1. The student could possibly be one of those students who has to put no effort into the class to receive a good grade. The student can be one of those type of students who understand the material of the class and receive a good grade but shows up to class so the attendance does not effect their record.
3. An example of an unfalsifiable and untestable explanation would be that the student was taking some type of prescribed medication that made him/her drowsy and that is why the student always falls asleep in class. This is untestable and would make this explanation unfalsifiable because I would not be able to tell if this was the case or not unless I just outright asked the student personal information.
You could ask the student, or drug test the sleepy student. But regardless both of these methods would be testable, therefore making your untestable explanation of why the student sleeps a testable explanation.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Ashton, you could ask the student what kind of medications they are on and do a little research to see if any medications being taken have side effects of drowsiness, this could make your untestable explanation a testable one.
ReplyDeleteThe student probably wouldn't tell you what type of medication he/or she is on which would be untestable, however you could simply observe their behavior before class to see if they were alert before the lecture began. If they we alert then it could be the reason they fall asleep is because they just aren't interested.
ReplyDeleteIs your hypothesis "Is the student one who has to put no effort into the class in order to receive a good grade?"
ReplyDeleteYour test would seem to work , but what if they knew the answer to your question just because they've always knew the answer. You would have to ask more questions too.
Usually untestable explanations are like "they are too cool for school that is why the student sleeps in class", since you can not test their "coolness" rate really. So that would be considered an untestable explanation I think.
Ashton and Troy,
ReplyDeleteVery true on what you guys are saying. I thought of that before I wrote my untestable explanation. What I came up with was that as another student I could not drug test a student and most people who are on a prescribed medication do not let people know that type of personal information for their own reasons. I thought about what I would say if someone asked me if I was on medication and my response to their question would be, that is information that is not important to them nor does it pertain to them. So going off of what my answer would be I would think ninety nine percent of the time the theory would be untestable.
I like your example, the fact that you would sit next to the student and ask them for help to keep them awake. You provided a good example!
ReplyDeleteWhether or not it is testable or not is not dependent upon social restrictions on you gaining information, just on whether the information is potentially obtainable. In this case, medication is detectable and observable and therefore testable.
ReplyDeleteDigitgrade quadrupedalism, sounds like some heavy, high-tech mechanism from out of space. I like that term.
ReplyDelete