PSY2005 Psychological Research Methodology II: Assignment 1 Essential Information
PSY2005 Psychological Research Methodology II: Assignment 1 Essential Information
Submission deadline: 12:00 noon Monday 24th April 2023.
Maximum word limit = 2000 words
Any words included over this limit will not be read or assessed.
The word limit DOES NOT include tables, end references or the title.
The word limit DOES include in-text citations, headings and subheadings.
Formatting:
12 point Times New Roman font.
Line spacing = 1.5
Margins = 2.54cm
Writing should be aligned to the left.
Page numbers should be included.
Reference list at the end should start on a new page.
Appendices should start on a new page.
In-text citations, end reference list and tables should be formatted using APA style.
Penalties
1 mark will be deducted for assignments submitted with the wrong submission title.
1 mark will be deducted for assignments submitted with no cover sheet.
1 mark will be deducted for incorrect formatting.
1 mark will be deducted for assignments submitted without a completed reflection exercise.
Penalties will also be applied for late submission, as follows:
Number of working days late
Penalty
Mark reduced by 5% for each working day work is late Calculation
Multiply the original mark by Mark awarded when reduced by 5% per late day
Example A
Original mark = 64 Example B Original mark = 54
1 5% 0.95 60.8 51.3
2 10% 0.90 57.6 48.6
3 15% 0.85 54.4 45.9
4 20% 0.80 51.2 43.2
5 25% 0.75 48 40.5
6 or more Not completed NC NC NC
Submitting your assignment
Download the PSY2005 Assignment 2 Cover Sheet document and make sure this is included in your assignment when you submit.
Save your document with a title that only includes the module code followed by your registration number in the following format: PSY2005_registrationnumber (e.g. PSY2005_123456789).
Make sure to use an underscore between the module code and your registration number (not a hyphen).
Do not include any spaces in the document title.
Do not write the title of your assignment or anything other than the requested title above in your file name.
Submit your assignment via the Assignment 2: Information and Submission link on the PSY2005 Blackboard site.
Assignment 2: Quantitative Lab Report
Assignment 2 is a quantitative lab report that you are expected to complete using data that has been collected online from your peers (see the Data for your lab report section below for further details). You will also be required to complete a reflection exercise.
You will be asked to take part in a study that measures dyslexic traits and sleep quality, along with semantic, phonological and orthographic processing.
Your lab report should be based on the data from 1 or 2 questionnaires and 1 cognitive task.
You will be provided with the data from the study in Excel files. You will be expected to import the data into SPSS and prepare it for analysis using the techniques taught during the lecture and workshop in Week 4 of Semester 2.
You will be provided with information for your methods section as required.
Your lab report should include the following sections and subsections:
Title
Introduction
Method
Participants
Design
Materials
Procedure
Results
Discussion
References
Appendices
More details about what you should include in each of these sections and subsections can be found in the PSY2005 Assignment 2: Guide to writing a quantitative lab report available in the Assignment 2: Information and Submission area of the PSY2005 Blackboard site.
Plagiarism
It is important that your assignment is in your own words.
Assignments that copy written or spoken material will be penalised and you will be asked to attend a disciplinary meeting.
Make sure you understand what counts as plagiarism and collusion. Check the following website for details: https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/new-students/unfair-means
You can revise these concepts via this online tutorial on Understanding Plagiarism available here.
Check the following lecture recording for details of plagiarism and its consequences in the Psychology department.
Reflection Exercise
You are required to submit a reflection exercise with your lab report.
If you are working in a group, you will be required to complete a reflection on your own performance in your group. You will not be asked to reflect on the performance of others in your group.
If you are working independently, you will be required to complete a reflection on digital literacy. Digital literacy is a skill that is valued by employers and requires an understanding of how to access and use digital resources. You are building skills in digital literacy when you conduct literature searches to support your introductions for lab reports.
The reflection exercises will be included with the cover sheet for your lab report.
PSY2005 Guide to Writing a Quantitative Lab Report
Table of Contents
TOC h u z n Introduction to this Quantitative Lab Report Writing Guide
Sections and Subsections of Quantitative Lab Reports
Title
Introduction
Introducing the research area
Describing key studies and theories
Explain the rationale
Outline the research question
Specify your hypothesis
Method
Participants
Materials
Design
Procedure
Results
Describe how the raw data were prepared for analysis
Describe whether data met the assumptions of your inferential test(s)
Describe the descriptive statistics
Add a table OR a figure
Describe the inferential statistics
Include a summary statement
Discussion
First paragraph
How do the results compare to previous research?
Relate your findings to current theories
Discuss limitations that lead to suggestions for future research
Last paragraph of the discussion
References
Appendices
Academic Writing Style
Writing Style
Use objective writing
Use correct grammar
The lab report should be easy to read
The structure of arguments should be logical
The report should be coherent
Terms should be used consistently throughout the whole lab report
Introduction to this Quantitative Lab Report Writing Guide
The aim of any lab report is to communicate a study to a wider audience and it should be written in a way that is accessible to a reader who is unfamiliar with the research.
A lab report should let the reader know:
Why you did the research (Introduction)
Why the research was done (rationale), what research questions and hypotheses were tested and what previous research supported the development of those hypotheses.
How you did the research (Method)
What methods were used to test the hypotheses.
What you found (Results)
The outcome of statistical analyses that tested the hypotheses.
What your findings mean and why they are important (Discussion)
Conclusions that can be drawn from the results, how they relate to the research question/hypotheses outlined in the introduction and how they add to existing knowledge related to the research question.
This quantitative lab report writing guide provides you with detailed guidance on what to include in each section of your lab report and how to write up your report.
Sections and Subsections of Quantitative Lab Reports
This section provides an overview of what you should include in each section and subsection of your quantitative lab report.
Title
The title of your lab report should clearly and concisely indicate what the study is about, using language and concepts that are appropriate for a quantitative study.
The title should be short (aim for between 12-15 words).
Do not use abbreviations in the title (e.g. do not use RT for reaction time in the title).
Do not waste words by including redundant statements like A study of or An experimental investigation of.
Titles often take the form of The effect of X (independent variable) in Y (dependent variable).
Example of a good title Example of a bad title
The relationship between self-esteem and academic performance in primary school children A study of issues relating to self-esteem at school
(Not informative enough)
The effect of a self-esteem manipulation on school childrens academic performance
(Variables are clear - concisely written) School childrens performance on academic tests and how this is affected by self-esteem(Should be more concise)
The impact of working memory training and non-verbal reasoning on executive function in University students
(Variables are clear - concisely written) An investigation of whether working memory training or performance on a ravens matrix task affects ability to complete a card sorting task
(Hard to follow because the variables are described via the tasks used to operationalise the constructs being tested)
Introduction
Like with the qualitative lab report in Semester 1, the aim of the introduction in a quantitative lab report is also to review literature that provides the background to your research question and supports your hypothesis.
The literature that you review should be woven into a narrative that presents balanced arguments and is coherent. A coherent narrative is one that shows a clear understanding of the research question and development of your argument from sentence to sentence and from paragraph to paragraph (see the following resource for more guidance on coherence).The reader should be able to clearly understand how the literature reviewed links to your hypothesis.
When thinking about how to structure your introduction, imagine a funnel shape (see image below). Your introduction should start with broad concepts related to the research area, then gradually become more specifically related to your study, finishing with your hypothesis/predictions.
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Please note that you do not have to follow the exact order shown in this image when writing your introduction.
For example, some researchers provide the research question at the end of the first paragraph as a way of setting the scene for what comes next.
The key thing is that your introduction includes all of these elements in a way that flows to produce a coherent and clear narrative.
Introducing the research area
You should start your introduction by discussing broad concepts related to the research area.
Make sure you provide references for general statements you make when describing background research.
