Gems and methodological concerns

[Bruno Estigarribia]

Although I agree with part of this comment, I think its import is restricted
to pointing up that Gems alone would be by no means Evidence (with a capital
E). But (and excuse me if I sound too partisan on this issue - it is not my
intention to offend anyone), they are extremely useful for the heuristic
aspect of coming up with hypotheses that will require further rigorous
testing. It is my firmly held belief that basing hypotheses on reported Gems
is a much better procedure than basing them on very controversial
theoretical constructs. Are these exclusive of one another? Maybe not. But
if one accepts the construction of hypotheses from predictions derived from
models of language that are not unanimous (or even consensual, since
unanimity is really too much to ask of a theory), then I don't see any
reason to fret about the use these Gems may have insofar as we don't take
them as the ultimate empirical word.

Bruno Estigarribia
Graduate Student-Dept. of Linguistics
Stanford University
Stanford, CA 94305
Office Phone: 1 650 725 2323
aananda at stanford.edu

> At 04:00 PM 8/5/2004 +0100, r.n.campbell wrote:
> >Surely in psychology we ought to know by now that 'no bread is much
better
> >than half a loaf'. It's a difficult enough subject without muddying the
> >waters with dodgy data. This GEM collection sounds almost as bad as the
> >MacArthur parent-response stuff.
> >
> >Besides, isn't there an unfortunate whiff of baby-hugging about it?
> >
> >Robin
> >--
> >Dr Robin N Campbell
> >Dept of Psychology
> >University of Stirling
> >STIRLING FK9 4LA
> >Scotland, UK
> >
> >telephone: 01786-467649  facsimile: 01786-467641
> >email: r.n.campbell at stir.ac.uk
> >Website:
>
>http://www.stir.ac.uk/Departments/HumanSciences/Psychology/Staff/rnc1/index
.html
> >
> >
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