| The purpose of this lab is to have
you take an alternative look at subjective certainty or
confidence and it's potential role in epistemology. Many epistemologists, like Descartes, rely upon subjective
certainty or confidence in their conceptions of knowledge. This lab asks
you to look empirically at the relationship between one's
subjective sense of confidence in a belief and the objective likelihood of it
being true. The hope is that you can gain some empirical perspective
of the practice of defining knowledge in light of subjective certainty or
confidence.
You
will start by taking the "certainty quiz" on beachboard. The
quiz consists of your answering 20 questions about
current and historical facts. You must complete the quiz
once you begin, and you are limited to 25 minutes. The
instructions for the quiz are as follows:
This is not a graded quiz, nor is it a measure of intelligence. Rather, you will be asked a number of questions, and you should answer with a low (first) and a high (second) guess. Your guesses should indicate a range such that you are 90% sure that the correct value answer for the questions) lies within that range. For instance, if you were asked, "how old is Wallis?", you might answer between 37 and 45. Try to give your best estimate of the range, do not over or under estimate. Likewise, do not consult reference material or try to scroll backwards during the quiz. You must complete the quiz now that you have started it. Beachboard only allows 25 minutes for you to complete the quiz. The actual numbers (answers) will be given at the end of the quiz so that you can complete the lab.
After you have completed the quiz, beachboard
gives you the correct
answers. You will have to manually score your
certainty quiz using the answers provided by beachboard after
the quiz. Anytime the answer given falls outside the range
defined by your low and high guesses, the answer counts as a
surprise. You will need to enter the number of surprises
out of twenty when you complete the certainty lab later on
beachboard.
Once you have completed and graded your
certainty quiz, the next step is to read the article in the
left-hand menu. Finally, you log onto beachboard and and
answer the lab questions. Have fun!!
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