GXEX1406

Thinking and Communication Skills

Clarification and Interpretation of Ideas

2 GXEX1406 Thinking and Communication Skills – Week 8 Clarification and Interpretation of Ideas

What is meant by Clarification ofIdeas?

Whenever you read the newspapers,

magazines, chapters of a book, a short story

or even listening to a speech, the first step is

to clarify what is there. What is the BIG

IDEA? How is the big idea supported? Or is

there more than one big idea? Are the terms,

words or phrases used clear? Is there

evidence for ambiguity or a tendency for

vagueness?

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Process Of Extracting The Main Idea

Main idea

Supporting ideas #1 Supporting ideas #2

Details Details

Note : Other names of the main idea:main point, gist, central theme, general impression, master idea, big idea, writer's message, outstanding point / feature,significant idea.

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Extracting the Main Idea (cont…)(Details about the (supporting) ideas …) WHAT? - are the IDEAS put forward

(Main idea, Supporting ideas and Details) WHO? - are putting forward the IDEAS

(the persons, organizations, etc) WHY? - are the IDEAS put forward

(the purpose of the ideas) WHERE? - are the IDEAS put forward

(the context, location, etc) WHEN? - were the IDEAS put forward

(time, occasion, events, etc) HOW? - were the IDEAS put forward

(as a study, report, news item, conference paper, advert, etc)

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An idea

How do people remember (the idea)? This is a pretty big question To begin to answer it we’ve got to break it down

into smaller more specific ideas & to develop theories as to why

Then we can begin using experiments to test parts of the theories

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An idea (cont…) Meaning of Words

The usual method would be to check the meaning of words using a dictionary. But one should also keep in mind the context in which the word is used. You could also determine (perhaps with less accuracy) the meaning of words using the context, i.e. reading the line before and after the word might give you clues as to the meaning of word or words)

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An idea (cont…) Meaning of Specialised Words and

DefinitionAt times the text you are reading is in a specialized discipline

and the words may have specific meaning unique to the area of study. For example, if you are reading an economics text, there is likelihood that you will come across words such as per capita income, consumer price index, price control, free-trade, WTO and so forth. You could either refer to a dictionary of economics terms or ask someone you expect to know about the field such as an economist or an economics teacher.

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An idea (cont…) Synonyms and Paraphasing

You could also establish the meaning of words by looking up at synonyms, i.e. words of similar meaning at times provide a clearer understanding of the text. Alternatively, the text may also provide a paraphrase of a particular word, i.e. saying the same thing in a different way which is easily understood by most people. eg. "He is a good lecturer because his students rate him high"

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An idea (cont…) Examples and Non-Examples

Examples and non-examples may be provided to illustrate and explain a particular word or phrase. One of the best ways to explain a concept or principle is to give an example. For instance, to explain the concept of oxidation, the case of the gate in your house rusting would be a good example. Similarly, to explain painters of the impressionist era, then examples of paintings of the era would illustrate better the features of the era. Non-examples are also used help readers understand better what the ideas or statements really mean.

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An idea (cont…) Vague Word: a word that lacks a clear

and distinct meaning."That was a very nice party".

This is an often heard comment. But what does "nice" mean? It does not give a precise and accurate description of the experience the person is trying to communicate.

"Many old people attended the party"

Similary with this statement, "old" is rather vague. For example when you talk with primary school children, a boy or girl in Form IV would be considered old. When we are forty, sixty is considered old! To an anthropologist, an "old" person might be one who lived 9,000 ago!

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An idea (cont…) Ambiguity :

A word that has more than one meaning and is open to different interpretations. A claim is ambiguous if it can be assigned more than meaning and if the particular meaning it should be assigned is not made clear by context.eg.

"My work here is finished", said Saiful.

a) Saiful has finished the work assigned

b) Saiful is fed up with the job and leaving the

organisation.

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An idea (cont…) Drawing Contrasts

Another technique adopted to clarify ideas is to state what it is not rather than what it is. i.e in what ways the concept or idea is different from another concept or idea. For example, instead of saying what is chemical weathering, it is described as different from mechanical weathering because there is a chemical reaction involved.

