Deck 14: Science and Superstition

Question 1

According to Thomas Kuhn, one feature that distinguishes scientists from pseudo scientists is that scientists are:

A) Workaholics.
B) Equipped with laboratory facilities.
C) Puzzle solvers.
D) Theorizers.
E) Practitioners.

Answer 1

Puzzle solvers.

Question 2

One of the problems about superstitions relating to good luck is that:

A) Good luck can always be followed by bad luck.
B) The concept of what good luck amounts to is vague.
C) Good luck is always determined by fate.
D) Good luck is only definable statistically.
E) The occurrence of good luck can be explained scientifically.

Answer 2

The concept of what good luck amounts to is vague.

Question 3

A cure that supposedly arises from a "medicine" or procedure having no therapeutic benefit is said to result from:

A) The autokinetic effect.
B) The medicinal effect.
C) The placebo effect.
D) The transmutational effect.
E) The synthetic effect.

Answer 3

The placebo effect.

Question 4

The effect by which a small stationary light surrounded by darkness will be seen to move is called the:

A) Psychokinetic effect.
B) Spuriokinetic effect.
C) Psychotic effect.
D) Kinesthetic effect.
E) Autokinetic effect.

Question 5

The claim that practitioners of transcendental meditation can levitate leads to:

A) An idiosyncratic problem.
B) An external consistency problem.
C) A coherence problem.
D) An adequacy problem.
E) A functional problem.

Question 6

One of the reasons astrology is not considered a science is that:

A) The rules for casting horoscopes are self contradictory.
B) It is not taught in reputable colleges and universities.
C) Calculating the interactions of planetary influences is too complicated.
D) It shows no progress over many centuries of practice.
E) It has been superseded by astronomy and cosmology.

Question 7

Scientific hypotheses must be framed narrowly enough to be:

A) Indemonstrable.
B) Provable.
C) Determinable.
D) Rationalizable.
E) Disconfirmable.

Question 8

The ability of people to walk on glowing wood coals without getting burned is explained by the fact that:

A) Wood coals contain a relatively low quantity of heat.
B) Wood coals are extinguished by the moisture in people's feet.
C) Neurolinguistic programming blocks the transmission of heat.
D) The temperature of wood coals is very low.
E) Wood coals form a crust that blocks the transmission of heat.

Question 9

One consequence of Ockham's razor is that:

A) The more complex an explanation is, the more complete it is.
B) Naturalistic explanations are better than supernatural ones.
C) Supernatural explanations are better than naturalistic ones.
D) The best explanations are the ones containing numerous theoretical entities.
E) Paranormal phenomena are not able to be explained.

Question 10

Hallucinations that affect the vision of people in a large crowd are called:

A) Popular delusions.
B) Collective hallucinations.
C) Galvanic hallucinations.
D) Amplified delusions.
E) Spiritual visions.

Question 11

An apparent benefit derived from superstitious beliefs is:

A) The ability to levitate.
B) Psychokinesis.
C) The ability to channel.
D) Clairvoyance.
E) Relief of anxiety.

Question 12

One of the reasons anecdotal evidence is considered unreliable is that:

A) It is often the result of hallucinations.
B) People tend to lie about this kind of evidence.
C) It is not replicable.
D) Reports of anecdotal evidence are often vaguely worded.
E) Subjects often report anecdotal evidence for emotional reasons.

Question 13

One of the features of superstitious hypotheses is:

A) Vagueness.
B) Falsifiability.
C) Supernormality.
D) Confirmability.
E) Dubiosity.

Question 14

The claim that eating pickled parsley cured Mr. Smith's congestive heart failure is called:

A) Supplementary evidence.
B) Transitory evidence.
C) Spurious evidence.
D) Conditional evidence.
E) Anecdotal evidence.

Question 15

Uri Geller's claims of having psychic power rested on:

A) Superstitious evidence.
B) Supernatural evidence.
C) Transcendental evidence.
D) Faked evidence.
E) Epiphenomenal evidence.

