Question

Find a product, service, or political website that utilizes pseudoscience to make its claims. Provide the link to the specific page that makes the claims.

2. Identify at least 4 criteria (from the list of 10) from the lecture that make it qualify as a pseudoscience. Make sure to name the criteria and provide a specific example from the website (a quote would be good). Make sure to explain how the example exemplifies the criteria. Use numerated or bulleted lists to help organize your layout. Here is the lecture that I have to watch to answer the question

3. Explain how the 6 criteria of scientific reasoning apply to this case. How does the website fail to uphold it? Or how do criteria help you clarify what claims to accept or reject? Identify the criteria as you give your answer.

Answer 1

• Brain Gym – is a product marketed by a non-profit trade organisation called the Brain Gym International, an organization promoting a series of exercises that are claimed to improve academic performance of school children. There are over 26 Brain Gym activities which are claimed to improve eye coordination regarding binocular vision, spatial and listening skills, eye-hand coordination, and muscular and skeletal flexibility, as a way to manipulate the functions of the brain, improving learning and recall of information. Moroever, the product draws support from numerous books that have been written and which describe research and case studies to point out the positive effects of the use of the Brain Gym activities on specific populations, including children with autistic disorders and those recovering from brain injuries. The Brain Gym activities have been incorporated into many educational, sports, and business programs throughout the world. However, the program can be criticised as pseudoscience on several grounds. First, it is criticised as a pseudoscience for the lack of scientific validity of some of the theories used in the Brain Gym.

Moreover, the marked absence of peer-reviewed research that performing the activities has a direct effect on academic performance makes the claims of the marketeers and sellers of these products in falsifiable. It thus violates one of the primary criteria for science-falsifiability and instead makes a strong claim about the truthfulness of the success of the Brain gym.

Thirdly, Pseudoscience is often characterized by reliance on confirmation bias rather than rigorous attempts at refutation. Therefore, the brain gym represents a case of pseudoscience as it only shows a lopsided and supportive evidence without considering the possibility of contrary findings.

Lastly, the lack of openness to evaluation by other experts in the field of education And child development and absence of systematic practices in developing a theory of childhood learning, make it more of a pseudoscience. One of the underlying assumption is that the exercises are meant to ‘balance’ the brain hemispheres so the two cerebral hemispheres work together better, I ntegrate thought and emotion, as well as integrating visual, auditory, and motor skills. However, such theoretical ideas of cognition have not been supported by scientific researchers and they merely present a case of common neuromyths.