Natalia Hirmas-Montecinos

Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile, Doctorado en Educación, Fac. de Educación, Graduate Student

Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile, Centro de Justicia Educacional, Graduate Student

Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile, Facultad de Educación, Graduate Student

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Terapeuta Ocupacional, Fac. Medicina, Universidad de Chile: Biopoder, terapia ocupacional y dispositivos comunitarios de salud mental.
Mg. (e) Estudios Culturales, Universidad de Artes y Ciencias Sociales - ARCIS: Psiquiatrización, Infancia y Medios masivos de comunicación.
Dra. (c) Educación, Fac. Educación, Pont. U. Católica de Chile: Estudios poscoloniales-educación especial-interculturalidad desde teoría de Actor-Red.

Occupational therapist, Medicine faculty, University of Chile: Biopower, occupacional therapy and mental health community services.
Ms. (e) Cultural Studies, University of Arts and Social Sciences - ARCIS: Psychiatrization, Childhood and Mass media.
PhD (c) Education, Education faculty, Pont. Catholic University of Chile: Postcolonial studies - special education - interculturality from Actor-Network theory.
Supervisors: Eduardo Restrepo, Claudia Matus, Marta Infante, Marjorie Murray, and Laura Luna

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Free-viewing as experimental system to test the Temporal Correlation Hypothesis: A case of theory-generative experimental practice

Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, 2020

Theory-free characterizations of experimental systems miss normative and conceptual components th... more Theory-free characterizations of experimental systems miss normative and conceptual components that sometimes are crucial to understanding their historical development. In the following paper, we show that these components may be part of the intrinsic capacities of experimental systems themselves. We study a case of non-exploratory and theory-oriented research in experimental neuroscience that concerns the construction of free-viewing as an experimental system to test one particular pre-existing hypothesis, the Temporal Correlation Hypothesis (TCH), at a laboratory in Santiago de Chile, during 2002-2008. We show that the system does not take well-formulated pre-existing predictions or hypotheses to test them directly, but re-creates them and re-signifies them in terms that are not implied by the theoretical

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The policy of testing hypotheses in Chilean science. The role of a hypothesis-driven research funding programme in the installation of a hypothesis-driven experimental system in visual neuroscience

Studies in History and Philosophy of Science

O 'Malley et al. (2009) and analyse the import of the philosophical idea of science as hypothesis... more O 'Malley et al. (2009) and analyse the import of the philosophical idea of science as hypothesis testing in funding agencies. They argue that this philosophical idea generates policy biases towards hypothesis-driven research and against exploratory research. This paper studies the connections between the hypothesis-centred "philosophy" of a Chilean funding programme (FONDECYT) and the installation and development of a hypothesis-driven, theory-oriented experimental system in visual neuroscience, at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Chile, between 1998 and 2001. In the historical case we study here, the funding agency funds experimental infrastructure, the functioning of which is largely independent from the pre-existing theoretical premises of the research proposal. In other words, we study the case of a hypothesis-driven funding instrument that funds a hypothesis-driven experimental system, and yet it is not clear that there has been a bias towards hypothesis-driven research in the review of the proposal and the allocation of resources. We want to derive two lessons from our case study. In the first place, the correction of potential biases in research funding is not contingent on the correction of funding agencies' philosophies of science. It seems implausible that a philosophical conception of science unifies the different social, political, organisational and technical or methodological levels in which "scientific research" needs to be defined when designing research policies and funding instruments. From the fact that an agency uses concepts and statements with a recognisable !"# $%&'() %* +#,+'-. ")$%+"#,#, '-/"'&#0-,('#-(#1 !"# 2%&# %* 0 ")$%+"#,',342'5#-2#,#02(" *6-4'-. $2%.2077# '-+"# '-,+0&&0+'%-%* 0 ")$%+"#,',342'5#-#8$#2'7#-+0& ,),+#7 '-5',60& -#62%,('#-(# Abstract: O'Malley et al. (2009) and Haufe (2013) suggest that the philosophical idea of science as hypothesis testing generates a pernicious bias towards hypothesis-driven research and against exploratory research in the review process of research proposals and the allocation of resources. This paper addresses a conceptual objection to the argument by . We argue that the funding agencies' concepts of good science do not belong to epistemological or philosophical contexts but to political and institutional contexts. This means that correcting (potential) biases in research funding does not entail correcting funding agencies' (supposed) philosophies of science. To illustrate this point, we provide an indepth historical case study: the granting of funds to neuroscientist Pedro Maldonado by the Chilean funding programme FONDECYT. This is a relevant comparison as FONDECYT's guidelines explicitly promote hypothesis-driven research and endorse a view of "good science" as hypothesis testing. However, we will see that the overall influence of the philosophical idea of science as hypothesis testing over this funding programme, the research project, and the actual practice of hypothesis testing is somewhat limited. The concept of science as hypothesis testing seems to play a crucial institutional or political (not philosophical) role in allowing the conceptual articulation of social expectations and researchers' expectations.

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Natalia Hirmas-Montecinos

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