Emily Thian The Process of Science 06/28/2013 Page 1 of 3

Ive chosen to do my report on an article titled Telling Lies: The Irrepressible Truth? from PLOS ONE. In it, the authors detail a research study designed to discover more about precisely why it takes more time to lie than to tell the truth by focusing on two mechanisms that are suggested to be reasons for this increased response time when lying. The study and paper are in the fields of psychology and neuroscience which both fall under the umbrella of biology in the branches of science breakdown we received.

In brief, the authors are doing science by having a scientific question, and attempting to answer it by applying the scientific method. They want to know why it takes longer to tell a lie than to tell the truth, have a falsifiable prediction (that this delay is caused by three specific processes) and test their prediction with a series of controlled, reproducible experiments, generating quantifiable results to test their prediction. The article steps through the steps of scientific method as follows. The authors start with a series of observations (that lying takes longer than telling the truth), construct a testable, falsifiable hypothesis based on their observations (that there are three specific cognitive processes involved in the increased response time), design experiments to test their hypothesis, evaluate and discuss their experimental results and then draw a conclusion based on their results (that the three hypothesized processes do contribute to increased response time when lying).

Emily Thian The Process of Science 06/28/2013 Page 2 of 3 Finally, the article is fairly accessible, and the authors do a good job of communicating their findings in a clear and easily understood fashion. Communication is especially important in science, for a couple major reasons. First of all, science is inherently very collaborative. Science builds off the work of previous scientists and experiments, in addition to working with contemporary colleagues to refine their hypotheses and guide their research. If research is not well communicated, its effects are blunted as it is more difficult to build off of and utilize to its full potential. Additionally, at a very fundamental level, science is about gaining new knowledge. If that knowledge cannot be communicated, and thus shared, it is of greatly reduced value and utility.

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Sources
Williams, Emma J., Bott, Lewis A., Patrick, John, Lewis, Michael B. (2013, April). Telling Lies: The Irrepressible Truth?. PLoS ONE. Apr2013, Vol. 8 Issue 4, p1-14. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0060713.