Self-study
Scientist: A number of errors can plague a data-collection process. █████ █████████ ███ █████████ ████ ███████ ███████████ ██ ██████ ████ ██ █████ ███████ ██ ██ ████████ ████████ ███ ███████████ ██ ███████ █████████ █████ ████████ ██ ██ ██████ █████ ██ █ ████████ ████████ ███ ████ ███████████ ██ █████ ███████ ███████ ████ ███ ███ ████████ ██ ███████████ ██████ ██ ███ █████████ ██████ █████ ██████ ████ ███ ███████████ ████ ██ ████ ███████ ██████ █████████
"Surprising" Phenomenon
Why does corrected data in the scientist’s field tend to align more with Jones’s theory more than does uncorrected data?
Objective
The right answer will be a hypothesis that explains why these data corrections gravitate towards what Jones’s theory predicts. The explanation must either signal that Jones’s theory is correct and errors naturally stray from the theory, or that those doing the data corrections are themselves biased towards Jones’s theory.
17.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████ █████ ██ ███████ ███ ████████ ██ ███████████ ██ ███ ███████████ █████ ██ █████ ███████ ███████
a
Researchers normally give ████ ████ ██ ██ ████ ████ █ ██████ ███ ████ ██████ ██ ████ ████ █████████ ████ ████ ██████ ████ ████ ███ ███████████ ███████ ██ ██████ ████ ███████
The question is why data corrections favor a particular theory, not how data is used in evaluating a theory. This just isn't relevant to the data correction process.
b
Researchers in the ███████████ █████ ████ ████ ████ █████████ ████ ███████ ██████ ███████ ████████ ████ ████ ████ ████ ████ ██ ██ ████ ████ ███████ ███████
Researchers go looking for errors in data that conflicts with Jones’s theory. Data that falls in line with Jones’s theory, on the other hand, goes unremarked and uncorrected. This explains why data corrections favor Jones’s theory.
c
Researchers in the ███████████ █████ ███ ████ ██████ ██ ██████ █████ ██ ████████ ████ ████ ██████ ████ █████ ████████ ████ ██████ ████ ██ ██████ █████ █████ ██ █████████
It doesn’t matter what researchers expect ahead of time, because we're concerned with what happens after data is collected. This doesn't tell us why data corrections align with Jones’s theory.
d
Even if researchers ████ ██ ██████ ██████ ██ █ ███████████████ ███████ ████ ████ ███████ ███ ████ ████ ████ ██████████ ████ ████ ███ █████████ ████ ██ ████ ██████ ██████
This may be true, but why do researchers mainly correct errors in such a way as to bring data in line with Jones’s theory? This doesn’t tell us enough about the data correction process to know.
e
Researchers in the ███████████ █████ ████ ██████████ ███████ █████ ████████ ████ ███████ ██ ███████ ███ ████ █████ ██ █████████ ████ ███████ ██████ ████████ ██ ████████
So why do data corrections favor Jones’s theory rather than these other theories? If anything, this only complicates things now that we know there are other theories to choose from.