Good example
Research has shown that young drivers (18-23 years old) tend to take more risks than older drivers (Smith et al., 2018). In line with this finding, the number of road accidents involving young drivers is three times as high compared to older drivers (Jones & Brown, 2020). Investigating the reasons why could help to prevent future driving incidents in this age group.
Describing key studies and theories
Find key journal articles that have looked at this topic before.
Define key concepts and abbreviations used in your report. When using abbreviations, make sure you use the full name before you abbreviate it. Once you have provided the full name with the abbreviation, you can then use just the abbreviation from then on (e.g. In this study, reaction times (RT) were measured in response to the stimuli. Faster RT indicated enhanced neural processing of stimuli).
Make sure that all concepts and theories are clearly explained.
Briefly describe the general methodology for each study if it is relevant for understanding the findings (e.g. ... used fMRI to show).
Describe key findings/conclusions of the studies.
Highlight relevant weaknesses/strengths of the studies.
Avoid simply listing a series of conclusions made by previous researchers (see bad example below). Instead, focus on using the results from previous research to support your own narrative.
Make sure you only discuss previous research/theories that are directly related to your study!
If the information is not important for understanding the rationale, the research question or hypotheses in your study, take it out.
It is okay to only describe part of a study and omit results/conclusions that are not important or informative for your study.
Good examples
Schumacher and Hamilton (2010) found that in the presence of a peer, young drivers took more risks when they were asked to negotiate traffic in a driving simulator compared to older drivers. The authors concluded that this may be the effect of peer pressure.
Although there is evidence that young drivers take more risks (e.g., Schumacher & Hamilton, 2010) and that young people can be misled by peer pressure (e.g., Friend & Force, 2007), previous research has failed to directly test the relationship between risky driving and peer pressure.
Bad example
Schumacher and Hamilton (2010) found that in the presence of a peer, young drivers took more risks when they were asked to negotiate traffic in a driving simulator compared to older drivers. Friend and Force (2007) found that young drivers complied with suggestions made by peers who were with them in a driving simulator. Young drivers were also found to pay less attention to the road when a peer was in a driving simulator.
In this example, the description of the studies does not include any narrative or let the reader know how these studies relate to the hypothesis or rationale.
Explain the rationale
The rationale should explain why your study is needed, and should be clearly linked to the previous research you have reviewed. Appropriate rationales for quantitative research include:
Testing a theory
Replicating an existing finding
Extending an existing finding
Attempting to resolve a debate in previous research
Outline the research question
The research question should be supported by the literature reviewed in the introduction.
Highlight the conditions and measures you used to answer your experimental question; make it clear which question relates to the constructs in your study.
Make sure the description links to terms you use in the Method section.
Do NOT repeat information here that will be in your Method section.
Remember to write in the past tense - you should be describing what was done in the study, not what it will do.
Good example Breakdown
The aim of this study was to establish whether risky driving in young people is the result of actual pressure from peers, or merely the result of perceived peer pressure. Participants were therefore asked to negotiate a complex traffic situation in a driving simulator with a group of their peers present or absent
risky driving (DV)
actual pressure from peers (IV: condition 1)
or perceived peer pressure (IV: condition 2)
The conditions and measures used to answer the research question are clearly stated.
Specify your hypothesis
In the final paragraph, you should clearly state what you expect to find in your study and WHY you expect those findings.
Provide a clear justification for your hypothesis that is based on the research reviewed in the introduction.
If you are building on a large body of previous work that provides strong evidence to support a directional hypothesis, then you can describe the predicted direction of effects in your hypothesis (e.g., Young people will be found to engage in more risky driving in the presence of their peers compared to driving without peer influence.)
If you are not building on a large body of research and there isnt strong evidence to support a directional hypothesis, then your hypothesis should not be directional (e.g., A difference will be found in driving behaviours of young people in the presence of peers compared to driving without peer influence.)
If you have a non-directional hypothesis, you can add a prediction that allows you to suggest a direction for effects (e.g., Although the evidence from previous research is mixed, on balance it suggests that young people will drive more erratically in the presence of peers compared to when driving alone.)
Good example
The evidence from previous research suggests that young people engage in risky driving when their peers are present. Young drivers were therefore predicted to drive differently in the presence of peers compared to a condition where they drive alone.
Bad example
Based upon the literature reviewed, it was hypothesised that participants exposed to a high self-esteem manipulation would perform better on an academic assessment than those given a low self-esteem manipulation.
Method
The method section should provide sufficient information to allow for an exact replication of the study. You should describe how your study was conducted and provide the reader with enough information to assess the quality of the design and materials used.
The Method section should be written using the subheadings listed below:
Participants
Materials
Design
Procedure
Participants
Include information on how many people took part.
Provide details of gender split, mean age, SD and age range (min-max).
Include information on what population your sample was taken from (e.g., University students, children, older adults etc.).
Include any inclusion or exclusion criteria that were used to decide which participants were recruited (if applicable). State that there were no exclusion criteria if none were applied.
If participants were excluded from analyses after they took part in the study, include details of the number of participants that were excluded from the final analysis and why they were excluded (e.g., because equipment failed or because they did not complete the whole study).
Good example Bad example
Eighty undergraduate psychology students (30 male and 50 female, mean age = 21, SD = 2.30, age range = 19-24) participated as part of their research methods course. For 80% of participants, English was their first language, with the remaining participants having an equivalent level of English language proficiency. Two participants were unable to complete all tasks and their data was discarded.
Contains participant information that is important for this specific study (e.g., a breakdown of language ability is important if your study investigates language).
Written extremely concisely but still manages to maintain a flow between sentences. The participants in the study were undergraduate psychology students. There were 80 of them and they ranged in age from 19 to 24, with the average age being 21 years old. 30 of the subjects were male, and 50 were female. They all participated as part of their lab report assessment for their research methods module in their undergraduate degree.
Only contains a small proportion of the information included in the good example and is not well written.
Materials
A reader should be able to replicate the stimuli used in your study based on your descriptions in this section.
The following should be included:
The materials (i.e., stimuli or specific measures included).
If you retrieved the stimuli/questionnaire from another source, you should provide a reference to that source.
For example, if word stimuli used in a semantic priming task came from previous research, this should be reported in the materials section with an in-text citation (e.g., Nation & Snowling, 1998) and the full reference added to the end reference list.
For survey or questionnaire measures, you should include a reference to either the original paper that validated the questionnaire, or a subsequent paper that has validated the paper.
For example, A measure of dyslexic traits called the Adult Checklist developed by Smythe and Everatt (2001) was used (see Appendix 1). This measure was validated by Snowling et al. (2012) who showed that outcomes from the questionnaire were a good fit with objective measures of reading, suggesting that the measure provides an accurate self-report of dyslexic traits in a population of adults.
For questionnaire measures, provide details of Cronbach's alpha values reported in the research that validated the questionnaire.
Provide examples of the stimuli or questions from questionnaire measures.
Include information about the number of stimuli used and if there were different categories (e.g., There were 10 positive items and 10 negative items).
Provide the full stimuli in the appendix (and include a reference to the appendix in the Method section). Items in the appendix should be ordered based on the order in which they appear in the main text of the lab report (i.e., Appendix 1 should be the first set of stimuli/questionnaire you refer to in the Materials section, Appendix 2 will be the next set of stimuli/questionnaire you refer to and so on).
Only include information on materials that were central to your study and its design. Omit trivial things such as what pens you used or how you kept track of time.
Good example: A validated measures with more than 1 subscale
The Maudsley Violence Questionnaire (MVQ; Walker, 2005) is a 54-item scale covering a range of cognitions (beliefs, rules, distortions and attributions) that may provide support or justifications for the use of violence. The MVQ has two subscales: Machismo (42 items), which relates to embarrassment over backing down and violence as part of being a man (an example item: Being violent shows you are a man); and Acceptance of Violence (14 items), which assesses the overt enjoyment and acceptance of violence (an example item: I enjoy watching violent sports). Items are rated on a 5-point Likert scale (1 = strongly disagree, 5 = strongly agree). Scores of the total scale range from 54-270, with higher scores indicating increased levels of pro-violence attitudes. The MVQ Cronbachs alpha reliabilities range from 0.74 to 0.91 (Walker, 2005).
