Hypothesis testing

In essence: how to decide whether particular hypotheses are correct (or at least most probable amongst alternatives), and involves determining specific consequences of an hypothesis, which can then be subjected to an empirical test or tests.

A logical strategy of searching for, scrutinizing, and selecting relevant evidence which can either strengthen or weaken various possibilities, so as to identify which one of a number of different explanations is most likely to be correct, or the method of making observations in pursuit of confirming or disconfirming beliefs about relationships among variables of interest.

(see also: experimental method, science, scientific approach, scientific methodology, pseudo-science, systematic evidence, (conceptual) models, operational definition, theory (scientific), falsifiability, testability, construct, verification, confirmation, Diagnosticity, viability, explanatory power, null hypothesis, background knowledge)