Inductive Reasoning Flashcards

A child touches a hot stove and gets burned. She touches it again and gets burned. She concludes that touching the stove always causes burns. This is an example of:

Answer: Enumerative induction

Enumerative induction involves observing repeated instances of a pattern and generalizing to a universal rule.

Which factor does NOT affect the strength of an inductive argument?

Answer: Whether the argument uses formal notation

Formal notation is a feature of deductive logic; inductive strength depends on evidential factors like sample quality.

An argument concludes: 'Since this coin landed heads 9 times in a row, it will probably land tails next.' This is an example of the:

Answer: Gambler's fallacy

The gambler's fallacy assumes past random events influence future independent events, which they do not.

A scientist observes that plants in a greenhouse grow faster when classical music is played. She repeats the experiment 20 times with the same result. Her best next step to strengthen the inductive argument is to:

Answer: Test with varied plant species and music types

Testing varied conditions improves the generalizability and strength of an inductive conclusion.

A journalist interviews 5 residents of Beverly Hills and concludes that all Californians are wealthy. This argument is weak primarily because:

Answer: The sample is too small and unrepresentative

A small, geographically and economically unrepresentative sample cannot support a generalization about all Californians.

Which of the following is the best example of a strong inductive argument?

Answer: In 500 random trials, 498 produced the predicted result, so the hypothesis is well-supported

A large number of consistent trials with a random sample provides strong inductive support for a hypothesis.

The phrase 'inductive leap' refers to:

Answer: Moving from specific observations to a general conclusion

An inductive leap is the inferential move from observed specifics to a broader generalization or explanation.