(Note: please include the possible range of scores for different subscales if you use them in your analyses)
Good example: A validated measures with 1 subscale
The Attitudes Towards Male Sexual Dating Violence (AMDV-Sex; Price et al., 1999) is a 12-item scale assessing the extent to which respondents subscribe to views supportive of sexual violence against women in dating relationships (an example item: A girl who goes into a guys bedroom is agreeing to sex). All items are scored on a 4-point Likert scale (1 = disagree, 4 = agree). Possible scores range from 12 to 48, with higher scores indicating greater acceptance of sexual violence towards women in dating relationships. In prior research, the AMDV-Sex had a Cronbachs alpha of 0.78 (Galambos, 2005).
Good example: Experimental stimuli
Forward Digit Span Task (Wechsler, 1997)
Seven lists of digits, starting with three digits and ending with 9 digits were prepared for use in the study (see Appendix A). Digits were recorded as .wav files in a neutral male voice and presented to participants via headphones one at a time. The .wav files were normalised to -1DB and a blank pause of 500ms was added to each audio file to space out the presentation of each digit. The experiment was run on a desktop computer operating Windows 10 using experimental software PsyToolkit (Stoet, 2010).
References
Stoet, G. (2010). PsyToolkit - A software package for programming psychological experiments using Linux. Behaviour Research Methods, 42(4), 1096-1104.
Design
What design was used? (e.g., experimental, cross-sectional, longitudinal, between- or within-participants etc.)
Include details of the variables included in the research. For example, what were the predictor and outcome variable(s), or independent and dependent variable(s)?
Make sure you use terms to describe variables consistently throughout your report. For example, if your DV is a measure of working memory, refer to this as working memory throughout the report and make sure it is clear to the reader which experimental task is used to measure working memory (e.g., a memory span task).
Explain how questionnaire measures were scored. For example, if the scores for your questionnaire were reversed before the total was calculated, explain that this was done and how total scores for scales/subscales were calculated.
Explain how experimental items were counterbalanced (if applicable).
Provide the name of the inferential test that was used to test the research objectives.
Make sure that it is clear in this section how the design addresses the aims of the research.
Good example
A cross-sectional survey design was used. The study consisted of two continuous predictor variables: extraversion and conscientiousness. The outcome variable was risky behaviour.
Negative items were reverse-scored for all measures and total scores were calculated for each participant. High scores on the extraversion and conscientiousness scales were equal to high levels of extraversion and conscientiousness. High scores on the risky behaviour scale indicated high levels of risky behaviour.
Multiple regression was performed to assess how well the two predictor variables (extraversion and conscientiousness) were able to predict risky behaviour.
Procedure
This section should provide the reader with detailed information regarding how the research was conducted. Enough information should be provided for the reader to replicate your study. This includes:
Whether participants were tested in a group, individually or via online data collection.
Summary of the instructions given to participants, both written and spoken (e.g. All participants were given 20 minutes to complete the questionnaire individually in a quiet room or Participants completed the tasks online and there was no overall time limit for the study).
Timings for the experiment - were the tasks self-paced or were response time limits imposed (if yes, state what these were).
If you collected data online, explain which software was used (e.g. Qualtrics) and how the link to the study was distributed (e.g., sent by email to invite potential participants).
For experimental designs, the software used to present the experiment is usually included in the materials section but can be included here.
Briefly detail how participants were debriefed at the end of the study.
TIP: If you are struggling to work out which information should be in the materials and which in the procedure, try writing out the materials and procedure as one section and then split the information into its respective sections.
Good example: Experimental Design
The research protocol was reviewed and approved by the departmental ethics panel.
After participants were shown how the driving simulator worked, they were instructed to complete the driving test with or without friends being present.
Participants were provided with the following verbal instructions:
We would like you to complete this driving task with your friends present. Please try to avoid communicating with your friends whilst you complete the task. The task will provide you with instruction in how to navigate through a course that is designed to train advanced drivers. You will receive a score at the end of the task. Do you have any questions before you begin?
Participants were given as long as they needed to complete the driving task. On average, participants took 20 minutes to navigate through the task. If a participant crashed the car during the task, the screen would reset to the position they last drove and they were instructed to continue the task.
On completion of the driving task, participants were given a score out of 50 that indicated how well they had performed. Participants were asked to leave the driving simulator and lead to an adjacent room where they were provided with a debrief.
Good example: Survey
The research protocol was reviewed and approved by the departmental ethics panel.
Invitation to take part in the study was sent by email using university mailing lists. Participants completed the study online using Qualtrics (Qualtrics, Provo, UT), a subscription software that allows for secure remote data collection through the distribution of anonymous secure links to a survey.
Participation was voluntary and prior to accessing the survey, all participants were asked to read information that provided details of the study, what would be required of them, any associated risks, and how the data would be handled. Participants were required to give informed consent to take part in the study via a tick box that they were required to select before being able to fill in the online questionnaire.
The completion of the survey took approximately 15 minutes. All participants were debriefed after completing the survey via an end page that provided a detailed description of the study objectives as well as contact details to appropriate advice, support and guidance services.
Results
The results section follows a standardised structure. You have been provided with templates for writing results sections in your lectures and workshops that you can use to aid your writing*. The results section should follow the order outlined below:
First, you should describe how you prepared your data for analysis. For example, were any outliers removed? Were mean scores or total scores calculated for questionnaire measures? Were mean values for reaction times in each condition calculated for each participant?
Describe whether the data violated any assumptions.
Provide the descriptive statistics in a table.
Provide a write-up of the inferential statistics.
End the write-up with a summary statement that provides an indication of what the results mean in simple words.
Note: Do not start the results section with a table or figure - these should be embedded into the text after the initial description of the data analysis.
* Results sections are written using a standardised format. Consequently, a large amount of overlap in student work is expected for the results section - this will not be considered plagiarism.
Describe how the raw data were prepared for analysis
Explain how you got from the raw scores you obtained (e.g. reaction times for each individual trial) to the scores that you will use in your analysis (e.g. mean reaction time per condition).
Good example
The reaction time data were prepared for analysis by initially removing responses associated with errors (i.e., where a participant categorised a word pair as a non-word). In total, 3% of the data were removed due to error. Following this, outliers that were more than 2 standard deviations away from participant means were removed. A total of 2% of the data was removed due to outliers. Consequently, 5% of the overall dataset was removed prior to analyses being run. Means were calculated for each participant in each condition (e.g., related and unrelated).
Describe whether data met the assumptions of your inferential test(s)
Indicate whether the data will be analysed using parametric or non-parametric statistics. Provide a statement that makes it clear why you made this decision. If using a regression analysis, demonstrate that the variables had a linear relationship.
Good examples
Data were analysed using parametric statistics after inspection of histograms and box and whisker plots illustrated that the data were normally distributed and there were no extreme outliers.
Inspection of the box and whisker plots illustrated that there were no extreme outliers in the data; however, the histograms showed that the data were not normally distributed with the data for semantic processing being negatively skewed. As a consequence, non-parametric tests were used for the analyses.
Describe the descriptive statistics
You can describe the descriptive statistics in the main body of the text or in a table, but we recommend adding a table due to the larger number of descriptive statistics that need to be included in this lab report (e.g. means, SDs, percentages, direction and strength of correlation).
Check workshop materials and lecture slides from PSY1005 and PSY2005 for guidance on how to report descriptive statistics.
