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Experimental Psychology PSY 433

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Discussion analyze your results and put them back into the context of your question. ... Tense varies in the Introduction and Discussion. Reporting Results ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: Experimental Psychology PSY 433


1
Experimental PsychologyPSY 433
  • APA Format Reports
  • Results, Discussion, References

2
Exam on Thursday
  • Based on the textbook
  • Covers all chapters and pages noted on syllabus
    (Ch 1-5 plus Appendix A pgs noted)
  • No questions from labs
  • No questions on APA format details
  • Powerpoints provide an outline of what I
    considered important enough to discuss in class
    not a substitute for reading the book.

3
Projects Due in This Course
  • Proposal similar to the kinds of proposals
    submitted to granting agencies.
  • Contains parts of a full APA report plus extra
    info needed by the agency.
  • Written in future tense.
  • Final Report similar to the manuscripts
    submitted to journals for publication.
  • Written in APA format.
  • Written in past tense because it describes what
    happened.

4
Contents of Proposal
  • Required for the assignment due 5/21
  • Title Page
  • Introduction
  • Methods (written in future tense)
  • References
  • Proposals to granting agencies also include
  • Bios of the researchers
  • Budgets and performance timetables
  • Lots of forms

5
Goals of a Research Proposal
  • Convince the reader that the question is
    important and needs to be explored.
  • Convince the reader that you are qualified to do
    the research (not part of the class project).
  • Describe what research has occurred previously
    and what the competing theories are.
  • Describe your plan for research in detail.
  • Demonstrate that you have the resources to carry
    out the plan.

6
Introduction
  • Start by stating your research question.
  • Be specific, no general introductory remarks.
  • Next, review the literature by summarizing
    previous research.
  • At least 5 peer-reviewed sources required.
  • Do not describe each article sequentially give
    an overview emphasizing what they found out.
  • Conclude with a prediction about your own study
    stated in terms of theory.

7
Methods
  • Include subsections, as described in the APA
    Manual
  • Subjects (participants)
  • Materials or apparatus (describe computer, your
    stimuli, any questionnaires).
  • Procedures
  • Describe design
  • Tell what happened to the subject in
    chronological order
  • Leave out things that happen in every experiment

8
Goals of the Final Report
  • Communicate to the scientific community.
  • Clearly describe your project in sufficient
    detail to permit replication.
  • Convince readers that your findings support your
    conclusions.
  • How strong is the evidence?
  • Does it justify your statements about theory?
  • Summarize your contribution to the ongoing debate
    on an important question.
  • Pay special attention to your abstract!

9
Contents of Final Report
  • Must contain all sections listed in the APA
    Publication Manual, including
  • Title page
  • Abstract
  • Introduction
  • Methods
  • Results
  • Discussion
  • References
  • Tables and Figures

10
You Are Telling a Story
  • Introduction -- state your research question,
    review the literature, make your predictions
    (hypotheses).
  • Methods describe how you explored the question
    in sufficient detail to permit replication.
  • Results describe your findings and test your
    hypotheses using statistics.
  • Discussion analyze your results and put them
    back into the context of your question.

11
Abstract
  • This may be the only part of your paper that most
    people read, so make it count!
  • Write this last.
  • Tell the story of your study, with one sentence
    per report section.
  • Do not exceed 120 words.

12
Use of Tenses
  • For the final report, revise sections of your
    proposal because they will be graded again.
  • Your proposal was written in the future tense
    (e.g., subjects will), but
  • Put the Methods section in the past tense.
  • Report your results in the past tense.
  • Tense varies in the Introduction and Discussion.

13
Reporting Results
  • Only include the results that are relevant to
    your research question, not all data collected.
  • Go from the general to the specific.
  • Provide tables for
  • Multiple analyses.
  • Complex experiments (factorial designs).
  • ANOVA
  • Organize your results section around your
    hypotheses, testing one at a time.

14
Describing Data
  • Give both descriptive and inferential statistics.
  • The mean number of words recalled was calculated
    for each group. The means and the standard
    deviations for each group are shown in Figure 1.
  • Recall was higher for the drug group (M 15, SD
    5.43) than for the placebo group (M 10, SD
    4.98).

15
Reporting Statistics
  • The data were analyzed using an independent
    t-test. The t-test showed no significant
    difference between the mean of the placebo group
    and the mean of the drug group, t(34) 1.35, p lt
    .05.
  • Using two-way ANOVA, the main effect of gender
    was found to be significant, with females scoring
    higher on the average than males, F(1, 23)
    23.89, p lt .05.
  • Better to show this analysis in a table.

16
Ethics of Reporting Statistics
  • Dont change your hypotheses (prediction) to fit
    what you actually discovered. Instead say you
    were surprised.
  • Decide how many subjects to test in advance.
  • Dont stop collecting data because you already
    have significant results.
  • Dont add more subjects because your results are
    almost significant and would become so with a few
    more subjects.
  • Give your reason for ending data collection.

17
Avoid p-Hacking
  • p-hacking is the practice of trying different
    approaches to data analysis until you find one
    that gives significant results. It is unethical.
  • Collect at least 20 observations per condition.
  • Report all experimental conditions, even failed
    manipulations (studies that didnt work).
  • List all variables collected in a study, even if
    they are not analyzed in your paper.
  • Report results with and without excluded
    subjects, covariates.

18
Changes in Reporting
  • The internet is making possible different
    approaches to report writing.
  • Because journals are no longer limited in space,
    authors can supply complete data sets, stimuli
    (materials) and alternative analyses.
  • This represents a movement toward transparency.
  • Exact vs conceptual replications are needed for
    marginal results.

19
References
  • Format varies depending on the type of material
    being referenced (e.g., book, article, web site).
  • Only list the sources actually mentioned in the
    text of your report.
  • Everything listed in the references must be cited
    in text
  • Everything cited in text must be listed in the
    references.
  • When you mention a source referenced in another
    paper say as cited in and cite the source you
    actually read, not the original.

20
Tables and Figures
  • Tables go first always use APA format.
  • Figures are camera-ready original artwork that
    will be used by the publisher as is.
  • Do not put page numbers, headers, figure captions
    or anything else on the front of the figure.
  • Lightly write the figure number and short title
    on the BACK of each figure.
  • Put all figure captions in a single list that
    appears before the figures.

21
Discussion
  • First, state what you discovered during your
    experiment.
  • Do not repeat results but state them in terms of
    the larger construct theory being tested.
  • Tell whether your findings are consistent with
    what others have found.
  • Describe any threats to validity and problems
    with your experiment (confounds, bias,
    limitations of generalizability, problems).
  • Conclusion what are the consequences?
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