Topic VI. Correlation and Causation
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Context for this filter:
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LEARNING GOALS
- B. CONCEPT ACQUISITION
- Causation: X causes Y if and only if X and Y are correlated under interventions on X.
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EXAMPLES
- Exemplary Quotes
- “Let’s think causally here. There are lots of words and concepts that we’re getting confused by here, but let’s remember that right now all we care about is what is causing what.”
LEARNING GOALS
- B. CONCEPT ACQUISITION
- Causation: X causes Y if and only if X and Y are correlated under interventions on X.
- a. This is a technical notion, which overlaps with but is slightly different from everyday usage. For example, everyday usage of the word “cause” can be influenced by moral considerations, the complexity of a causal mechanism, and/or the nature of the mechanism. We typically don’t say that the big bang "caused" this sequence of letters, or that the presence of oxygen caused the forest fire, etc, but scientifically they are part of the causal history of those phenomena.
- b. There can be other evidence for causation, even when actually performing an intervention is not feasible. However, saying something is a cause implies that there is in principle a relationship under an intervention.
- C. CONCEPT APPLICATION
- State some of the basic problems in establishing causation.
- Recognize some of the basic problems in establishing causation and use them to identify situations in which claims of causation are and are not warranted.
- Explain why a randomized controlled trial can help rule out spurious correlations.
- Address the argument, “Science can only establish correlations; it can’t determine causality.”
- Use the definition of causation to identify situations in which claims of causation are and are not warranted.
- Identify flaws in experimental designs aimed at testing causality and explain how the flaws could be addressed.
CLASS ELEMENTS
- Practice Problems
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LEARNING GOALS
- C. CONCEPT APPLICATION
- For a given scenario in which a causal hypothesis is being made, describe an ideal experiment/set of experiments to test the hypothesis and rule out alternative hypotheses.