Add a table OR a figure
Adding a table or figure can be a really useful way to display your results. However, you should not use both a table and figure to display the same information (e.g., if you have presented the means and standard deviations for each condition/group in a table, you should not present this data again in a bar chart). Instead, you should choose either a table or figure to present this information. Likewise, you should not present descriptive statistics in a table if you have also included it in the main body of the text - try to be concise and avoid repeating information.
The main reasons for using a table are:
If you have lots of conditions/groups for which you need to present the descriptive information, a table is more clear than text.
If you have multiple bits of information that you want to display at the same time (e.g. descriptive statistics and also correlations between variables).
The main reasons for using a figure are:
To make it easier for the reader to see the differences between conditions/groups which would be more difficult when only numbers are displayed.
The more conditions you have, the more useful it will be to use a graphical display.
How to format a table:
The table should have a title which clearly describes what is presented in the table. The title should appear above the table. The title should not begin with A table to show.
APA style requires that there are no vertical lines included in the table, and horizontal lines should be used as shown in the example below.
The following website provides guidance on tables and how they should be presented using APA style.
Each table is numbered in the order in which they are displayed in the report (please note that numbering is separate for tables and figures - in other words, you can have a Table 1 and a Figure 1).
Make sure that you refer to the table in the main body of the text (e.g. Descriptive statistics for each of the conditions can be found in Table 1).
Table 1
Mean number of risks taken whilst negotiating a complex traffic situation with and without peers present
Driving Condition Mean Standard Deviation
Alone 3.78 1.39
With Peers 4.88 1.46
How to format a figure:
The figure should have a title which clearly describes what is presented in the figure. The title should appear below the figure. The title should not begin with A figure to show.
Axes should be clearly labelled.
The IV should be presented along the horizontal x-axis and the DV should be presented along the vertical y-axis.
Each figure is numbered in the order in which they are displayed in the report (please note that numbering is separate for tables and figures - in other words, you can have a Table 1 and a Figure 1).
If using an error bar graph, you must tell the reader what the error bars represent (e.g. 95% CI, or +/- 1 SD) in the figure caption as shown in the example below.
If the data are not normally distributed, you should represent the data as a bar graph with median values and no error bars.
Figure 1: Mean number of risks taken whilst negotiating a complex traffic situation with and without peers present (error bars represent 95% confidence intervals)879638203788
Describe the inferential statistics
Always include the inferential statistics after your descriptive statistics (unless you include descriptive statistics and inferential statistics in the same sentence). Check the lecture and workshop materials for PSY1005 and PSY2005 for help on how to report this part of the results section.
Note: If the results of your inferential statistics are not significant, DO NOT describe your results as insignificant as this implies that your results are not important. Non-significant results can still be as important and meaningful and significant results.
Good examples
A 2x2 between participants ANOVA with one factor of Learning Style (Visual and Auditory) and a second factor of Method of Knowledge Acquisition (Visualisation and Pronunciation) was conducted.
The results showed that neither the main effect of Learning Style (F (1, 56) = 1.08, p = .302, p2 = .02) nor the main effect of Method of Knowledge Acquisition (F < 1) had a significant impact on recall. However, there was a significant interaction between Learning Style and Method of Acquisition (F (1, 56) = 22.24, p < .001, p2 = .28).
A multiple regression was performed between depression as the dependent variable and age, anxiety and avoiding coping and the independent variables. Table 3 displays the results of the regression analysis.
The regression equation was highly significant, F (5, 64) = 9.25, p < .001, and was able to explain 41.9% of the variance in depression scores. Inspection of the beta weights revealed that age and avoidant coping made significant contributions to the prediction of depression.
Include a summary statement
The summary statement should provide an indication of what the results mean in simple terms - this may not necessarily be the same terms used in the results. Use terms that would be understood by a person who is unfamiliar with psychology or statistics to describe the results in the summary statement.
Good examples
These results suggest that learning information in a way that suits an individual's learning style results in better memory for that information.
These results suggest that depression may be more prevalent in older individuals who tend to avoid problems as a coping strategy.
Discussion
The discussion is where you discuss the results. This means that you:
Summarise and interpret the results to explain how your hypothesis has been supported or not.
Compare your results to previous research, focusing on the research introduced in the introduction (unless you have results that are unexpected, in which case you will need to return to the literature to look for an account that can help explain your results - i.e. see if there is any other research with similar results to yours).
Relate your findings to current theories that have been used to explain the psychological effect (underlying mechanisms) being investigated.
The discussion section follows a specific order in which points are discussed.
First paragraph
Summarise the aim of the study.
Clearly present the main finding(s) in words.
Interpret the results briefly.
Say whether the hypothesis/prediction is supported or rejected.
Good example
The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of peer presence on risky driving behaviour. The results of the current research failed to find a difference in risk taking behaviour when participants were in the presence of their peers compared to when they were driving alone. These findings do not support the prediction that the presence of a group of peers would exert pressure on participants resulting in an increase in risky driving behaviours when compared to driving alone.
How do the results compare to previous research?
Are the results of this study consistent with the results of study X (mentioned in introduction)?
Are they different from the results of previous studies? If so, why might this be?
Are your results unexpected?
Good example
Although these results support previous research (e.g., Blue et al., 1993; Johnson & Price, 2003) suggesting that young people engage in risky behaviour, the mechanism that underpins this effect appears to be unrelated to whether a peer group is present or not.
Relate your findings to current theories
Explain which theories from your introduction explain your results and why OR explain why certain theories may not be able to explain your results or why other theories might be better.
You can introduce new research in the discussion section when:
Discussing limitations and future directions that havent been discussed in your introduction. These need to be supported by evidence.
The results DO NOT support the hypotheses that you proposed based on the literature discussed in your introduction, it may be necessary to introduce new theories into the discussion to explain your results.
You want to discuss the implications of your findings in other areas/research questions and this discussion needs to be supported by evidence.
Make sure that any additions you include are relevant to what you found in your results!
Good example
Current theories employed to explain risky driving in young people tend to focus on the effect of peer pressure (e.g., Risk & Young, 2013; Smith & Jones, 2014). The fact that peer pressure of a peer group in the current research did not result in significantly higher risk taking compared to driving alone questions the validity of these theories. An alternative theory that might explain this result has been offered by Maybe et al. (2015) who suggested that perceptions of peer group driving behaviours may result in risky driving. For example, young people tend to think that their peers are all driving faster than they are and taking more risks, which may encourage them to drive faster and take more risks.
Discuss limitations that lead to suggestions for future research
Only explore limitations to the research once you have thoroughly discussed your findings (in other words, avoid only discussing limitations in your discussion section). You should also only include limitations that would have affected your findings. Make sure you use relevant literature to support your ideas.
When discussion limitations, you need to:
Identify the limitation
Identify the possible impact on your study
Suggest how it could be avoided in the future.
Good example
Although the perceived driving habits of a peer group may be influencing risk taking behaviour in young people, this was not directly tested in the current study and strong conclusions therefore cannot be drawn. Future research could establish whether there is a link between this aspect of peer relations or not, and the tendency to engage in risky driving behaviours.
Last paragraph of the discussion
Simple summary of the main findings and conclusions.
Make sure this paragraph is linked to the original research question and tells the reader what the take-home message is in relation to the research question asked.
If someone read the first and last paragraph of the introduction and last paragraph of the discussion, would the study make sense?
References
Any claims or statements that you make in your lab report need to be supported with a reference. All in-text citations and full references in the end reference list should be correctly presented according to the APA referencing format. Using the APA style correctly is important because it will make your paper easier to read and help you to present information accurately.
All in-text citations and end references should be presented according to APA referencing format.
All work cited anywhere in the report should be acknowledged in the reference list at the end of the lab report.
DO NOT list references that you did not cite in the text, or cite authors of primary citations (i.e., the paper that actually explains the research) when you read only the secondary citation (i.e., another paper or book chapter that mentions the research findings).
