An Example of the Scientific Method in Operation

Students have difficulty understanding and appreciating the value of the scientific method in dealing with issues in psychology. Typically, students see conclusions from a study or two about a complex question. The problem is that the student must accept or reject these conclusions because they come from a particular source, whether teacher or textbook. This is reasoning by the method of authority, which was not the method used to obtain the original results and is not how research psychologists think about such results. Some outcomes may be so universal that we can treat them as “facts.” Other findings are equivocal or enigmatic. The scientific method is a process of empirical evaluation of all findings. Research on the Mozart effect exemplifies this process for two reasons. First, the effect is relatively simple to understand. Students do not have to learn much about equipment or deep issues of research design. Second, a sequence of experiments appeared in rapid enough order that students can appreciate the process.