Experimental Psychology
PSY 433
Chapter 5
Research Reports
Exam on Wednesday
 Based on the textbook:
 Covers all chapters and pages noted on
syllabus (Ch 1-4 plus Appendix A & pgs noted
from Ch 8)
 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.
 No scantron needed
Required for Your Project
 Proposal – a description of the project before it is
done:
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Written in future tense
Include Title Page, Introduction, Methods, References
 Final report – due at end of quarter, will include all
parts, written in past tense.
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Must include at least 1 figure and 1 table
Use of APA format is 50% of your grade
Write it as if you are submitting a paper for publication,
not as a student completing an assignment
 Each student must write an individual proposal and
final report – don’t plagiarize each other.

OK to share resources but not writing
Overview of the Process
 Science requires communication of results to:
 Other scientists.
 The general public.
 Ways of communicating results:
 Oral presentations at conferences – 20 min.
 Posters at conferences.
 Peer-reviewed journals.
 The media – books, TV, news outlets.
 Only after communication to scientific
community.
Peer Reviewed Journals
 Published by Academic Publishers, frequently
in association with psychological
organizations.
 An editor selects relevant experts to review
each submission.
 Reviewers critique submissions, suggest
changes, recommend publication or not.
 Articles do not need to be perfect to be
published – just scientifically sound and worth
reading.
APA Format
 Speeds up literature searches for those doing
research by placing information in standard
places within a text.
 Prevents errors by the publisher because less
interpretation must be made of the author’s
intentions.
 Authors do not need to learn a new format for
each journal they wish to submit to.
Parts of the Article
 Title page
 Abstract
 Text:
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Introduction
Methods
Results
Discussion
 References
 Appendix, Tables and Figures
Structure of the Report
 Reports go from theory to the experimental
model and back to theory again.
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Theory – Introduction
Experimental Model – Methods & Results
Theory – Discussion
 Theory may be discussed in the present
tense but the experiment (model) is always
described in the past tense.
Contents of Proposal
 Required for the assignment due 11/4:
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Title Page
Introduction
Methods (written in future tense)
References
 Proposals to granting agencies also include:
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Bios of the researchers
Budgets and performance timetables
Lots of forms
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.
Title Page
 Detachable for anonymous review.
 Running head and title serve different
purposes:
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Title will appear at top of article when printed.
Running head will appear at top of each page
when printed.
 List authors in order of contribution, with
affiliations – your group members names
should go on your paper.

Your name goes first, so I know who wrote the
paper.
Introduction
 Clearly state the research question and its
importance to society or to theory.
 Describe what has already been done to
address this question:
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Review current theories and state the theory
you hold.
Review work done by others in the literature.
 In the last paragraph, explain how the
question will be addressed and make a
prediction about the results.
Methods
 This section describes the experimental model that
will test the theory’s prediction.
 Provide an introductory description of the study
(overview).
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Describe IV, DV, and design.
Describe the “rationale” for the experiment.
 Provide sufficient detail about participants, apparatus,
materials, procedure, to permit someone to replicate
your study.
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Include a figure showing stimuli, setup or apparatus.
References
 Intended to enable others to find the articles you
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used as sources.
Use of APA format prevents misunderstandings
about dates, page numbers, authorship, etc.
PsycInfo automatically downloads cites in APA
format.
New media (e.g., web pages, email, DVDs) are
described in the newest APA Manual revision (6th
Edition).
Check sources cited in text to be sure they are listed
in refs and check refs to be sure every reference is
mentioned in text.
Final Report
 A good proposal is the foundation of your
final report – saves work later on.
 Also used for:
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IRB protocol
Conference abstracts
Faculty reports and grant progress reports
Web pages and job hunting
 Revised to produce the APA format final
report at the end of the project.
What is Plagiarism?
 http://www.indiana.edu/~wts/pamphlets/plagiarism.shtml#plagiarized
Samples from Past Student Papers
 The participants will report to a specified lab
room in building 5. Participants will be
greeted and asked to quietly take a seat at a
computer station.
 Subjects will report to a specified lab room in
building 5. Upon entering the lab subjects will
be greeted and asked to quietly take a seat.
 This is Unacceptable
Another Unacceptable Example
 Using a bivalent within-subjects design, we will
be measuring the affect…
 Using a bivalent within-subjects design, we will
measure the participant’s correct responses.
 We will be using a bivalent within-subjects design
measuring both the affects of the sex…
 Using a bivalent design, the correct responses of
the participants will be measured…
One More Unacceptable Example
 Data was analyzed using SPSS a statistics
software program produced by IBM. A 0.05
significance level was used.
 Information was collected from the
participants’ responses and was evaluated at
the .05 level of significance using SPSS
known as a statistical software developed by
IBM.
 One student clearly used a group member’s
paper as a template for writing the Results.