Читать книгу Statistics in Nutrition and Dietetics - Michael Nelson - Страница 22

Here is a quote from ‘The Design of Experiments’ by Sir Ronald Fisher [2]:

Men5 have always been capable of some mental processes of the kind we call ‘learning by experience’. Doubtless this experience was often a very imperfect basis, and the reasoning processes used in interpreting it were very insecure; but there must have been in these processes a sort of embryology of knowledge, by which new knowledge was gradually produced.

Experimental observations are only experience carefully planned in advance, and designed to form a secure basis of new knowledge; that is, they are systematically related to the body of knowledge already acquired, and the results are deliberately observed, and put on record accurately.

Research usually has one of two main purposes: either to describe in as accurate and reliable a way as possible what one observes, or to test an idea about what one believes to be true. To undertake research, be it quantitative or qualitative, a systematic process of investigation is needed. This involves formulating clear ideas about the nature of the problem to be investigated, designing methods for collecting information, analyzing the data in an appropriate way, and interpreting the results.