Foundations of

Research

Platos Allegory of the Cave.

This
This module
module is
is self-guided.
self-guided.
Anytime
click
Anytime you
you see
see this
this symbol
symbol
click your
your
mouse
mouse (anywhere)
(anywhere) to
to go
go forward.
forward.
Occasionally
Occasionally you
you will
will be
be asked
asked questions
questions give
give
your
your best
best answer
answer and
and the
the program
program will
will give
give you
you
some
some feedback.
feedback.
Now,
Now,

to
to begin!
begin!

Foundations of
Research

Plato, Republic, Book VII, 514a-c to 521a-e)

Platos Allegory of the Cave

Socrates: And now, I said,

let me show in a figure
how far our nature is
enlightened or
unenlightened :
"Behold ! , human beings
living in a underground
den, which has a mouth
open towards the light and
reaching all along the den.
Here they have been from their childhood, and have their legs
and necks chained so that they cannot move, and can only
see before them, being prevented by the chains from turning
round
their
Plato's Allegory
of theheads.
cave, Engraving of Jan Saenredam (1565-1607) after a painting of Cornelis Corneliszoon van Haarlem (1562-1638)

Foundations of
Research

3
The allegory of the cave, 2

Above and behind them a fire is blazing at a distance, and between

the fire and the prisoners there is a raised way;
and you will see, if you look, a low wall built along the way, like the
screen which marionette players have in front of them, over which
they show the puppets.
Glaucon: "I see".
"And do you see", I said,
"men passing along the
wall carrying all sorts of
vessels, and statues and
figures of animals made
of wood and stone and various materials, which appear over the
wall ?
Some of them are talking, others silent.

Foundations of
Research

4
The allegory of the cave, 3

Glaucon: "You have shown me a strange image, and they are

strange prisoners".
"Like ourselves", I replied.
"And they see only their own shadows, or the shadows of one
another, which the fire throws on the opposite wall of the cave ?"
Glaucon: "True", he said. "How could they see anything but the
shadows if they were never allowed to move their heads?"

Foundations of
Research

5
The allegory of the cave, 4

And of the objects which

are being carried in like
manner they would only see
the shadows?"
Glaucon: "Yes", he said.
"And if they were able to
converse with one another,
would they not suppose
that they were naming what
was actually before them?"
Glaucon: "Very true.

Foundations of
Research

6
The allegory of the cave, 5

"And suppose further that the

prison had an echo which
came from the other side
would they not be sure to
fancy then one of the passersby spoke that the voice which
they heard came from the
passing shadow ?"
Glaucon: "No question", he
replied.
"To them", I said, "the
truth would be literally
nothing but the shadows
of the images".
Glaucon: "That is certain."

Foundations of
Research

Platos Cave & Science

What does Platos Allegory of the Cave tell us

about scientific reasoning?
We cannot observe nature directly, we only see its
manifestations or images:
We are trapped in a world
of immediate sensation;
Our senses routinely
deceive us (they have error).
We cannot get outside
our limited sensations to
see the underlying form
of nature

Foundations of
Research

8
Platos Cave: constructs & samples

Platos Cave and Scientific

1. Reasoning:
Theories (knowledgeCore
structures)limitations of
address hypothetical
our
knowledge
about
the
world.
constructs
We infer their forms

Foundations of
Research

What is a hypothetical construct?

We cannot actually look in the

brain and see learning.

What we can see are

These
These are
are
operational
operational
definitions
definitions of
of
learning
learning

changes in test scores

faster / better performance
changes in neuro-anatomy
other measurable outcomes.

Foundations of
Research

What is a hypothetical construct?

10

We cannot actually look in the brain

and see learning.

What we can see are

changes in test scores

faster / better performance
changes in neuro-anatomy
other measurable outcomes.

We infer that what we observe

reflects the hypothetical
construct learning
We make these observations
while testing a hypothesis about
what might cause learning.

Foundations of
Research

11

Platos Cave: constructs & samples

1. Theories (knowledge structures)

address hypothetical
constructs

Platos Cave and Scientific

Reasoning: Core limitations of
our knowledge about the world.

We infer their forms

2. We study samples of
people & places, and try
to generalize to the
larger population

Foundations of
Research

Platos Cave: Hypothetical constructs

12

1. We study hypothetical constructs; basic

operating principles of nature.
e.g., evolution, gravity, learning, motivation

Processes that we
cannot see directly
that underlie events
that we can observe.
We use rational analysis
theory to deduce
what the form of these
processes must be, and
how they work.

Foundations of
Research

13

Why not observe directly?

Why cant we just observe nature directly?

We can only observe the effects of hypothetical
constructs, not the processes themselves.
Our theory helps us develop hypotheses about what
we should observe if our theory is correct.

What is my
hypothesis?

Foundations of
Research

14

Constructs and hypotheses

Theory

Attention

(Hypothetical
constructs)

Learning

Hypothesis:
If

eye tracking & task time

are higher
Operational
Operational Definitions
Definitions

Eye
Eye tracking
tracking
Time
Time on
on task
task

Quiz
Quiz scores
scores
Paper
Paper quality
quality

Then

scores & paper quality

will be greater.

