.
The beginning science

21. Way
better!

22. THE EMERGENCE OF HYPOTHETICAL
THOUGHT
• Due to the advance of mathematical sciences;
• Astronomy is one of the first sciences -> interest
in the unknown;
• Egypt: Advance of medical sciences
The beginning science

23. • Natural events start to be credited to natural
causes.
• The scientific point of view is not more logic
than the mythological one (it is just a matter of
different premises.
• The scientific point of view contributes in a
more effective way to the aggregation of
knowledge, and in predicting and controlling the
natural world.
The beginning science

24. • The scientific thought is credited to the Ancient Greece, approximately
at VI century b.C.
• Philosophers of Nature: Bounced from dogmatic thought of myths to
scientific thought based on skepticism.
• The dogmatic thought puts the Ideas as superior to what can be
observed.
• The skeptical thought puts what can be observed as superior to the
Ideas.
• Socrates: consolidation of scientific thought through scientific
evidence, that is, an observed fact (empirical) that can be replicated.
• Greece: Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Geography e Paleontology.
The beginning science

25. It is needed that we observe the
nature surrounding us in order
to measure it. That way we will
be able to understand the things
we face in the World.
Aristotle

26. • Experiments: METHOD being developed.
• Europe: Development of education (teaching broads minds,
questioning being supported).
Middle ages
The beginning of Modern Science
• Galileo Galilei (1564 — 1642) is the founder of Modern Science. He is
the theorist of scientific method and of autonomy of scientific research.
• Since Galileo, science doesn’t seek the essence of things, but their
function.
• The Scientific Revolution established science as responsible for
knowledge growth.
• Technology advance plays a core role on Science advance.

27. Aristotle

28. A heavier object falls in a
............ speed than a
lighter object.
Aristotle

29. A heavier object falls in a
FASTER speed than a
lighter object.
Aristotle

30. 1 kg
10 kg
Galileo Galilei

31. A heavier object in free fall will always have
the same acceleration as a lighter object,
despite gravity force being greater in
heavier objects. If we control the shape of
the objects, they will arrive at the ground at
the same time, even if one weights 1
kilogram and the other weights 10 kilogram.
Galileo Galilei

32. W=mx g
g=9,8 m/s
Same acceleration = same speed
same speed + same height = same
falling duration
Scientific method visualizing
conditions (including the non-
apparent ones) and discerning
their effects.
Galileo Galilei

33. Aristotle

34. There is spontaneous generation,
Abiogenesis, from an active
principle/agent.
Aristotle

35. Francesco Redi

36. Any type of life can only come
from another live thing.
Method with control condition.
Francesco Redi

37. “Do not believe in anything simply because you
have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply
because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do
not believe in anything simply because it is found
written in your religious books. Do not believe in
anything merely on the authority of your teachers
and elders. Do not believe in traditions because
they have been handed down for many
generations. But after observation and analysis,
when you find that anything agrees with reason
and is conducive to the good and benefit of one
and all, then accept it and live up to it”
- Buddha

38. In "The Analytical Language of John Wilkins," Borges describes 'a certain Chinese
Encyclopedia,' the Celestial Emporium of Benevolent Knowledge, in which it is written
that animals are divided into:
1. those that belong to the Emperor,
2. embalmed ones,
3. those that are trained,
4. suckling pigs,
5. mermaids,
6. fabulous ones,
7. stray dogs,
8. those included in the present classification,
9. those that tremble as if they were mad,
10. innumerable ones,
11. those drawn with a very fine camelhair brush,
12. others,
13. those that have just broken a flower vase,
14. those that from a long way off look like flies.
This classification has been used by many writers. It "shattered all the familiar
landmarks of his thought" for Michel Foucault. Anthropologists and ethnographers,
German teachers, postmodern feminists, Australian museum curators, and artists quote
it. The list of people influenced by the list has the same heterogeneous character as the
list itself.

39. • Scientific Method is the systematic attempt of turning
those limitations around.
• It is the set of procedures to help us on the task of not
getting fooled by ourselves.
• Science seeks objective measures that can be
confirmed in independent events.
• It demands evidences
open to public judgement.
• Personal testimonies are
under valued.

40. • Reason as source of
knowledge
• Intellectual
• Methods of reasoning:
§ Intuition
§ Deduction
§ Induction
§ Abduction
• Experience as source
of knowledge
• Sensory
• Empirical methods:
§ Observation
§ Experimentation
Rationalism Empiricism

41. DEDUCTION
Deductive reasoning is when one gets to
a particular truth from a more general
one. Therefore, when we include a more
specific fact into a more general one, we
are reasoning through deduction.
1) A always equals B (general fact, also
known by first premise);
2) There is an X that equals A (particular
case or second premise);
3) Therefore, this X equals B
(conclusion).

