Experiemental 14 - Took this course with Professor Lorelle Pickett, PDF

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Took this course with Professor Lorelle Pickett,...

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Writing and Assembling an APA-Format Research Report Introduction ● Begins on a new page after the abstract. ● Title of the paper typed at the top center of the page. ● Funnel shaped – broad at the beginning and narrow at the end. ○ Mention problem area. ○ Cite findings relating to your topic. ● A statement of the variables to be investigated. ● Then state the purpose of your study and your hypothesis. ● Should give the reader the rationale for the given investigation. ● Explain how the current study fits in with prior research. NOTE: Citations ○ Every fact-based statement has a citation. Method ● Purpose – to tell the reader exactly how the study was conducted. ● Must satisfy the criterion of replication. ● Three subsections ○ Participants ■ Who? How many? Selection criteria. ○ Apparatus, materials, or testing instruments. ■ How are variables operationalized? ○ Procedure ■ Summarizes how the experiment was conducted. ■ Can be lengthy. ■ Be specific enough to allow replication. ● Other relevant sections such as the study design, therapeutic technique, etc. Results ● Purpose – to summarize the collected data and the analysis performed on these data. ● Reporting of the hypotheses tested and their effect size and confidence intervals. ● Statistics mentioned. ● References to figures and tables at the end of the report. ● Sufficient explanation of the presented data. Discussion ● Purpose – to interpret and evaluate the results obtained. ● Primary emphasis to the relationships between the results and the hypotheses. ● Begin by stating whether the hypothesis of the study was or was not supported. ● Integrate your research findings with the results of prior research. ● Include a consideration of potential bias, threats to internal validity, and other limitations and weaknesses. ● The discussion should answer the following questions:

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What does the study contribute? How has it helped solve the study problem? What conclusions and theoretical implications can be drawn from the study?

The major sections of an APA paper include the title page (with author note), abstract, introduction, method, results, discussion, references, tables, figures, and appendixes (if used). 3. The title page of a manuscript includes a manuscript page header and page number, the running head, the title, and author information. The author note allows the author to thank people for their help, cite a previous presentation of the findings, and designate a contact person for further information about the experiment. 4. The abstract provides a brief (150–250 words) summary of the contents of the paper. 5. The introduction section includes a thesis statement, literature review, and statement of the experimental hypothesis. 6. The method section contains a thorough description of the participants (participants subsection), the objects used in the experiment ( apparatus, materials, or testing instruments subsection), and what took place during the study ( procedure subsection). 7. The results section presents inferential and descriptive statistics to describe the experimental outcomes. Figures or tables may aid in presenting the statistical information. 8. In the discussion section, the researcher draws conclusions from the experiment by summarizing the results, comparing the results to previous research, and interpreting the results. 9. The reference list provides bibliographic information for any works cited in the paper. APA format includes different reference formats for periodical articles, books, chapters from edited books, and a host of other sources....