INFLUENCE OF RESEARCH METHODS AND STATISTICS COURSES ON EVERYDAY REASONING, CRITICAL ABILITIES, AND BELIEF IN UNSUBSTANTIATED PHENOMENA

Do undergraduate courses in psychology Research Methods (RM) and Stati stics (STAT) improve general reasoning skills and scientific ''critica l abilities''? Psychology students concurrently enrolled in introducto ry RM and STAT were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: a ba seline group was tested at the beginning of the semester; another grou p was tested after completion of RM and STAT, and a third group comple ted RM and STAT and also received 3 tutorial sessions that specificall y emphasized transfer of the course material to reasoning in a more ge neral 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 complet ed a questionnaire that assessed their willingness to endorse scientif ically unsubstantiated phenomena. The RM and STAT courses by themselve s 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. Willin gness to endorse belief in unsubstantiated phenomena was not affected by the courses.