Question

Hypothesis 1: Mercury in thimerosal caused neurological damage in children, and is at least partly responsible for
the increase in autism diagnoses.
Hypothesis 2: The rate of autism incidence is not increasing, only the rate of autism diagnoses, as greater awareness
of the syndrome and increased screening of children yields more positive diagnoses of autism.

based on both hypothesis..

Do both hypotheses make testable predictions? How could you test them? please explain

Answer 1

Answer: Yes, the two hypothesis can make testable predictions.

Hypothesis 1: Mercury in thimerosal caused neurological damage in children, and is at least partly responsible for the increase in autism diagnoses

• This hypothesis can be tested by taking a sample (specific number of children) of autistic children
• Thimerosal is a preservative used in vaccines such as MMR. The mercury in thimerosal is known to cause neurological damage in high doses. The next step would be to test whether the autism is linked to MMR vaccine in the selected sample of autisitc children
• By analysing the results if we are able to set a correlation between the number of vaccines that the children are receiving and an increase in the diagnosis of autism, we can either accept or reject the hypothesis based on the type of correlation established

Hypothesis 2: The rate of autism incidence is not increasing, only the rate of autism diagnoses, as greater awareness of the syndrome and increased screening of children yields more positive diagnoses of autism

• To test this hypothesis, data of number of autistic children can be collected from different geographical areas which have varying awareness and varying screening of children for autism
• By analysing the data, a correlation can be set between the number autistic children diagnosed in a geographical area with the degree of awareness or screening in that area, one can either accept or reject the hypothesis based on the type of correlation (positive or negative)