Adam suspects that most hairy dogs have balding owners. Testing his “pet” theory at a local park, he quickly finds flaws in his own experiment. This video demonstrates Adam’s second test, involving better preparation, more rigorous analysis, and an exciting pasta cook-off. Showing how Adam can effectively determine the best spaghetti recipe, the program illustrates concepts that are central to the scientific method—including null, alternative, and two-tailed hypotheses; field and lab settings; sampling; primacy/recency effects; constant/random errors; and other testing principles.
Choosing an appropriate research design is crucial for validating cause and effect conclusions. View definitions of population and sample. Methods include experiment, observational study, surveys, interviews, and participant observation. Conclusions also depend on data quality.
