| Affirming the consequent | An invalid form of argument: "If A, then B; B; so, A," 64-65, 508
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| Barnum effect | The tendency to interpret general personality descriptions as applying specifically to oneself, 520, 529
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| Cold reading | A manipulative technique often used by "psychics" and other "readers" to guess or elicit information about complete strangers, 519--520
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| Control group | In an experimental study or clinical trial, a group of subjects closely resembling the experimental group that serves as a baseline comparison when the results are evaluated, 338, 509--510
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| Controlled study | A rigorous, carefully conducted study in which scientists use a baseline comparison, or control group, to answer questions of the form "Does A cause B?" 509--510
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| Double-blind study | A experimental study in which neither the subjects nor the researchers that work directly with the subjects know which subjects are members of the experimental group and which are members of the control group, 338, 509
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| Experimental group | In an experimental study, the group of subjects that receives the active medication or treatment being studied, 338, 509--510
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| Fact | An item of information that is objective and true. More broadly, any true statement or proposition, 365--368, 426--427; distinguishing from opinion, 365-368, 426--427; questions of, 512
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| Fishing for details | A technique often used by "psychics" or other "readers," in which vague, exploratory language and close observation of verbal and visual clues are used to subtly elicit information from a subject, 520
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| Hypothesis | In science, an assumption or conjecture put forward to explain some facts or observations, 506--511
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| Modus tollens | A valid argument form: "If A then B; not B; therefore, not A," 63--65, 507
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| Multiple-out expressions | Words or phrases that are so vague that they can easily be interpreted, often after the fact, as fitting many different outcomes, 520
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| Near-death experiences | Striking, paranormal, or spiritual experiences commonly reported by people who have come close to death or have been resuscitated after having been pronounced clinically dead, 532--539
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| Nonrandomized prospective study | A controlled scientific study in which subjects that have been exposed to a suspected causal agent are studied over a period of time, 510
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| Nonrandomized retrospective study | A controlled scientific study in which researchers work backward to attempt to determine the cause of an observed effect, 510
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| Paranormal phenomena | Mysterious, unusual, or supernatural phenomena that supposedly transcend the limits of existing science and are due to hidden or occult causes, 505 (box)
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| Placebo | A sugar pill or other inactive substance, often used in controlled experiments to determine the effectiveness of a treatment or drug, 338, 509
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| Placebo effect | An improvement or other change in a patient's condition produced by an inactive substance and thus due to the expectations of the patient rather than to any active treatment or medication the patient may be receiving, 338, 509
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| Pseudoscience | Unscientific thinking masquerading as scientific thinking, 513; distinguishing science from, 513--524; marks of, 513--514
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| Randomized experimental study | A controlled scientific study that involves deliberate interventions or tests on subjects that have been randomly selected, 509--510
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| Science | A method of inquiry that seeks to describe, explain, and predict occurrences in the physical world by means of careful observation and experiment, 504; basic pattern of reasoning in, 505-511; distinguishing from pseudoscience, 513-522; limitations of, 511-513
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| Scientism | The view that science is the only reliable way of knowing, 513, 548 n. 11
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| Stock spiel | A manipulative technique often used by "psychics" and other "readers," in which general statements that apply to practically everybody are used to convince subjects that the reader has psychic or paranormal powers, 519--520
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| Try-ons | Subtle statements designed to prompt a reaction, but carefully phrased so that they are easily interpreted as hits but not as easily interpreted as misses, 520
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| Vague language | Language that is fuzzy or inexact and hence gives rise to borderline cases in which it is difficult or impossible to tell whether the word or phrase applies to that thing or not, 105--106; in pseudoscience, 519--520
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| Weasel words | Words used to water down or qualify a claim so that it says much less that it appears to, 496, 529
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2002 McGraw-Hill Higher Education