Please read the following excerpt from an editorial about the Atkins diet

Please read the following excerpt from an
       editorial about the Atkins diet
People are constantly looking for the best way to shed a
few pounds. I think I found one. The Atkins diet is an
effective diet. It burns 25% more fat than any of the
leading available diet plans and in doing so, the lack of
carbohydrates increases your health by reducing your
body mass index by up to 3 % in the first two weeks. While
it is true that some studies have also found that people
lose an average of 10 pounds more from diets like Jenny
Craig, these studies only measured short-term weight
loss. The Atkins diet has been shown to be an effective
diet for longer periods of time than those diets.

                                                         1

How convincing is this information for
   understanding how effective the Atkins
                 Diet is?

Not very                                 Very
Convincing   1   2   3   4   5   6   7   Convincing

                                                      2

Did you notice anything important?
So who wrote this editorial? Is the author knowledgeable?
How do we know?

This article was written in by manager of a retirement facility
– not an expert. He is not trained in nutrition or medicine. It
is also an editorial in a newspaper. Anyone can contribute to
this section. So, how do we know it is reliable or true?

Readers of the Web have to always be vigilant in evaluating
the source before reading a text, because some people are
very skilled at making things “look” very scientific. We can’t
assume information is really reliable and trustworthy. We
have to consider the source.

                                                              3

So “Who” wrote the document?
Before reading any document, you must learn as much as
possible about who wrote the document and why they wrote
it.

When identifying the author, be as specific as possible and
be careful using information you don’t know the source for.

First, start by finding the name of the person (or persons)
who wrote it (e.g., Mr. Kevin O’Connor).

                                                              4

What is the author's educational level
           and field of expertise?
Find out how knowledgeable the author is about the topic.

For science information:
Scientists with advanced degrees (e.g., Ph.D. or M.D.) are
trained at evaluating, verifying, and explaining scientific info
so give it more weight and credibility for science topics.

It is also important to consider their field of expertise.
E.g., A clinical psychologist has a Ph.D. but they do not have
expert knowledge of the nutrition. VS
A person with a Ph.D. in nutrition who conducts research at a
university would have that knowledge.

                                                                   5

Does it come from a reputable outlet?
If you really want to be sure that the information is reliable, you
should select an outlet that has a reputation for publishing
quality scientific work (e.g., peer review).

You also want to attend to the type of publication you are
reading (e.g., journal article, editorial, blog). However, no one
checks that information for accuracy. When scientists publish in
reputable outlets, other experts verify that the methods and
results are reliable.

Of course, assessing outlets for credibility does not totally
ensure that the information will be reliable, but without at least
considering it, there is a good chance that the information may
be untrue.

                                                                 6

Some elements of the source important to
       scientific claims includes….
Evaluating source is more than looking for “bias”.
• Who wrote this document?
    – Name of the person who wrote it. (e.g., Dr. Joe Smith)
    – Educational level / field of expertise: How knowledgeable
      the author is about the topic (e.g., Ph.D. in Nutrition Science)
    – Professional position : What is their field of expertise (e.g.,
      Nutritional Researcher at State University)
• Does the document come from a reputable outlet?
    – Name of publishing outlet: (e.g., Journal of International
      Environment)
    – Type of document: (e.g., article vs. blog)

                                                                    7

Sample essay question
Possible essay question (or MC): What is an explanation
in science and what is important to attend to when
comprehending explanations for phenomena.

                                                          8

What is an explanation in science?
• An explanation is a statement that makes clear the
  intermediate steps between one or more factors leading
  to the to-be-explained outcome. It helps us understand
  how or why some phenomena occurs or will occur.

                                                           9

Example
• In trying to explain “the recent increases
  in average global temperatures” one
  could state that “Man’s increased fossil
  fuel consumption since the industrial
  revolution has increased the amount of
  carbon dioxide in the atmosphere which
  increases the greenhouse effect which is
  causing the recent increases in average
  global temperatures”.

                                               10

What is important to attend to?

• Identify factors that could cause the
  outcome (e.g., increases in average
  global temperatures).
• Figure out the main connections to go
  from the factor to the outcome.
• Sequence of events
• Causal relations
• May need to make inferences
• May need to explicit seemingly obvious
  things.
                                           11

QA2: Learning about explanations
                      Research Question:
• Memory for explanations for a scientific phenomenon?
• Does a short tutorial help?

                             Method:
• IV: 2 Tutor (Tutor before vs Tutor after) between-subjects
• DV: # of steps correctly recalled in the correct order

                             Procedure:
Tutor before:                      Tutor After:
Read tutor and fill in handout      Read unrelated
Read and rate 4 explanations        Read and rate 4 explanations
Surprise cued (title) recall        Surprise cued (title) recall
Read unrelated                      Read tutor and fill in handout

                                                               12

Please read each passage carefully and rate how difficult it was to
read on the 6 point scale. You will be given 13 minutes to read them.
Later you will be asked several questions about each passage.
                                     Supernova
Supernovae are stupendous explosions that destroy an entire star. The "nova"
("new") part of their name is because they are mostly seen as `new' stars
appearing suddenly where no star was seen before because of their sudden
increase in brightness. They can, for a few days, rival the combined light
output of all the rest of the stars in the galaxy. The supernova begins when the
nuclear reactions in the center of the star stop. This results in a loss of internal
pressure in the star which causes a lot of gravity pulling the star inward. When
the inner shell hits the iron core, it makes a huge shock wave. This violent
shock causes the star to explode into a cloud of cosmic debris. Most of the
carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, silicon, and iron that we have on Earth originally
came from a supernova explosion.

How difficult was this passage to read? Very Easy 1         2    3   4   5    6
Very Difficult

                                                                                  13

Please read each passage carefully and rate how difficult it was to
read on the 6 point scale. You will be given 13 minutes to read them.
Later you will be asked several questions about each passage.
                                     Supernova
Supernovae are stupendous explosions that destroy an entire star. The "nova"
("new") part of their name is because they are mostly seen as `new' stars
appearing suddenly where no star was seen before because of their sudden
increase in brightness. They can, for a few days, rival the combined light
output of all the rest of the stars in the galaxy. The supernova begins when
the nuclear reactions in the center of the star stop. This results in a loss of
internal pressure in the star which causes a lot of gravity pulling the star
inward. When the inner shell hits the iron core, it makes a huge shock wave.
This violent shock causes the star to explode into a cloud of cosmic debris.
Most of the carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, silicon, and iron that we have on Earth
originally came from a supernova explosion.

How difficult was this passage to read? Very Easy 1       2   3   4   5   6
Very Difficult

                                                                              14

Results

t(61) = 2.067, p > .05

                         15

As a group, describe a person and task situation. When
describing the person, be specific about different Internal
Resources (at least 5 dimensions). When describing the
task situation, be specific about what the question is and
what materials they are given or have access to (External
resources especially task specifications). Then, using
the MD-TRACE model, describe the processes (or steps)
and decisions (diamonds) that are required to complete this
task. Make sure to use the terms you learned from MD-
TRACE to answer this question.