Understand what a causal argument is and how it works in everyday reasoning.

• Understand the definitions of a causal claim and a causal hypothesis in informal causal reasoning.
• Recognize the difference between relevant-difference reasoning and common-thread reasoning.
• Be attuned to widely made mistakes made in informal causal reasoning, such as the fallacy known as "post hoc ergo propter hoc."

Grasp the forms of causal claims made about large populations and by what means their truth is demonstrated.

• Recognize what a causal claim about a population does mean and also what it does not mean.
• Know how a controlled cause-to-effect experiment is run and what roles the experimental group and the control group play in that experiment.
• Understand what "frequency" means in the context of cause-to-effect experiments.
• Understand the concept of statistical significance and be able to apply it.
• Recognize the relevance of and meaning of sample size when evaluating the results drawn from a cause-to-effect experiment.
• Know how a nonexperimental cause-to-effect study works, and its advantages and disadvantages.
• Know how a nonexperimental effect-to-cause study is run and what its strengths and weaknesses are.

Recognize the failings that causal claims are heir to.

• Define anecdotal evidence and be able to say what's wrong with it.
• Understand what circularity, nontestability, vagueness, unnecessary assumptions, and conflict with established theory all are, and why any one of them can bring a causal claim down.

Differentiate clearly between a causal explanation and an argument.