1001PSY Introduction to Psychology 1

1001PSY Introduction to Psychology 1

Assignment information sheet and marking criteria for the Laboratory Report T3 2024

This document provides information on writing the laboratory report. It also contains signposts to areas of L@G that are important for the completion of this Assignment. Please read this information sheet carefully.

General Description of Assignment

• This assessment item consists of a laboratory report, to be completed individually, based on the experiment conducted in the first tutorial, on the effect of angular disparity and gender on performance on a mental rotation task.

• Students are to write the report using the data gathered in the first tutorial using APA7^th edition format. The data will be provided in the Assessment 3: Lab Report Information page on L@G for you to use. It will be available by the end of Week 8.

• Due date: 31^stJanuary 2025 by 5:00pm

• The word limit of the lab report is 1500 words. The abstract is included in the word limit. Marking will stop at word limit. Any words beyond the word limit will not count toward your mark.

• Marks will be allocated for the following components of the report: Title page, Abstract, Introduction, Method, Results, Discussion and, References.

Specific Information about the Format of the Lab Report

The word limit is 1500 words (including Abstract and rest of report), word limits will be strictly enforced. Once the word limit has been reached, the marker will cease reading the report. The 1500 word limit does not include: Title page and Reference List. All other sections of the report (including tables and figures are included in the word count). Note in-text references/citation are included in the word limit. The Abstract should be 120 words maximum, ideally around 100 words.

Guides to approximate suggested word lengths for each section are displayed below:

• While there are common aspects to good writing style, there is more than one way to write a good assignment.

• The report should comply with APA 7th edition formatting. You can find more information about APA formatting on Red Book (L@G, Left-hand menu or directly at http://redbook.org.au/). Marks for References and Presentation consider how closely APA 7 formatting is adhered to (see marking criteria later in this document) for failure to follow APA format. Aspects of APA7 formatting that will be focused on include:

• Double spacing of text

• The first line of each paragraph except for the Abstract, is indented

• Use of 2.5 cm margins

• Use of a page number on each page

• Abstract starts on a new page and has the heading Abstract at the top

• Abstracts should be limited to 120 words.

• Introduction starts on a new page and has the title of the report, not the title Introduction at the top

• Method, Results, and Discussion run continuous after the Introduction (that is, does not start on a new page)

• References starts on a new page and has the heading References at the top

• The following variation from strict APA formatting is allowed:

• The figures and table should be inserted into the body of the report, rather than putting them at the end of the report with the words Insert Figure 1 about here in the text. The latter style is used for the preparation of manuscripts to be published in journals since the actual location of the figures and pages can vary according to the layout of the page. However, your assignment will be the finished product and as such you should insert all figures and tables at the appropriate place in the text.

• Figures should be numbered by consecutive Arabic numerals (i.e., Figure 1, Figure 2, .......)

• Any tables should also be numbered, (i.e., Table 1)

• The figure and table should have an appropriate figure or table title above it

• Citations in the text should be in correct format

• All works cited in the text should be included in the reference list.

• The format of common abbreviations are e.g.,, i.e., etc. and c.f.and these should not be used outside of parenthetical comments.

• Biased and pejorative language must not be used.

• Italics/bold fonts are used where appropriate for headings andstatistical copy

• Statistical copy should be in APA (7th edition) format

• Avoid abbreviations and acronyms, except when they meet APA criteria

• Appropriate verb tense

• Use appropriate labels of people. When describing the individuals

• in your sample, you should use the heading of Participants withinthe Method section.

• All references should be in APA format (7th edition)

Section Information

1. Title Page:

The following items are required on your title page:

• An appropriate title

• Your Name & s number

• University and course code (1001PSY)

• Tutor name and tutorial days/times

• Number of words in the report

2. Abstract

A very brief summary of the entire paper. Think about how you would sum up each of the sections in a sentence or two; no longer than 120 words

• There should be 1-2 sentences per major section of the report

3. Introduction

In the Introduction you will need to define the concepts you will be investigating and provide a review/discussion of previous research studies on similar topics. The review of previous research should provide the rationale for the present study and should provide a motivation for your research (i.e., the effect of angular disparity and gender on performance on a mental rotation task). Note that the rationale for the study needs to be based on previous literature and support your research question and hypotheses. You will need to include 2 specific hypotheses that indicate what you expect the findings to be.

Tips for the Introduction:

• You will need a general sentence identifying the topic: the effect of angular disparity and gender on performance on a mental rotation task

• Introduce and define key concepts such as Functional Equivalence Hypothesis, Mental Rotation, Angular Disparity (see the initial references discussed in Tutorial 2 - Week 8A)

• What effect does the literature suggest angular disparity and gender might have onmental rotation?

• Rationale for current study (i.e., what is the purpose of our study?). How is our study similar/different from previous studies? What is the gap in the literature that our study is contributing to overcoming?

• Start to focus down to our research question: looking at whether there is an effect of angular disparity andgender on mental rotation

• Include your hypotheses at the end to explain what you expect. A hypothesis does not have to guess the correct outcome, but the experiment must be set up to be testable. Make sure you have a hypothesis statement for each expected effect.