42. Inductive reasoning is when we go the
opposite way: observing particular cases,
isolated, we look for a pattern, or a general
rule that can explain and be applied to all
observed cases.
1)All observed As equal B (data
observation, isolated facts);
2)Therefore, all A equals B.
INDUCTION

43. Deductive reasoning: immediate inferences, syllogism or
conditional argumentation.
All animals are mortal
All men are animals
Therefore, all men are mortal
Inductive reasoning: from particular cases to general inferences;
predictions.
Copper conducts electricity.
Iron conducts electricity.
Silver conducts electricity.
Gold conducts electricity.
Copper, iron, silver and gold are metals.
Metals are electrical conductors.
DEDUCTION VS. INDUCTION

44. Are you able to solve this case?
A man was found dead Sunday morning.
His wife called the cops immediately. The officer questioned the wife and the
employees and registered their alibi:
The woman said she was sleeping.
The chef said he was cooking the brunch.
The gardener said he was getting vegetables outside.
The maid said she was getting the mails outside.
The waiter said he was cleaning the kitchen floor that was dirty with mud
from the gardener’s boots.
The police arrested the murderer immediately. Who was the murder and
why?

45. Vídeo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-X8Xfl0JdTQ

46. POPPER:
A theory is only scientific when it is
refutable by a conceivable event.
The aim is not to prove a hypothesis right,
but to prove it wrong.
The point is the more you fail in prove your
hypothesis wrong, the more it is reliable
(probability).
It is true just for that moment under that
conditions.
FALSIFYABILITY

47. Problem
(Initial) Question
Background
investigation
Hypothesis
formulation
Testing through
Experiments
Result
Analysis
Report
Hypothesis
being confirmed
Hypothesis
being negated
Try
again!
Popper’s
Functional Space
Observation

48. Problem
Initial (question)
When we observe the world with “virgin eyes”,
events can be questioned. And when we
question an event, we give the first step toward a
scientific investigation.
I have a car which I use daily.
This week, I put on some Premium gas from
Exxon and it seems that it is taking longer for
my car to run out of gas again.

49. Background
investigation
When we question something we observed
in the world, a new observation process takes
place. A more systematic and specialized
one, that might help us understand better
what is going on.
- Gas composition
- Motor of my car
- Comment about my suspecting with other
people

50. Hypothesis
formulation
When we question an event and engage in a
deeper observation, we are able to
formulate a hypothesis about that event,
give possible explanations. We also take as
true some hypothesis formulated by others
that we found during our background
investigation.
Premium gas from Exxon burns slower than
others in 1.8 sport cars

51. Testing with
Experiments
A hypothesis have only some chance of
being a good explanation to a phenomenon.
Therefore, we need to test the phenomenon
to see if our hypothesis isn’t false, or built
upon wrong facts/ assumptions.
Independent Variables are factors involved
with the event that may be involved in the
explanation to the phenomenon.
Therefore, it is the set of factors that can
be manipulated on testing.

52. Independent Variables
1.Type of gas with similar features by brand
Premium from Exxon
Premium from Conoco
Premium from Mobil
2. Type of car (place of original design) to
similar models (1.8 sport)
Asian
European
American
Testing with
Experiments

53. To test all factors, in all possible combinations, what should we do?
Factorial combination!
Premium from
Exxon (X)
Premium from
Conoco (C)
Premium from
Mobil (M)
Asian (A) XA CA MA
European (E) XE CE ME
American (U) XU CU MU
Testing with
Experiments

54. Dependent Variables are factors that are
altered by the test, during testing. But not
ANY altered factor, only those that tell us
something about what we are testing and
about our initial hypothesis. They are the
set of factors that we measure. They
depend on what kind of testing we are
conducting.
What can we measure to understand if the
Premium Gas from Exxon burns slower than
others? How can we test that?
Testing with
Experiments

55. Result
Analysis
Hypothesis is
being confirmed
Hypothesis is
being negated
After we run the tests, we have to observe our results, through analysis
of the measures of our dependent variables.
In order to see the bigger picture, mathematical calculus and statistics
may (and must) help us.
Many times, knowledge about other things and events in the world can
help us understand and analise our results.
Our results will support or negate our hypothesis.

56. Report
A very important part of the method is the
report. It is thought to register all the details
about that experimentation, and to discuss
our opinions and reasoning on the results.

57. Back to
Hypothesis
When we go back to our hypothesis, either to rethink it
because it failed, or to test further, we have to think of
all the things we didn't measure or that we didn't
controlled.

58. What are some other factors that we could
control or measure?
Independent Variables:
- Year of manufacturing
- Type of road
- Type of gas
Controls:
- Same driver
- Gas station
- Year of manufacturing
Dependent Variables:
- Dust in motor
- Filters
- Power/ Performance
Back to
Hypothesis