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Chapter Objectives
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Following are the main learning objectives from the chapter. To help you coordinate your studies, these objectives are organized into sub-sections (11-1, 11-2, etc.) and listed with the relevant page numbers from the textbook.
Objective 11-1

Understand what a causal argument is and how it works in everyday reasoning.

  • Understand the definitions of a causal claim and a causal hypothesis in informal causal reasoning.
  • Recognize the difference between relevant-difference reasoning and common-thread reasoning.
  • Be attuned to widely made mistakes made in informal causal reasoning, such as the fallacy known as "post hoc ergo propter hoc."
Objective 11-2

Grasp the forms of causal claims made about large populations and by what means their truth is demonstrated.

  • Recognize what a causal claim about a population does mean and also what it does not mean.
  • Know how a controlled cause-to-effect experiment is run and what roles the experimental group and the control group play in that experiment.
  • Understand what "frequency" means in the context of cause-to-effect experiments.
  • Understand the concept of statistical significance and be able to apply it.
  • Recognize the relevance of and meaning of sample size when evaluating the results drawn from a cause-to-effect experiment.
  • Know how a nonexperimental cause-to-effect study works, and its advantages and disadvantages.
  • Know how a nonexperimental effect-to-cause study is run and what its strengths and weaknesses are.
Objective 11-3

Recognize the failings that causal claims are heir to.

  • Define anecdotal evidence and be able to say what's wrong with it.
  • Understand what circularity, nontestability, vagueness, unnecessary assumptions, and conflict with established theory all are, and why any one of them can bring a causal claim down.
Objective 11-4

Differentiate clearly between a causal explanation and an argument.








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