Millstein, Roberta L. (2019) Types of Experiments and Causal Process Tracing: What Happened on the Kaibab Plateau in the 1920s. [Preprint]
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Abstract
In a well-cited book chapter, ecologist Jared Diamond characterizes three main types of experiment performed in community ecology: laboratory experiment, field experiment, and natural experiment. Diamond argues that each form of experiment has strengths and weaknesses, with respect to, for example, realism or the ability to follow a causal trajectory. But does Diamond’s typology exhaust the available kinds of cause-finding practices? Some social scientists have characterized something they call “causal process tracing.” Is this a fourth type of experiment or something else? I examine Diamond’s typology and causal process tracing in the context of a case study concerning the dynamics of wolf and deer populations on the Kaibab Plateau in the 1920s, a case that has been used as a canonical example of a trophic cascade by ecologists but which has also been subject to controversy. I argue that ecologists have profitably deployed causal process tracing together with other types of experiment to help settle questions of causality in this case. It remains to be seen how widespread the use of causal process tracing outside of the social sciences is (or could be), but there are some potentially promising applications, particularly with respect to questions about specific causal sequences.
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| Item Type: | Preprint | ||||||
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| Additional Information: | Forthcoming in Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A | ||||||
| Keywords: | experiment; causal process tracing; causation; methodology; trophic cascade; ecology | ||||||
| Subjects: | Specific Sciences > Biology Specific Sciences > Biology > Ecology/Conservation General Issues > Causation General Issues > Experimentation General Issues > History of Science Case Studies |
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| Depositing User: | Dr. Roberta L. Millstein | ||||||
| Date Deposited: | 20 Mar 2019 15:30 | ||||||
| Last Modified: | 20 Mar 2019 15:30 | ||||||
| Item ID: | 15834 | ||||||
| Subjects: | Specific Sciences > Biology Specific Sciences > Biology > Ecology/Conservation General Issues > Causation General Issues > Experimentation General Issues > History of Science Case Studies |
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| Date: | March 2019 | ||||||
| URI: | https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/15834 |
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