Reference no: EM133549988

Question 1: Begin by reading the introduction, not the abstract. The abstract is that dense first paragraph at the very beginning of a paper. In fact, that's often the only part of a paper that many non-scientists read when they're trying to build a scientific argument. (This is a terrible practice-don't do it.). Abstracts contain a succinct summary of the entire paper, and it can inadvertently make you biased by the authors' interpretation of the results. After reading the introduction, what is they hypothesis of this experiment?

Question 2:

Why was an ethics statement included in the Methods section of this research?

Question 3:

Now read the methods section. This section can be difficult to read because of the technical details of the research. Your goal is to understand the overall experiment and what was measured. What was the sample size for the research? (How many chimpanzees?)

Question 4:

Were there equal numbers of males and females in the experimental study?

Question 5:

When designing experiments, scientists usually have a control group and an experimental group. The experimental group has the variable they are testing based on the hypothesis. The control group does not have this variable. Describe the control group for this experiment.

Question 6:

Describe the independent variable (what the scientists were testing) for this experiment.

Question 7:

Read the results section. Was their hypothesis supported or refuted by the results of the experiment?

Question 8:

Read the discussion section. Do the authors identify any weaknesses in their own study? Do you see any that the authors missed? (Don't assume they're infallible!)

Question 9:

The last paragraph acknowledges the people and organizations that provided support for the research. Who funded the research? Why do you think they have to include this information in the article?

Question 10:

Now, go back to the beginning and read the abstract. Does it match what the authors said in the paper? Does it fit with your interpretation of the paper?

Question 11:

Now that you've learned about contagious yawing in chimpanzees, what questions do you have about this topic? What experiments do you think should be done? Be creative. You are not limited to chimpanzees.