Phil 183 Final Exam Questions and All
Correct Answers 2025-2026 Updated.
Attrition Bias - Answer Selection effect when some patients drop out of a study or data is lost
in some way which results in unreliable evidence
Echo Chamber - Answer When our sources of info and opinion have been selected to
support our opinions.
Evidence for H - Answer When a fact is more probable given H than given not H, it is at least
some evidence for H. We should increase our degree of confidence in H by some degree.
The evidence test - Answer Is evidence given H more or less likely than evidence given not
H? If it is more likely given H, then it is evidence for H
Flie-drawer effect - Answer Evidence unlikely to be published if it doesn't prove something
new or if it proves something already known
Media Bias - Answer Bias towards engaging in content.
Publication Bias - Answer Tendency to publish research that is surprising in some way.
Studies that support conventional wisdom or fail to provide support for alternatives is often left
unpublished.
Selection Effect - Answer a factor that selects which things we observe. Makes evidence
unreliable if we are unaware.
Selective Noticing - Answer Evidence brings to mind a hypothesis and the evidence against it
does not go noticed. We tend to then think we are getting more evidence that support
something than goes against it.
Serial Position effect - Answer we remember the first and last events in a series
Strength Factor - Answer divide P(E|H) by P(E|~H). Measures strength of E. Higher the
number, the stronger E is.
Survivor Bias - Answer Something eliminated some potential sources of information. Like
meeting old people who have all smoked and lived a long time and concluding that everyone
who smokes lives a long time.
, Base Rate - Answer Overall proportion of probability of a feature in general or the
population at large
Central Tendency - Answer Mean, median, mode.
Arithmetic mean - Answer An average that is calculated by adding up a set of quantities and
dividing the sum by the total number of quantities in the set.
Truncated mean - Answer Mean with outliers removed
geometric mean - Answer the mean of n numbers expressed as the n-th root of their
product
Confidence Interval - Answer the interval such hat there is a low probability that if the true
percentage in the population were outside the interval, a sample like this would have yielded
the value it did.
Convenience sample - Answer A set of observations that is small and carelessly selected.
These do not provide much evidence for hypotheses because small samples can easily fail to
match the population. Also tend to be subject to selection effects.
Heuristic - Answer Cognitive shortcut used to bypass more effortful reasoning. Subject to
systematic and predictable errors.
Law of large numbers - Answer larger a sample, more likely it is to reflect the population.
Loose generalization - Answer An association between two things were it is unclear exactly
what the association is meant to express. Like "Canadians are Polite"
Participation Bias - Answer Selection effect that arises from differences in the population in
regards to willingness to participate in a survey. Those with strong opinions are more likely to
respond.
Representative Sample - Answer The proportion of every relevant subgroup in a sample
matches the proportion in the population.
Representativeness Heuristic - Answer judging the likelihood of things in terms of how well
they seem to represent, or match, particular prototypes; may lead us to ignore other relevant
Correct Answers 2025-2026 Updated.
Attrition Bias - Answer Selection effect when some patients drop out of a study or data is lost
in some way which results in unreliable evidence
Echo Chamber - Answer When our sources of info and opinion have been selected to
support our opinions.
Evidence for H - Answer When a fact is more probable given H than given not H, it is at least
some evidence for H. We should increase our degree of confidence in H by some degree.
The evidence test - Answer Is evidence given H more or less likely than evidence given not
H? If it is more likely given H, then it is evidence for H
Flie-drawer effect - Answer Evidence unlikely to be published if it doesn't prove something
new or if it proves something already known
Media Bias - Answer Bias towards engaging in content.
Publication Bias - Answer Tendency to publish research that is surprising in some way.
Studies that support conventional wisdom or fail to provide support for alternatives is often left
unpublished.
Selection Effect - Answer a factor that selects which things we observe. Makes evidence
unreliable if we are unaware.
Selective Noticing - Answer Evidence brings to mind a hypothesis and the evidence against it
does not go noticed. We tend to then think we are getting more evidence that support
something than goes against it.
Serial Position effect - Answer we remember the first and last events in a series
Strength Factor - Answer divide P(E|H) by P(E|~H). Measures strength of E. Higher the
number, the stronger E is.
Survivor Bias - Answer Something eliminated some potential sources of information. Like
meeting old people who have all smoked and lived a long time and concluding that everyone
who smokes lives a long time.
, Base Rate - Answer Overall proportion of probability of a feature in general or the
population at large
Central Tendency - Answer Mean, median, mode.
Arithmetic mean - Answer An average that is calculated by adding up a set of quantities and
dividing the sum by the total number of quantities in the set.
Truncated mean - Answer Mean with outliers removed
geometric mean - Answer the mean of n numbers expressed as the n-th root of their
product
Confidence Interval - Answer the interval such hat there is a low probability that if the true
percentage in the population were outside the interval, a sample like this would have yielded
the value it did.
Convenience sample - Answer A set of observations that is small and carelessly selected.
These do not provide much evidence for hypotheses because small samples can easily fail to
match the population. Also tend to be subject to selection effects.
Heuristic - Answer Cognitive shortcut used to bypass more effortful reasoning. Subject to
systematic and predictable errors.
Law of large numbers - Answer larger a sample, more likely it is to reflect the population.
Loose generalization - Answer An association between two things were it is unclear exactly
what the association is meant to express. Like "Canadians are Polite"
Participation Bias - Answer Selection effect that arises from differences in the population in
regards to willingness to participate in a survey. Those with strong opinions are more likely to
respond.
Representative Sample - Answer The proportion of every relevant subgroup in a sample
matches the proportion in the population.
Representativeness Heuristic - Answer judging the likelihood of things in terms of how well
they seem to represent, or match, particular prototypes; may lead us to ignore other relevant
