Chapter 11: Objectives

Following are the main learning objectives from the chapter.  To help you coordinate your studies, these objectives are organized into sub-sections (11-1, 11-2, etc.) and listed with the relevant page numbers from the textbook. 

11-1 (pg. 355)
Understand what inductive arguments are.

• Differentiate between inductive and deductive arguments.

11-2 (pgs. 355-369)
Understand what an inductive generalization is.

• Recognize the difference between an analogical argument and an inductive generalization.
• Understand the criteria which the strength of an inductive generalization relies upon.
• Understand these key terms and ideas as they apply to inductive generalizations : property in question, sample, target class or population.
• Understand why the strength of an inductive generalization relies on the sample being representative of the target population.
• Recognize a biased sample and understand its negative effect on the reliability of an inductive generalization.
• Understand the role of randomization in generative a reliable inductive generalization.
• Understand how the following concepts relate to inductive generalizations: random variation, error margin, confidence level. 

11-3 (pgs. 369-376)
Understand what an analogical argument is.

• Realize that an analogical argument typically has one item as its target population.
• Understand the criteria which the strength of an analogy relies upon.
• Understand these key terms and ideas as they apply to arguments by analogy: property in question, sample, target population.
• Understand the effect that the size of the sample has on the strength of an analogy.
• Understand the effect that the number of similarities between the target population and the members of the sample has on the strength of an analogy.
• Understand the effect that diversity in the sample has to the strength of an analogy.
• Understand the role of relevance when assessing the strength of similarities.

11-4 (pgs. 374-376)
Recognize the most common ways that generalizations fail.

• Understand and be able to identify the fallacy of hasty generalization.
• Understand and be able to identify the fallacy of anecdotal evidence.
• Understand and be able to identify the fallacy of refutation via hasty generalization.
• Understand and be able to identify the fallacy of biased generalization.

11-5 (pgs.376-377)
Recognize the most common factors in assessing the reliability of opinion polls.

• Understand the effect of self-selected samples on the reliability of polls.
• Understand how street interviews can affect the reliability of polls.
• Understand how telephone interviews can affect the reliability of polls.
• Understand how the use of questionnaires can affect the reliability of polls.
• Understand how the questions in a poll may be intentionally worded to produce desired results.

11-6 (pgs. 377-379) 
Understand how the principle called the law of large numbers is important in assessing inductive arguments.

• Differentiate between the law of large numbers and the gambler's fallacy.