The reference list should be correctly presented according to APA formatting (e.g., the references should be in alphabetical order based on the first author's surname).
The end reference list should be presented on a new page after the discussion.
Journal articles and book chapters are the most appropriate sources to use when supporting statements in your lab report.
In your method section, you may need to cite other sources to explain where your stimuli were retrieved from (e.g., a database, video, internet source). You can easily find how to cite these different types of sources online.
The Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL) website provides lots of information on how to cite different sources of information in the APA style.
The university library also has resources to help with APA referencing.
Websites from which you retrieved stimuli will usually have a section where they state how to cite their work.
If organising and managing your references is something you struggle with, you may be interested in using a reference management tool such as EndNote. It may take some time initially to get to know the system and set things up, but once its running it can be a very helpful and efficient tool for managing your references and citations. See here for more information on how to use EndNote - please note that you do not need to use a reference management tool for this assignment.
Appendices
Appendices contain extra information that does not fit into the report but may be necessary for readers to replicate your study.
You should add examples or full lists of the stimuli used and the questionnaires.
Only information that is directly relevant for understanding the study and its design should be included in the appendices.
Do not include tables of raw data in the appendices.
Appendices should be referred to in the main body of the text.
Appendices should be presented in the order in which they are mentioned in the main body of the text.
Each appendix should be given a number or letter (e.g., Appendix 1, Appendix 2; or Appendix A, Appendix B) and a clear and informative title.
Each appendix should be presented on a new page.
Academic Writing Style
Please pay attention to your writing style and follow the tips below to improve your writing. If youre not sure how to write in an academic style, it is helpful to look at published research to see how they structure their work and the sort of phrases they use.
Writing Style
Make sure your language is clear and precise.
Use words that you understand - writing in an academic style does not mean that you need to use overly complex language.
Make sure that your sentence structure is appropriate - avoid using overly long sentences.
Write in the third person and past tense.
Personal pronouns such as I or we are avoided.
The experiment you are writing about has already taken place, so you should describe what happened, not what will happen.
Good examples Bad examples
The aim of this study was to The aim of this study is to
It was important to consider both theories as viable to explain the data, which is why no directional hypotheses were stated. We thought that both theories could be true, which is why we did not state any directional hypothesis.
Use objective writing
Emotive, colloquial or slang language should be avoided. Use objective language to state facts and avoid simply stating your own opinion.
Never describe your results as having proved a theory. Instead, when writing about the results, describe them in terms of whether they support your prediction or hypothesis.
Good examples Bad examples
The Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB); Ajzen & Fishbein, 2005) suggests that the level of perceived control a person has, along with their attitude and social norms, affect intentions to behave and actual behaviour. A persons thoughts about a topic, their ability to complete a task and how other people think about the same topic can affect how people think they will behave and how they actually behave.
The results showed that The results were remarkable because
The findings of this study provide support for the Theory of Planned Behaviour (Ajzen & Fishbein, 2005). This study clearly proves that the theory of planned behaviour is correct.
Use correct grammar
Write in correct English grammar.
The English Language Teaching Centre (ELTC) has a self-access grammar bank that you can use to help you review areas of grammar that you might have difficulty with.
Before you submit, check that all words are spelled correctly (think of commonly made mistakes such as their/there/theyre, its/its, then/than). The University has some guidance on proofreading which you can see here.
Good example Bad example
Participants age was not significantly related to their depression scores. Participants age was not significantly related to there depression scores.
The lab report should be easy to read
When proofreading your lab report, check that:
The reader can follow your arguments without having to re-read previous paragraphs.
Your paragraphs are constructed such that each paragraph ends with a mini conclusion.
Your paragraphs are connected and have clear transitions from one argument to the next.
Good example Bad example
One theory that could explain why people do not give blood is the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB; Ajzen & Fishbein, 2005). The TPB states that level of perceived behavioural control, attitudes and social norms affects intentions to behave in a certain way, as well as actual behaviour. TPB provides an account of the reluctance to give blood as a combination of someone not feeling they are able to give blood, negative attitudes towards the act of giving blood and social norms that discourage blood donation. This suggests that reasons for failing to follow through with an intention to give blood may be due to a number of competing factors.
Although the TPB explains behaviour from a number of perspectives, it cannot tell us anything about Therefore, the aim of this study was to The TPB states that level of perceived behavioural control, attitudes and social norms affect intentions to behave in a certain way as well as actual behaviour. This theory could explain why people do not give blood.
TPB provides an account of the reluctance to give blood as a combination of someone not feeling they are able to give blood, negative attitudes towards the act of giving blood, and social norms that discourage blood donation.
The TPB suggests that reasons for failing to follow through with an intention to give blood may be due to a number of competing factors. The aim for this study was to
The structure of arguments should be logical
Consider what a reader needs to know to understand the arguments you introduce (for example, before critiquing a theory make sure that you have presented that theory in enough detail for the reader to understand).
Do not assume that the reader is already familiar with the topic area -instead, you should write for an audience who is intelligent (and will understand something if it is explained clearly) but who is unfamiliar with this area of research.
Make sure terms/concepts/theories used in your report are clearly explained and that it is also clear why they are important. This does not mean that you need to define terms by saying The definition of this is but provide the reader with examples as you write (e.g., The ability to inhibit a response is assumed to be supported by a cognitive mechanism that is referred to as inhibitory processing).
The report should be coherent
Make sure all sections of your lab report are aligned.
Your literature review should lead the reader to the rationale for your study and support your specific research question and hypothesis.
The analysis should be aligned with the research question and hypothesis (i.e., the analysis should be able to test the hypothesis and allow conclusions to be drawn from the results).
The discussion should link the material from the introduction with the results and draw a conclusion in relation to the original research question. The discussion should not open up a new line of enquiry or stray from the original research question.
Terms should be used consistently throughout the whole lab report
For example, using the term treatment group is a lot easier than having to write the patients who received the antidepressant drug treatment for 12 weeks every time you are talking about this group of participants
BUT make sure you initially explain what each term means before using it
AND avoid using multiple terms for the same thing.
MARKING CRITERIA 0-39 Fail 40-49 Third 50-59 2:2 60-69 2:1 70-100 1st
INTRODUCTION
1. Provides a review and synthesis of relevant background literature.
2. Explains key concepts relevant to the research.
3. States the objectives (aims) of the research and a clear rationale for the study.
4. Clearly states hypotheses and predictions that are supported by the literature presented. Fails to review relevant literature and provide a coherent narrative. Key concepts are not included and the rationale/hypothesis for the study is missing. The review of the literature is not relevant AND not integrated into a coherent narrative. Key concepts are included, but not explained and the rationale/hypothesis for the study is not clear. The review of the literature is not always relevant OR successfully integrated into a coherent narrative. Some key concepts are included, but the hypothesis/predictions are not in line with the arguments presented AND the literature does not support the rationale. A relevant review of the background literature is provided, but synthesis of this information may not always result in a coherent narrative. Key concepts and objectives are included. Rationale and hypothesis/predictions are included, but not necessarily supported by the literature. A relevant review of the background literature is integrated into a coherent narrative (synthesis). Key concepts and objectives are explained, with a clear rationale for the study. Hypothesis/predictions for the study are supported by the literature.
METHODS
1. The method section provides enough information to allow a replication. It is unclear what methods were used. The method would not allow for a replication of the study. Vital information is omitted or incorrect information included. Information would allow a replication, but there is some unnecessary information. Information would allow for a replication with no unnecessary information.
RESULTS
1. Write-up of results are in line with standards taught on this module.
2. Results summary statement provides the reader with the findings in lay terms. The results are missing vital elements. A summary statement is missing. The results write-up is incorrect or disordered. A summary statement of the results is missing OR incorrect. Mistakes are made in the write-up that affect the interpretation of the outcomes. The summary statement is incomplete or has incorrect elements. Minor mistakes in the write-up of the results. The summary presents the findings but not necessarily in lay terms. The results are in line with standards taught in this module. The summary statement is in lay terms.