Here is an example hypothesis from a pretend study:

It is hypothesised that the getting more than 8 hours of sleep will significantly reduce reaction time on a simple reaction time task the following day.

You should cite evidence from the literature in your introduction to support any arguments to make. You may choose to cite relevant literature when presenting the hypotheses to ensure the link between existing literature/theory and your predictions are clear. Although you may wish to use online resources to help in your understanding, it is best to only cite information from journal articles and academic textbooks.

4. Method

Everything in this section should be written in paragraph form, as with the Introduction

Participants

• Number of participants, gender breakdown, mean age and standard deviation

• Basis for participation (i.e., did they receive course credit or did they participate as part of a tutorial for an introductory psychology course?).

Materials

• What did we use to conduct the experiment (i.e., how was the exercise/task conducted, what was the data collated with?)?

Procedure

• Give a detailed but brief account of how we conducted the experiment

• Be systematic and work through chronologically to ensure clarity

• Explain the instructions given to participants and what the researcher did to complete the task(s)

5. Results

• The t test results and appropriate table/figure will be provided in tutorials. Include these in your Results section

• Summarise the data and key findings in words, in relation to your hypothesis/hypotheses

• Your task is to interpret the t test results, information on this will be provided in tutorials
  
  
  • Think about the strength, direction and statistical significance
    
    
    • Is the effect size small, medium, or large?
    
    
    • What is the direction (i.e., higher or lower)?
    
    
    • Is it statistically significant? Is the p-value less than.05?
    
    
    
  
  
  • Do the results of each t test suggest an effect of one variable on another?
  
  
  

6. Discussion

• Restate the aims of the study

• Restate your hypothesis/hypotheses

• Explain what you found in relation to your prediction(s)

• State whether the findings support your predictions
  
  
  • Do our findings support what we would expect based on the literature on mental rotation?
  
  
  • When linking to the literature, are the results consistent or inconsistent with previous findings why/why not?
  
  
  

• Limitations: indicate where problems or sources of error may have occurred methodological flaws, extraneous variables we did not control for

• Future research: come up with some new questions or hypotheses that you thought of during, or as a result of, this experiment, or suggest how to overcome limitations

• Although this is not a separate section, your last paragraph should attempt to draw some CONCLUSIONS and discuss implications: what do our results mean for the real world? Provide an example.

Where to find resources to help you complete the lab report:

• This document contains general information and the marking criteria
  
  
  • Students will benefit greatly from following the marking criteria closely
  
  
  

• The live on campus lecture in Week 9

• Tutorial slides and resources (available on Learning@Griffith)

• Lab Report Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) on Learning@Griffith

• Mini-lectures and textbook readings (for theoretical information)

• The Red Book on Writing for Psychology. This is a guide produced by the School of Applied Psychology to help you produce work according to our implementation of the APA guidelines. Youll find it on the 1001PSY Learning@Griffith, on the left-hand menu (Health Writing & Referencing Guide).

• Extensions for the assignment can only be granted for valid reasons as outlined in the Griffith University policy. For detailed information and instructions on how to apply for an extension, go to L@G >Assessment 3: Lab Report Information

• An assessment item submitted after the due date, without an approved extension, will be penalised. The standard penalty is the reduction of the mark allocated to the assessment item by 5% of the total weighted mark for the assessment item, for each calendar day that the item is late. Assessment items submitted more than seven calendar days after the due date will be awarded zero (0) marks.

Turnitin Assignment Submission

Use the appropriate link to submit your assignment, found on L@G. Ensure your entire assignment is included in one single word processor file (e.g., .docx) or a .pdf file, then upload that file. Your assignment will be checked using the Turnitin text matching software to check for originality in order to promote academic integrity. This assignment must be completed individually and should consist of your own work. Where referring to outside sources, they must be referenced accordingly.

Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI)

In recent years generative artificial intelligence tools have advanced considerably and have become widely available. While they have some useful applications for learning, they must be used with caution. For example, we must be cautious about the veracity of information and sources provided by AI tools, we must be careful about the privacy and security of the information we enter into AI tools, and we must not claim things written by AI tools as our own work.

While you may use AI tools to assist in your study in this assignment, you must not present the output of AI tools as your own work. If you use a portion of text written by an AI tool in your assignment, you must include it in quotations and cite the text as a direct quote from an AI tool. If you use an AI tool to assist in brainstorming, you must include a footnote outlining how you used the tool and the prompts you entered. The footnote will not count towards the word count.

It is strongly recommended that you watch the Griffith University How to use AI tools in assessment video linked below prior to using AI tools for your written assessment tasks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5nFoxet080

Marking Criteria

The following are the actual criteria to be used in marking the Lab Report out of 100, which is worth 30% of the overall mark for this course.

After you have written your lab report, read through it and give yourself a grade for each of the sections. Do you think some areas could be improved? If you do but are too low on word space, watch the Redbook tutorial video on writing concisely and see if you can trim some space to get more value for your writing.