Question 16

In regard to levitation, Maharishi International University's International Center for Scientific Research has done which of the following?

A) Published papers in scientific journals.
B) Compiled a list of meditators who can levitate.
C) Conducted experiments.
D) Nothing to speak of.
E) Read papers before scientific bodies.

Question 17

To a large extent, the purpose of all superstitious hypotheses is to satisfy:

A) Criminal inclinations.
B) Innate curiosity.
C) Financial needs.
D) Emotional needs.
E) Irrational dispositions.

Question 18

The mental pattern that results from solving a puzzle or riddle is called:

A) A gestalt.
B) An epistemic stamp.
C) A cognitive appliqué.
D) An eidetic residue.
E) A noetic profile.

Question 19

Ockham's razor is a principle that requires hypotheses to be:

A) Complex.
B) Functional.
C) Simple.
D) Empirical.
E) Rational.

Question 20

Which of the following is a key feature of scientific experiments?

A) Dependability.
B) Replicability.
C) Efficaciousness.
D) Directionality.
E) Stability.

Question 21

Modifications that are made to hypotheses to allow for unexpected or unfavorable pieces of evidence are called:

A) Ad hoc modifications.
B) Hypothetical expansions.
C) Moot hypotheses.
D) Explanatory mutations.
E) Ex post facto modifications.

Question 22

As a result of the application of Ockham's razor, naturalistic explanations are preferred to supernatural explanations because:

A) Naturalistic explanations lead to entirely new ways of viewing the world.
B) Naturalistic explanations are preferred by atheists.
C) Supernatural explanations are inconsistent with well confirmed scientific theories.
D) Supernatural explanations are always contaminated by religious beliefs.
E) Supernatural explanations introduce a whole new set of entities into the picture.

Question 23

An example of pareidolia is:

A) Seeing the face of Jesus in the burn marks on a tortilla.
B) Seeing what appears to be a UFO move against a dark sky.
C) Hearing or seeing what seems to be a ghost just before falling asleep.
D) Seeing the word "STOP" on a partly obscured road sign.
E) Identifying personality features from the bumps on a person's head.

Question 24

The experiment performed by psychologists Singer and Benassi involving a conjurer who performed before a group of students tends to show that:

A) A conjurer's tricks can be exposed by keen observers.
B) People see what they have been conditioned to see.
C) Psychokinesis is possible given the right conditions.
D) Many people are disposed to magical ways of thinking.
E) Clairvoyance is not a reliable way of solving crimes.

Question 25

According to Karl Popper, genuinely scientific hypotheses must be:

A) Falsifiable.
B) Testable.
C) Flexible.
D) Verifiable.
E) Applicable.

Question 26

The failure of palm readers to identify the causal connection between the lines on a person's hands and his or her life indicates that the theory of palm reading is:

A) Internally incoherent.
B) Inadequate.
C) Unfruitful.
D) Dysfunctional.
E) Inapplicable.

Question 27

The apparent power of a mere sugar pill to cure numerous bodily ailments is called:

A) Confabulation.
B) Pareidolia.
C) The placebo effect.
D) The autokinetic effect.
E) The hypnagogic effect.

Question 28

The puzzle-solving character of science is illustrated by the effort of scientists to:

A) Determine the atomic number of gold.
B) Identify the composition of moon rocks.
C) Measure the velocity of the earth's motion around the sun.
D) Determine the salt content of sea water.
E) Detect stellar parallax.

Question 29

Hypnagogic hallucinations may be the cause of:

A) The appearance of faces in clouds.
B) The alleged sightings of ghosts.
C) Apparitions of the Virgin Mary in Medjugorje.
D) Déjà vu experiences.
E) Near death experiences.

Question 30

Statements from the Bible about the natural world do not count as scientific evidence because:

A) The people responsible for these claims are all dead.
B) They are always infected with theological claims.
C) They do not report the results of measurements expressed mathematically.
D) The authorship of these documents is subject to debate.
E) They are usually expressed in metaphorical language.