DISCUSSION
1. Results are interpreted in relation to the hypotheses/predictions and linked to the literature discussed in the introduction.
2. Practical/theoretical implications of this research are clear and insightful.
3. Limitations are relevant (i.e. clearly linked to the findings in this study).
4. Concise but insightful conclusion that links back to the original research question. Interpretation of the results is missing. Practical/theoretical implications of this research are missing OR unclear. Limitations and suggestions for future research are missing or unclear. Conclusion is missing or unclear. Results are interpreted incorrectly and not linked to previous literature. Practical/theoretical implications of this research are not relevant OR are missing. Limitations are generic and the conclusion is unclear or missing. Results are interpreted in light of hypothesis/predictions, but are not clearly linked to previous literature. Practical/theoretical implications of this research may not be relevant OR are poorly argued. Limitations are not linked to the findings and conclusion is weak (i.e. is not linked to the original research question). Results are interpreted in the context of previous research and in light of hypothesis/predictions. Practical/theoretical implications of this research are relevant, but may not be clearly argued. Limitations are relevant but not clearly linked to the findings. Conclusion is not clearly linked to the research question. Results are interpreted in the context of previous research and in light of hypotheses/predictions. Practical/theoretical implications of this research are relevant and clearly argued. Limitations are clearly linked to the findings. Conclusion is concise and linked to the original research question.
WRITING STYLE & COHERENCE
1. Language is precise.
2. Sentence structure is appropriate.
3. Structure of assignment provides a coherent narrative. Language is incoherent or in bullet points. Structure and content of assignment present an incoherent narrative and the assignment is lacking in logical order. Language is not precise and sentence structure makes the point very difficult to follow. Order of presentation is not logical, and the structure makes the narrative difficult to follow. Language is not precise, making the point difficult to follow. Order of the presentation is not always logical and the structure of the assignment makes the narrative difficult to follow. The writing is precise, but the reader has to work hard to understand the point in places. Order of presentation is not necessarily logical, but the structure of the assignment provides a clear narrative. Language is precise. The reader can easily understand the point. Sentence structure makes the writing clear. Points are presented in a logical order with elegant transitions.
REFERENCES & APPENDICES
1. All relevant statements are supported with a reference.
2. Correctly formatted.
3. Stimuli lists and SPSS output are presented in the appendices, with appropriately clear titles, in the order in which they were introduced in the text. No real attempt is made to provide references and appendices. An attempt is made to provide references and appendices, but it is impossible to check sources or replicate the study. Some mistakes in references/appendices that affect ability to check sources or replicate the study. Some mistakes in references/appendices, but they do not affect the ability to check sources or replicate the study. Perfect use of in-text/end references and appendices (high 1st) or just minor formatting errors (low 1st).
Information about methods and materials used in Assignment 2 study
Table of Contents
TOC h u z n Participants
Online Data Collection
Information about the Questionnaires
Adult Dyslexia Checklist
Sleep Quality Scale (SQS)
Information about the Masked Priming Lexical Decision Task
Experimental stimuli used in the semantic priming task
Experimental stimuli used in the phonological priming task
Experimental stimuli used in the orthographic priming task
Masked Priming Task - Counterbalancing
Masked Priming Task - Trial Procedure
Masked Priming Task - Procedure for participants
Masked Priming Task - Participant instructions
Masked Priming Task - Stimuli Lists
Participants
Use the demographic data from the questionnaire data to calculate:
Total number of participants
Gender split
Mean age
Age SD
Age range
Online Data Collection
PSYTOOLKIT https://www.psytoolkit.org/
You should include both references below for PsyToolkit in your lab report:
Stoet, G. (2010). PsyToolkit - A software package for programming psychological experiments using Linux. Behaviour Research Methods, 42(4), 1096-1104.
Stoet, G. (2017). PsyToolkit: A novel web-based method for running online questionnaires and reaction-time experiments. Teaching of Psychology, 44(1), 24-31.
Ethical approval: Ethical approval was obtained from the Department of Psychologys ethics committee.
Information about the Questionnaires
Adult Dyslexia Checklist (ADC)
The 15 items on this questionnaire are split into two sections:
The first ten questions address the frequency with which participants display dyslexic traits.
Participants are asked to rate how often they experience each statement. Responses are rated on a four-point likert scale, with responses ranging from Rarely to Most of the time.
The last five questions investigate the ease with which the participant can complete tasks that dyslexic individuals experience difficulties with.
Participants are asked to rate how easy they find a task. Responses are rated on a four-point Likert scale, with responses ranging from Easy to Very Difficult.
Cronbachs alpha = .0.81 (Snowling et al., 2012).
References for the Adult Dyslexia Checklist (ADC)
Smythe, I. & Everatt, J. (2001). Adult Checklist. Retrieved from https://www.hope.ac.uk/media/gateway/studentgateway/documents/Dyslexia%20Screening%20Test.pdf (March 7, 2023).
Validated in the following paper:
Snowling, M., Dawes, P., Nash, H., & Hulme, C. (2012). Validity of a protocol for adult self-report of dyslexia and related difficulties. Dyslexia, 18(1), 1-15.
Sleep Quality Scale (SQS)
The 28 items on this questionnaire assess six different aspects of sleep quality (daytime symptoms, restoration after sleep, problems initiating and maintaining sleep, difficulty waking, and sleep satisfaction).
Participants are asked to rate how often they have experienced each statement within the past month. Responses are rated on a four-point scale, with responses ranging from Rarely to Almost always.
Cronbachs alpha = .81 (Yi et al., 2006).
References for the Sleep Quality Scale
Yi, H., Shin, K., & Shin, C. (2006). Development of the sleep quality scale. Journal of Sleep Research, 15(3), 309-316.
Information about the Masked Priming Lexical Decision Task
Experimental stimuli used in the semantic priming task
15 semantically related word pairs (e.g., rose-THORN).
15 semantically unrelated word pairs (e.g., door-CHILD)
30 pairs of non-experimental primes with nonword targets (e.g., gutteral-HYDRING)
Within the semantic priming block, stimuli were presented in a fixed order and not set to be presented in a different order for each participant. This was done to avoid participants getting more than 3 word or nonword responses in a row, and to make sure that items with overlapping onset letters were well spaced out.
Reference for Semantic Priming
Word stimuli were taken from the following source:
Imai, S. (2001). The effect of prime word processing on the semantic priming effect. Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College.
Experimental stimuli used in the phonological priming task
12 phonologically related word pairs (e.g., fragile-FRAGILE).
12 phonologically unrelated word pairs (e.g., stomack-ALGEBRA)
24 pairs of non-experimental primes with nonword targets (e.g.,wipe-MEMBLES)
Within the phonological priming block, stimuli were presented in a fixed order and not set to be presented in a different order for each participant. This was done to avoid participants getting more than 3 word or nonword responses in a row, and to make sure that items with overlapping onset letters were well spaced out.
Reference for Phonological Priming
Word stimuli were taken from the following source:
Kinoshita, S. & Norris, D. (2012). Pseudohomophone priming in lexical decision is not fragile in a sparse lexical neighbourhood. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 38(3), 764.
Experimental stimuli used in the orthographic priming task
12 orthographically related word pairs (e.g., pionoer-PIONEER).
12 orthographically unrelated word pairs (e.g., trollen-MIRACLE)
24 pairs of non-experimental primes with nonword targets
Within the orthographic priming block, stimuli were presented in a fixed order and not set to be presented in a different order for each participant. This was done to avoid participants getting more than 3 word or nonword responses in a row, and to make sure that items with overlapping onset letters were well spaced out.
