1. assigment two
ASSIGNMENT TWO1. Restate your observation (already done in first assignment). If you
wish or feel the need to do so, you can pick a new observation and start over. If you do this,
please refer to the first assignment in order to remind you what is required. If you need to
revise anything that you, please do so.2. Restate your three models (already done in first
assignment). Many of you may have to come up with new models. Also, if it was stated
poorly in the first exercise, fix it now. As always, remember PROCESS. Then make sure you
have followed the other rules of thumb: Generality and interesting implications. Also,
remember this isn’t a list itemizing different reasons for something, but rather models
that are explaining how or why something happens. Ideally, for this assignment, they should
be competing models where only one of them can be true. The format should be the same as
in the first homework assignment. The first sentence is a simple sentence stating the model.
The next couple of sentences can explain how the model relates to the observation. The
model should be separate from the observation. Most people have a tendency to state a
model too specific to the observation. Watch out for this.3. State two interesting
implications (hypotheses) for each model. Remember to refer to Lave and March for what
makes a good model. There are new concepts, also: Simplicity and Fertility. If you are not
able to come up with a wide variety of implications and hypotheses, it may be because your
model isn’t fertile. Remember the rules of thumb (Generality and Interesting
Implications). A few sentences should suffice for each implication.4. Describe natural
experiments that will discriminate between the models. We call any experiment that
distinguishes between two models a critical experiment. So, these should be natural
experiments that are also critical experiments. (We will refine this more in the next
assignment.) There need to be at least two experiments (if it is well done). Three would
probably be better. Do not combine this section with section 3 (above). It is a distinct
section although many of you will find it repetitive. Depending on your observation and
your models, the natural experiments may be very similar to a re-stating of your
implications. If this occurs, don’t panic. Likewise, don’t expect or anticipate this to
happen.The following four points are guidelines/requirements.A) The experiments must be
critical experiments. (Refer to Lave and March section 3.2.2.)B) You must have enough
critical experiments to distinguish all of your models from each other. Remember, if an
experiment predicts the same result for each model, then it is not a good experiment.C) All
of the experiments must be natural experiments (as defined by Lave and March – and in
class).D) Make sure that you specify which model is supported by a particular experimental

2. outcome. And make sure that for each experiment you discuss more than one outcome.In
addition, you will have to operationalize all of the variables used in the experiments, and
you will have to indicate which variables are dependent variables and which variables are
independent variables.Thus, your assignment will look like this:Section One (old/revised):
A description of your observation.Section Two (old/revised): Stating your first model and
explaining how it relates to your observation.Section Three (new): State the two
implications for your first model. Discuss each implication separately. Use two paragraphs,
one for each implication.Section Four (old/revised): Stating your second model and
explaining how it relates to your observation.Section Five (new): State the two implications
for your second model. Discuss each implication separately. Use two paragraphs, one for
each implication.Section Six (old/revised): Stating your third model and explaining how it
relates to your observation.Section Seven (new): State the two implications for your third
model. Discuss each implication separately. Use two paragraphs, one for each
implication.Section Eight (new): Describe one of your critical experiments. (Remember it
has to be a natural experiment as well.) State what the experiment is. State which two
models it is distinguishing between. And state what you would expect to see if one of the
models is true, and state what you would expect to see if the other model is true.The
description of the first critical experiment should look something likea) Describe the
experiment.b) State which are the independent and dependent variables.c) State how you
are going to operationalize the variables.d) Describe the outcomes and state which model
each outcome supportsSection Nine (new): Repeat Section Eight with another critical
experiment.Section Ten (new): Repeat yet again with yet another Critical experiment.
(Remember, unless you can distinguish all three of you models from each other with only
two critical experiments, it is strongly recommended that you use three critical experiments
to successfully distinguish all of you models from each other.) Note: If your first experiment
distinguishes Models 1 and 3, your other experiments cannot alldistinguish Models 1 and 3
and never discuss Model 2. I assume this is obvious.You should separate the sections. Do not
merely write one long paragraph.We want to easily see you points.Realize that we are
expecting more at this point. Just because you received nine or ten points on your previous
assignment does not mean that you will earn as many points for the same work here.