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Where do ideas come from?(focus on the ideas of research…)

Research is often driven by curiosity. We typically study things that we’re interested in. B. F. Skinner (1956) “Here [is] a first principle not

formally recognized by scientific methodologists: When you run onto something interesting, drop everything else and study it.”

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Idea origins(Ideas about the research…)

Common Sense – things that we all think are true Treat others as you want them to treat you

Nice social psych experiment, does this work?

• But note: a lot of our common sense is contradictory –absence makes the heart grow fonder

–long distance affairs never last.

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Idea origins (cont…)

Common Sense Observation – both of others and of yourself (and maybe

even of animals or kids).

•Direct observation includes public observation, self observation, observing children, observing animals•Vicarious observation – what somebody else has observed

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Idea origins (cont…)

Common Sense Observation Past research – find out what research has already been

done and ask yourself “what don’t we know still” (or perhaps better “what do we NEED to know that we don’t already know)

follow-up studies, expanding the past research in more detail or new directions

improvements on past research studies, maybe you think the past research had some serious flaws or limitations

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Idea origins (cont…)

Common Sense Observation Past research Identify a problem – perhaps there is an important

problem or issue that needs a (or some) solutions.

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Idea origins (cont…)

Common Sense Observation Past research Identify a problem Ask the Experts – basically boils down to putting your

trust in somebody else who says that they know what the research

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Idea origins (cont…)

Common Sense Observation Past research Identify a problem Ask the Experts Stick with it and get lucky

Pavlov was working on dog digestive systems. Noticed dogs salivated when put into their harnesses prior to being fed. This observation and the subsequent work led to groundbreaking work in how animal (including humans) learn - classical conditioning

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Classic barriers to good research ideas

I’m not smart enough. Yes you are, but it may be hard work

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Classic barriers to good research ideas (cont…)

I’m not smart enough. Somebody else must have already done this.

review the literature, if somebody has done it remember two things: replication is an important part of science perhaps there is a new angle to add to the research idea

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Classic barriers to good research ideas (cont…)

I’m not smart enough. Somebody else must have already done this. I don’t know how to pursue the idea.

- again, review the literature, how have others examined similar issues

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Classic barriers to good research ideas (cont…)

I’m not smart enough. Somebody else must have already done this. I don’t know how to pursue the idea. It’s too simple, something must be wrong.

parsimony is generally a GOOD thing

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Classic barriers to good research ideas (cont…)

I’m not smart enough. Somebody else must have already done this. I don’t know how to pursue the idea. It’s too simple, something must be wrong. The idea will take too much work.

don’t be afraid to work hard, sometimes you can think of ways to simplify things to reduce the workload

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Classic barriers to good research ideas (cont…)

I’m not smart enough. Somebody else must have already done this. I don’t know how to pursue the idea. It’s too simple, something must be wrong. The idea will take too much work.

Our goal is that you come away from this course with the knowledge and ability to see past most if not all of these pitfalls.

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Are my ideas good?

Evaluate your idea Is is specified enough to be manageable

ROT rule: Replicable - one time deal? Observable - can you measure it? Testable - can you falsify it?

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Testable

Many interesting hypotheses are not testable until they are further specified Is abortion wrong? are drugs evil?

These deal with opinions and aren’t answerable with experimental methods

Meditation affects how good one feels about oneself. Which direction? What counts as meditation? How

much meditation? What does ‘feel good about oneself” mean?

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Replication

Many interesting results are not accepted until they are replicated Cold fusion - the answer to all of our energy

needs The results were never replicated and are not generally

accepted by the scientific community Extrasensory perception (ESP)

Some proponents claim that ESP only occurs under certain unknown conditions and that it is impossible to predict when the conditions are right.

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Observable

Many interesting questions may not be examined experimentally because they aren’t directly observable. Do dogs think like humans?

Since we can’t directly observe a dog’s thoughts, we can only make inferences about their thoughts via their behavior

Is my experience of the color red the same as yours?

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Breaking the idea down

What does memory involve? Encoding - getting the memories in Storage - keeping the memories Retrieval - getting the memories out

Are all kinds of memory the same? Procedural vs. declarative memories Pictures vs. words

How long do memories last?

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How do we observe memory? Can we re-do the experiments, do we get

similar results? Are our predictions testable?