Reference for Orthographic Priming
Word stimuli were taken from the following source:
Kinoshita, S. & Norris, D. (2012). Pseudohomophone priming in lexical decision is not fragile in a sparse lexical neighbourhood. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 38(3), 764.
Masked Priming Task - Counterbalancing
The order in which blocks were presented to participants was rotated using a latin square rotation, such that:
The first participant was presented with the semantic block, followed by the phonological block and finally the orthographic block.
The second participant was first presented with the phonological block, followed by the orthographic block and finally the semantic block.
The third participant was first presented with the orthographic block, followed by the semantic block and lastly the phonological block.
This pattern then repeated for all participants who took part.
Masked Priming Task - Trial Procedure
Each trial began with a fixation cross displayed for 500ms (milliseconds) followed by a mask made out of 13 hash marks (#) displayed in the centre of the screen for 500ms.
The mask was followed by the prime word, displayed in lower case letters in the centre of the screen for 30ms.
The prime was followed by the target word, displayed in capital letters in the centre of the screen. The target stayed on screen until the participant made a response or 3 seconds had passed.
The font used was sans serif.
All text was presented in white on a black background.
Masked Priming Task - Procedure for participants
Participants were given a practice block in advance of the main task.
There were 12 practice trials in total.
At the end of each of the practice trials, participants were given feedback on their responses.
If the participant responded correctly, they were presented with the word Correct!.
If they responded incorrectly, they were presented with wrong response!.
Masked Priming Task - Participant instructions
Participants were asked to press the M key on their keyboard if the target word was a real word.
Participants were asked to press the Z key on their keyboard if the target word was a nonword.
They were asked to respond as quickly as they could.
They were asked to keep their fingers over the M and Z keys to ensure that they were ready to respond as quickly and consistently as possible.
Masked Priming Task - Stimuli Lists
The following stimuli lists should be added to the appendix of your lab report.
Please note that you only need to include the stimuli list for the type of language processing you analyse in your lab report.
Semantic Priming Stimuli
Related Unrelated
Prime Target Prime Target
corner STREET door CHILD
face EYES money COMB
land SEA summer KISS
mouth TEETH pants BIOLOGY
door OPEN monkey SWIM
fight WAR leaf NURSE
money RICH rose PAL
nature EARTH secretary CORRIDOR
station TRAIN stain BOSS
son BOY station TOES
summer SUN yawn BURN
round BALL poison HALT
bridge RIVER town SKINNY
town COUNTRY round FUEL
winter COLD calf LOCK
Phonological Priming Stimuli
Related Unrelated
Prime Target Prime Target
adverce ADVERSE stomack ALGEBRA
awcward AWKWARD jesture CABINET
karavan CARAVAN leizure CIRCUIT
klimate CLIMATE monitur CONDEMN
konquer CONQUER skratch COURAGE
kricket CRICKET terrase CUSHION
kustody CUSTODY alkohol INDULGE
frajile FRAGILE kanteen SYMPTOM
lettuse LETTUCE caskade TRAGEDY
tobacko TOBACCO concice RELEASE
visious VICIOUS convikt SAUSAGE
balkony BALCONY destroi SEGMENT
Orthographic Priming Stimuli
Related Unrelated
Prime Target Prime Target
pionoer PIONEER gladier GLIMPSE
spandal SCANDAL trollen MIRACLE
twindle TWINKLE aprilot OSBCURE
adrobat ACROBAT dartoon ROMANCE
avosado AVOCADO dontour SYRINGE
compast COMPACT crumial VERDICT
deplare DECLARE extinet AGITATE
dunleon DUNGEON fenuine CAPSULE
luggave LUGGAGE hymiene CRYSTAL
neglest NEGLECT mendion DESPAIR
parform PERFORM pelidan ECSTASY
prospor PROSPER sindere MERMAID
PSY2005 Assignment 2: Information about the data
Table of Contents
TOC h u z n Information about the data
Demographic Information
Preparing the raw questionnaire data for analysis
Scoring for the Adult Dyslexia Checklist (ADC)
Scoring for the Sleep Quality Scale
Data from Masked Priming Lexical Decision Tasks
Combine the results from the questionnaires with the priming task reaction times
If you are conducting an ANOVA
If you are conducting a regression analysis
Information about the data
The raw data for both questionnaires and the priming tasks are in an Excel file called PSY2005 Assignment 2 - Raw data for students.
The raw data for the semantic priming task are in the first tab (Semantic RT Data).
The raw data for the phonological priming task are in the second tab (Phono RT Data).
The raw data for the orthographic priming task are in the third tab (Ortho RT Data).
The raw data for the Adult Dyslexia Checklist (ADC) are in the fourth tab (Dyslexia Qnairre Data).
The raw data for the Sleep Quality Scale (SQS) are in the fifth tab (Sleep Qnairre Data).
Demographic Information
Demographic information is included in each of the tabs containing raw questionnaire data.
For the gender data:
1 = male
2 = female
3 = non-binary
4 = prefer not to say
Age was presented as an open text box.
Preparing the raw questionnaire data for analysis
Import or copy and paste the raw questionnaire data from Excel into SPSS.
Make sure you include Participant IDs in your data file! You will need these to combine reaction time and questionnaire data later on.
Both questionnaires have some missing data where a participant has failed to respond to one or more items. It is up to you whether you decide to employ a technique to add the value based on the participant of item means, or exclude that participant from the analysis.
Scoring for the Adult Dyslexia Checklist (ADC)
Once you have implemented your chosen technique for dealing with missing questionnaire data, you can then calculate the total dyslexia score for each participant.
To calculate the total dyslexia score, simply sum together scores from all ADC items.
Refer back to the workshop materials from Week 2 of this semester to see how to compute a total score for a questionnaire (using Transform Compute variable).
High scores indicate higher levels of dyslexic traits.
Scoring for the Sleep Quality Scale
Once you have implemented your chosen technique for dealing with missing questionnaire data, you can then move on to the next step.
In the raw SQS data, all items are coded so that 0 = rarely; 1 = sometimes; 2 = often; 3 = almost always.
Before total scores can be calculated, some items on the SQS scale need to be reverse-scored (for reverse-scored items the data should be coded as 3 = rarely; 2 = sometimes; 1= often; 0 = almost always).
Items that need reverse coding are SQS8, SQS13, SQS16, SQS18, SQS20 and SQS27.
Refer back to the workshop materials from Week 2 of this semester to see how to reverse score items on a questionnaire (using Transform Recode into Different Variables).
After you have reverse-scored the relevant items, total SQS scores can be calculated for each participant by summing scores across all SQS items.
Refer back to the workshop materials from Week 2 of this semester to see how to compute a total score for a questionnaire (using Transform Compute variable).
Remember to include the reverse-scored items when creating your total score variable.
High scores indicate poorer sleep quality. Low scores indicate good sleep quality.
Data from Masked Priming Lexical Decision Tasks
Select the raw data that you will use in your lab report. You should choose only 1 of the following options to include in your analysis:
Phonological priming raw data
Orthographic priming raw data
Semantic priming raw data
In the semantic priming LDT task, stimuli included:
15 semantically related word pairs (e.g., rose-THORN).
15 semantically unrelated word pairs (e.g., door-CHILD)
30 pairs of non-experimental primes with nonword targets (e.g., gutteral-HYDRING)
In the phonological priming LDT task, stimuli included:
12 phonologically related word pairs (e.g., fragile-FRAGILE).
12 phonologically unrelated word pairs (e.g., stomack-ALGEBRA)
24 pairs of non-experimental primes with nonword targets (e.g.,wipe-MEMBLES)
In the orthographic priming LDT task, stimuli included:
12 orthographically related word pairs (e.g., pionoer-PIONEER).
