Influence of research methods and statistics courses on everyday reasoning, critical abilities, and belief in unsubstantiated phenomena.

Abstract

Do undergraduate courses in psychology Research Methods (RM) and Statistics (STAT) improve general reasoning skills and scientific abilities? Psychology students concurrently enrolled in introductory RM and STAT were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: a baseline group was tested at the beginning of the semester; another group was tested after completion of KM and STAT; and a third group completed R M and STAT and also received 3 tutorial sessions that specifically emphasized transfer of the course material to reasoning in a more general context. A group of students in a humanities programme provided a general comparison group. All participants were assessed on tests of general reasoning and of critical abilities. Respondents also completed a questionnaire that assessed their willingness to endorse scientifically unsubstantiated phenomena. The KM and STAT courses by themselves did not enhance students' general reasoning or critical ability. The group receiving tutorial sessions in addition to the RM and STAT did, however, perform significantly better than the baseline group. Willingness to endorse belief in unsubstantiated phenomena was not affected by the courses.