Foundations of
Research

15

Constructs and hypotheses

Theory

Attention

(Hypothetical
constructs)

Learning
Hypothesis
Inference
Inference

Inference
Inference

Results

Eye
Eye tracking
tracking
Time
Time on
on task
task

Quiz
Quiz scores
scores
Paper
Paper quality
quality

Foundations of
Research

Why not observe directly?

16

Why cant we just observe nature directly?

We can only observe the effects of hypothetical
constructs, not the processes themselves.
Our theory helps us develop hypotheses about what we
should observe if our theory is correct.
We test our hypotheses to infer how nature works.
Our inferences contain error: we must estimate the
probability that our results are due to real effects
versus chance.
The link from hypothetical constructs to empirical
evidence can be deductive (top-down) or inductive
(bottoms-up).

Foundations of
Research

Deductive:

The link between theory & data

17

We begin with a well articulated theory

then to data collection:

Theory

Deductive

Hypothetical Constructs

Not directly observed

Specific hypotheses
Research methods

Inductive

(operational definitions)

Empirical observations

Inductive: we begin with empirical observations,

then:
formulate a theory that may account for them
develop further testable hypotheses
gather more data in a specific hypothesis-testing process .

Foundations of
Research

Generalizability

2. Theories are tested with samples, not the

entire population.

Just as we infer the hypothetical

constructs underlying our
observations, we infer how well
those results generalize to:

The larger population our

sample is drawn from
Other physical or social settings
Other conditions or forms of the
Independent Variable
Other outcomes or forms of the Dependent Variable.

As with all inferences, our generalizing beyond the

experiment is probabilistic and is subject to error.

18

Foundations of
Research

Flash question: operational definition

What is an operational definition?

A. A general statement about how

a variable works.
B. The specific procedures we
use to manipulate or measure
a variable.
C. A dictionary-like definition of a
hypothetical construct.
D. Another expression for a
hypothesis.

19

Foundations of
Research

Flash question: operational definition

20

What is an operational definition?

A. A general statement about how

a variable works.
B. The specific procedures we
use to manipulate or measure
a variable.
C. A dictionary-like definition of a
hypothetical construct.
D. Another expression for a
hypothesis.

No.
A theory is a general
statement of how two
or more variables
work or are related
to each other.

Foundations of
Research

21

Flash question: operational definition

What is an operational definition?

A. A general statement about how

a variable works.
B. The specific procedures we
use to manipulate or measure
a variable.
C. A dictionary-like definition of a
hypothetical construct.
D. Another expression for a
hypothesis.

Yes!
An operational
definition takes our
general construct and
turns it into a specific
variable that we can
directly observe or
assign numbers to.

Foundations of
Research

Flash question: operational definition

There is one particular operational definition for any

hypothetical construct.
True
False

22

Foundations of
Research

Flash question: operational definition

23

There is one particular operational definition for any

hypothetical construct.
True
False

No.
General constructs from behavioral or
medical science, economics, even physical
sciences much less History or Literary
Criticism - may be operationally defined in a
variety of ways.

A Public Health researcher may

operationally define health disparity in
purely economic terms, as distance to
health facilities, as care qualified by
morbidity, and so one.

Social behavioral constructs can often be

operationalized either as experimental or
measurement variables, a major distinction.

Foundations of
Research

Flash question: operational definition

24

There is one particular operational definition for any

hypothetical construct.
True
False

Yes.
The creativity of science lies in developing
ways of manipulating or measuring
abstract constructs such as learning,
stress, or arousal.

Foundations of
Research

Flash question: operational definition

25

A good operational definition corresponds exactly to the

hypothetical construct we are studying.
True
False

Foundations of
Research

Flash question: operational definition

26

A good operational definition corresponds exactly to the

hypothetical construct we are studying.
True
False

No.
A hypothetical construct is a general
principle or process think about
economic contraction that we
manipulate or measure in a particular way
for any specific study.

Any particular way we assess economic

contraction will not capture the concept
perfectly.

This is the core point of the Platos Allegory

of the Cave: we do not see the complete
form of a process, we can see
(manipulate, measure) only the particular
way it appears in our study

Foundations of
Research

27

Flash question: operational definition, 3

There is one particular operational definition for any

hypothetical construct.
True
False

Yes!
Many hypothetical constructs are complex
or have many aspects to them. No one
study will capture all aspects of a complex
construct, such as depression:

Verbal behavior

Depression

Appearance

vegetative: sleep, eating

Suicide, drug use, work

Survey / questionnaire answers

Foundations of
Research

Platos Cave and scientific logic

28

Platos allegory of the cave can be taken as a metaphor for the

problem of knowledge;

Processes that govern the natural world are not easy for us to
see directly, and..

Almost invariably we are studying only a sample of the

Summary

population we are interested in.

As a result, we must infer how nature works by:

Positing hypothetical constructs (the building blocks of a theory) that
may explain natural processes

Gathering data and testing hypotheses to infer whether our theory is

correct.

Gathering data requires that we operationally define our variables, by

specifying measures or manipulations that express them.

All our observations and inferences are made with error: we

never see the world perfectly clearly.