12 orthographically unrelated word pairs (e.g., trollen-MIRACLE)
24 pairs of non-experimental primes with nonword targets
Use the materials from your PSY2005 lecture and workshop in Week 4 to complete the following steps.
Import or copy and paste the data into SPSS.
Make sure you include Participant IDs in your data file! You will need these to combine reaction time and questionnaire data.
Remove data that are not used in the analysis - this includes non-word trials, practice trials, and trials where participants made errors.
To filter out nonword trials, select cases if COND<6
To filter out practice trials, select cases if Block~=practice
To filter out errors, select cases if ACC = 1
Check that no participants have lost a lot of data. If they have, make a note so you can remove them from the final analysis.
Remove outliers that are more than 2 standard deviations from participant means.
Generate a table of mean reaction times for related and unrelated conditions.
Related word pairs are coded as COND = 1
Unrelated word pairs are coded as COND = 2
Paste the means for each participant for each experimental condition into an SPSS data file.
Combine the results from the questionnaires with the priming task reaction times
Use the VLOOKUP function in Excel to add the total sleep quality scores and/or the total dyslexia scores to the same tab as the prepared RT data.
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/vlookup-function-0bbc8083-26fe-4963-8ab8-93a18ad188a1
Alternatively, you can use the methods demonstrated in this YouTube video to merge data from different tabs into a new file: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=325GKIXPsSI
The Excel sheet for a data set with RT for related and unrelated stimuli should look something like the image below:
Copy the data from Excel to SPSS. Your SPSS dataset should have a column with the participant number, related RT and unrelated RT, dyslexia score and/or sleep quality score.
If you are conducting an ANOVA
Use the Explore or Frequencies function to calculate the median value for the dyslexia or sleep quality scores.
Split the sample into high and low scores by sorting the data by dyslexia score.
Add a 1 to the column next to the dyslexia score for all participants who score above the median value.
Add a 2 to the column next to the dyslexia score for all participants who score below the median value.
You could also use the Recode into different variable function to achieve the same outcome.
In the variable view, add values for the DyslexiaGroup variable to assign labels so its easier to understand what the 1 and 2 are referring to in your output.
Before you run your ANOVA, remember to remove the participants that lost a lot of data!
If you are conducting a regression analysis
Calculate a difference score for the priming task by subtracting the RT for the related condition from the unrelated condition (using Transform Compute variable in SPSS), so that you have one continuous dependent variable that represents the priming effect.
For example, in an orthographic priming task, if a participant has a related RT of 422.50ms and an unrelated RT of 499.57ms then their priming effect is 77.07ms.
Priming effect = unrelatedRT - relatedRT (e.g., 499.57 - 422.50 = 77.07).
Positive priming effect values indicate that participants were faster in the related condition compared to the unrelated condition.
Negative priming effect values indicate that participants were faster in the unrelated condition compared to the related condition.
Before you run your regression, remember to remove the participants that lost a lot of data!
Sleep Quality Scale (SQS)
The following survey asks about the quality of sleep you have experienced for the past month. Please read the questions and select the answer that best describes your experience.
Rarely: None or 1-3 times a month
Sometimes: 1-2 times a week
Often: 3-5 times a week
Almost always: 6-7 times a week
Rarely Sometimes Often Almost Always
1 I have difficulty falling asleep
2 I fall into a deep sleep
3 I wake up while sleeping
4 I have difficulty getting back to sleep once I wake up in the middle of the night
5 I wake up easily because of noise
6 I toss and turn
7 I never go back to sleep after awakening during sleep
8(R) I feel refreshed after sleep
9 I feel unlikely to sleep after awakening during sleep
10 Poor sleep gives me headaches
11 Poor sleep makes me irritated
12 I would like to sleep more after waking up
13(R) My sleep hours are enough
14 Poor sleep makes me lose my appetite
15 Poor sleep makes it hard for me to think
16(R) I feel energised after sleep
17 Poor sleep makes me lose interest in work or others
18(R) My fatigue is relieved after sleep
19 Poor sleep causes me to make mistakes at work/university
20(R) I am satisfied with my sleep
21 Poor sleep makes me forget things more easily
22 Poor sleep makes it hard to concentrate at work/university
23 Sleepiness interferes with my daily life
24 Poor sleep makes me lose desire/interest in all things
25 I have difficulty getting out of bed
26 Poor sleep makes me easily tired at work
27(R) I have a clear head after sleep
28 Poor sleep makes my life painful
Scoring
Using a four-point Likert-type scale, respondents indicate how frequently they exhibit certain sleep behaviours (0 = rarely; 1 = sometimes; 2 = often; 3 = almost always).
Items followed by (R) need to be reverse scored (so that 3 = rarely; 2 = sometimes; 1= often; 0 = almost always).
Following reverse-scoring, total scores can be calculated by summing scores across all items.
High scores indicate poorer sleep quality.
DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY
ASSESSED COURSEWORK
MODULE CODE: PSY2005 REGISTRATION NUMBER: xxx
SUBMISSION DEADLINE: 12:00 (midday) on Monday 24th April 2023
WORD LIMIT: 2000 YOUR WORD COUNT: xxx
TITLE OF COURSEWORK:
Answer each question below by indicating YES or NO in the right-hand column
Has your coursework been prepared in accordance with the Universitys regulations on plagiarism and collusion? (see: https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/ssid/unfair-means/index) YES / NO
Is your work formatted according to the PSY2005 Essential Information document? (This document is available on the PSY2005 Blackboard site.) YES / NO
Are you submitting your work via Turnitin according to the PSY2005 Essential Information document? (This document is available on the PSY2005 Blackboard site.) YES / NO
Does the file-name of your coursework contain the module code followed by your registration number and nothing else? (e.g., PSY2005_130199999)
YES / NO
Have you provided your registration number and word count in the relevant sections at the top of this page? YES / NO
Is this cover sheet included as the front page of your coursework? YES / NO
Have you completed the Feedback reflection exercise on the next page? YES / NO
Do you use a yellow sticker to indicate that you are registered with the Disability and Dyslexia Support Service (DDSS) as having a specific learning difficulty, such as dyslexia, Autism Spectrum Conditions, or pre-lingual deafness? YES / NO
DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY
PSY2005 Semester 2
DIGITAL LITERACY REFLECTION
The aim of this reflection is to provide you with an opportunity to think about the digital literacy skills you have acquired via your research methods module this semester.
According to a government report on digital skills two-thirds of UK occupations require applicants to demonstrate they can use digital technologies to deal with information and positions that demand digital skills pay 29% more than jobs that do not require such skills.
Use the points below to structure your reflection.
Baseline digital skills
This assignment requires you to use the digital tools below that are required for many jobs.
Word processing (e.g. Microsoft Word)
Excel
What new skill(s) did you learn in Word or Excel for this assignment? (If you did not learn a new skill describe a skill you already had that you employed in this assignment).
What resources did you use to learn those skills (e.g., YouTube videos, University skills center 301, asked a friend, asked a university tutor)
Specific digital skills
This assignment also requires you to use the specialist digital tools below.
SPSS
What problem(s) did you solve using SPSS for this assignment (e.g., worked out how to manage missing data for questionnaires, checked assumptions for ANOVA, worked out how to use a trim for reaction time data etc.)?
What resources did you use to work out how to solve the problem (e.g., PSY2005 materials, YouTube videos, University skills center 3012, Maths and Stats help MASH, asked a friend, asked a university tutor)?
What did you learn from this experience?
Evaluate the situation - which digital skills will be useful to you in your future career?
Analyze - have you got the right digital skills for your future career?
Conclude - if you need digital skills that you do not currently have, where will you get help?
Your top tips
Now you have completed your lab report, what would you tell students who start PSY2005 next year? What are your top tips for using Word, Excel and SPSS?
[PASTE YOUR TITLE HERE]
[PASTE YOUR LAB REPORT HERE]