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Experiment and Animal Minds: Why the Choice of the Null Hypothesis Matters

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Irina Mikhalevich
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Abstract

In guarding against inferential mistakes, experimental comparative cognition errs on the side of underattributing sophisticated cognition to animals, or what I refer to as the underattribution bias. I propose eliminating this bias by altering the method of choosing the default, or null, hypothesis. Rather than choosing the most parsimonious null hypothesis, as is current practice, I argue for choosing the best-evidenced hypothesis. Doing so at once preserves the risk-controlling structure of the current statistical paradigm and introduces a sensitivity to probability-conferring empirical and theoretical information. This analysis illustrates how values like parsimony can covertly shape statistical-experimental design and inference.

Type
Psychology
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 82 , Issue 5 , December 2015 , pp. 1059 - 1069
Copyright
Copyright © The Philosophy of Science Association

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Footnotes

†

I am grateful to Alisa Bokulich, Colin Allen, Simon Fitzpatrick, Richard Moore, Kent Staley, Russell Powell, and audience members at the Philosophy of Science Association 2014 meeting for their helpful comments on earlier versions of this essay.

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