Question 31

An example of the autokinetic effect is:

A) The image of rapidly moving objects in the content of dreams.
B) Seeing unknown entities move about in a dark closet.
C) The perceived movement of a human body after death.
D) The sensation of involuntary bodily movements while falling asleep.
E) The apparent movement of a small stationary light in a dark room.

Question 32

The experiment by Bruner and Postman involving an altered deck of playing cards tends to prove that:

A) There is a difference between perception and sensation.
B) We see what we expect to see.
C) We see what other people want us to see.
D) What we see is affected by ambient lighting conditions.
E) Partial colorblindness is widespread.

Question 33

An example of a Gestalt is:

A) A temporary episode of color blindness.
B) A retinal after-image caused by viewing a brightly lighted scene.
C) A distorted perception caused by damage to the frontal lobe of the brain.
D) The pattern created in one's mind by solving a puzzle.
E) An optical illusion produced by overlapping geometrical figures.

Question 34

An example of the placebo effect is:

A) The apparent ability to recognize the picture on a Zener card without actually seeing it.
B) Being able to walk on hot coals without getting burned.
C) The apparent cure that results from taking sugar pills.
D) The apparent ability to bend spoons and keys without touching them.
E) Being able to levitate.

Question 35

According to Imre Lakatos and Paul Thagard, science is distinguished from pseudoscience in that science is:

A) Directional.
B) Progressive.
C) Rational.
D) Developmental.
E) Instructive.

Question 36

Superstitious claims are usually expressed in vague language. As a result:

A) They engage only the emotions and never the intellect.
B) It is often difficult to distinguish one such claim from another.
C) Scientists have no interest in them.
D) It is usually impossible to subject them to empirical test.
E) They lend themselves too readily to ad hoc modifications.

Question 37

One source of support for superstitious hypotheses is:

A) Satanic influences in the world.
B) The universal desire to advance oneself in the world.
C) The desire to know.
D) The belief in an afterlife.
E) The love many people have for the magical and fantastic.

Question 38

One of the reasons for the existence of superstitious beliefs is that:

A) They help relieve anxiety.
B) They are a reliable substitute for scientific conclusions.
C) They explain various kinds of delusions and hallucinations.
D) They are more satisfying to religious people than science.
E) They are useful in explaining the content of dreams.

Question 39

An example of faked evidence is provided by the "feats" of:

A) Bernard Leikind.
B) James Randi.
C) Uri Geller.
D) Ray Hyman.
E) Donald Singleton.

Question 40

The effect by which people recognize images (such as faces or animals) in clouds or other media is called:

A) Pareidolia.
B) Psychedelia.
C) Kinesthesia.
D) Echolalia.
E) Precognition.

Question 41

When astrological predictions fail to materialize, the community of astrologers typically responds by:

A) Ignoring them.
B) Reexamining the positions of the planets at the pertinent times.
C) Recasting the astrological charts.
D) Rereading ancient astrological texts.
E) Resetting the astrological clocks.

Question 42

The Maharishi Mahesh Yogi claimed that some practitioners of transcendental meditation were able to:

A) Read other peoples' minds.
B) Levitate.
C) Bend spoons and other objects by merely stroking them.
D) Find sources of water by using a diving rod.
E) Practice "cold reading."

Question 43

The process by which the brain fills in gaps in memory images is called:

A) Pareidolia.
B) Articulation.
C) Synthesis.
D) Confabulation.
E) Analysis.

Question 44

The absence of any astrological explanation as to how the planets can affect people's lives amounts to:

A) An adequacy problem.
B) An empirical problem.
C) A problem with fruitfulness.
D) An external consistency problem.
E) A coherence problem.

Question 45

Hallucinations that occur just as people are drifting off to sleep are called:

A) Soporific hallucinations.
B) Epicyclic delusions.
C) Hypnagogic hallucinations.
D) Hypnotic delusions.
E) Episodic delusions.