Research methods and statistics, the focus will be on those sections of the lab report that are most relevant to the generation, reporting, and inte
Research methods and statistics, the focus will be on those sections of the lab report that are most relevant to the generation, reporting, and interpreting of statistical information and research methodology the Hypotheses, Results, and Discussion sections. The marking criteria are weighted to reflect this. In preparing a lab report you will also gain experience in using a defined style to present your information. This style is based on the guidelines provided by the American Psychological Association (APA 7th Edition). The following information is a guide you can use to help you prepare the report.
Research Report Topic: We live in a visually complex world that contains far too much information for our brains to process it all simultaneously. We therefore need a mechanism that allows us to selectively process just the relevant information while filtering out the irrelevant information that mechanism is what we call attention. Much like shining a spotlight on actors on a stage, humans can focus their attention on a particular object or location so that visual processing can be directed to that location. The spotlight of attention is important for many daily tasks like reading, driving, shopping, or even finding your friend at the beach! To help you process as much information as possible from your world, the spotlight can be rapidly moved from one object to another, and it can be made larger or smaller (Figure 1). Being able to change the attentional spotlight efficiently is essential for you to be able to safely engage in daily activities like driving.
Interestingly, recent research suggests that your mood affects the size of your attentional spotlight. If an individual is in a positive mood, their attentional spotlight tends to be broad; if, on the other hand, an individual is in a negative mood, their attentional spotlight tends to be narrow (e.g., Gaspar & Clore, 2002; Rowe et al., 2007). This research, however, has mainly used mood-induction procedures (for example listening to mood-consistent music or looking at mood-consistent photographs) to manipulate participants mood. These induced, transient moods may not affect attention in the same way as more natural, sustained moods. If this is the case, we may not be able to generalise from these lab-based studies to the real world. It is therefore important that we determine whether induced, transient moods and natural, sustained moods have the same effect on the size of the attentional spotlight. Therefore, in your report, you will be analysing data from a hypothetical study exploring the relationship between induced moods and the size of the attentional spotlight and between natural moods and the size of the attentional spotlight. The Report In Brief: The report will be a written piece of work with a length of 1500 words and comprising 30% of the course grade. The word limit applies to all material added to complete the Abstract, Introduction, Method, Results, and the Discussion. That is, the information included in the assignment template is NOT included in the final word count. Furthermore, information added to the references and Appendix does NOT count towards the word count. Any material after the point where the word count is exceeded will not be considered in determining your mark. Your lab report will be given a mark out of 100.
Specifically, you will need to: Add an appropriate title for the lab report and student information to the Title Page Write an abstract for the study Add in hypotheses for the study at the end of the Introduction Write the participant information and statistical analyses sections of the Method Analyse the data and present your work in the Results section. Include descriptive and inferential statistics Write a discussion for the study Add any extra literature used in the report to the References (e.g., literature used when justifying hypotheses in the introduction of the report) Add an Appendix of SPSS Output that shows the statistical analyses you conducted for the lab report. More information about each of these sections is given later in this document. Your next step is to write the hypotheses, based on the Introduction provided in the template. As per attached template, the file and notice that for each participant (one row in the Excel file) you have been given the age, dominant hand, and gender identity of the participant. You have also been given their average (median) response time (RT) in milliseconds in the Match condition and in the Mismatch condition. The first step is to import the Excel file into SPSS. Then, you will need to calculate the Flanker Effect for each participant. If you need to remind yourself what the Flanker Effect is and how to calculate it, take a minute to re-read the introduction in the template. You can calculate the Flanker Effect for each participant by using the Compute Variable function in SPSS. You will learn how to do this in the computer labs. Note that in the Mood Group column of the data file, 1 = Natural Mood and 2 = Induced Mood.
Next, analyse the data in a way that tests the hypotheses you wrote in the Introduction: You will need to include a descriptive statistics section that provides appropriate descriptive statistics for all variables related to your hypotheses using a maximum of 2 numerical statistics and 1 picture for each. You should also describe the distributions of each variable in this section. Consider things such as normality, skew, kurtosis, modality and outliers. Based on the distributions of the variables, which descriptive statistics are most appropriate? You will also need to include an inferential statistics section that presents the results of an appropriate correlational analysis which tests the hypotheses stated in the introduction. Each correlation presented should include information about the statistical significance, direction, and strength of the relationships. Furthermore, scatterplots depicting relationships between the key variables should be presented alongside these analyses in APA format Once you have written up the results, turn to the General Discussion. In the discussion, you should talk about the findings and what they mean in relation to the theory and literature included in the introduction. Lastly, write the abstract. It is easiest to do this last after you know what the results of the study show and whether or not the hypotheses were supported.
Detailed Requirements: Title page The title page should include an appropriate title, your name, student number, number of words in the report. Abstract The abstract must include a summary of the report that is no longer than 150 words. In concise language it should describe the aims, methods, results, and overall implications (conclusions) of the research. Introduction You have already been provided with the majority of the introduction already. You have been given information on the general topic under investigation, the research aims, and a review of some relevant literature. You must complete the introduction by: Stating the hypotheses being tested (i.e., your predictions for the research questions) Including a brief justification for the hypotheses presented using theory and prior research Method Most of the Method section has been written for you. You must complete the methods by: Describing the participants in the study on relevant demographic characteristics (e.g., number of participants, gender, age). You should include an appropriate table in your lab report that summarises the demographic information. Indicating the type of statistical analysis being used to test your hypotheses, and the roles of the variables used in that analysis (i.e., which variables are explanatory variables and which variables response variables). Results Due to the nature of this course, the results section is a particularly important section and will contain more information than normally seen in a research article that is published in journals and other lab reports. It will assess your SPSS skills to analyse data, your understanding of the statistics calculated, and your ability to decide what statistics you should report. Please note, you should conduct all statistical analyses for the results section on the complete data set as it is presented to you. Do not attempt to correct for skewness or outliers (e.g., transform data, exclude cases). If you believe that the distribution of your
variables is a relevant issue, you can raise these issues in the Discussion section. You must complete the Results by including: A sentence stating the statistical software package that was used (including version) and refer the reader to a copy of the statistical output in an Appendix. A descriptive statistics section that provides appropriate descriptive statistics for all variables related to your hypotheses using a maximum of 2 numerical statistics and 1 picture for each. You should also describe the distributions of each variable in this section. Consider things such as normality, skew, kurtosis, modality and outliers. Based on the distributions of the variables, which descriptive statistics are most appropriate?
An inferential statistics section that presents the results of an appropriate correlational analysis which tests the hypotheses stated in the introduction. Each correlation presented should include information about the statistical significance, direction, and strength of the relationships. Furthermore, scatterplots depicting relationships between the key variables should be presented alongside these analyses in APA format.
Discussion The discussion section of the lab report has not been written. In the discussion, you should talk about the findings and what they mean in relation to the theory and literature included in the introduction. Specifically, the discussion section of the lab result should include: A paragraph that briefly restates the study aim and discusses the key results in relation to the hypotheses posed in the introduction A section which links and interprets the results of the study in relation to past research that was included in the introduction (e.g., are the findings of the current study similar or different to what was predicted - why?) An insightful discussion of the practical and/or theoretical implications of the findings A discussion of the limitations of the methods employed, and/or the statistical analyses undertaken, and how these limitations might impact the interpretation of the results. A concluding paragraph References You must ensure all the references are provided for any research articles cited in the report (including those in the introduction). The references must be written in APA format 7th Edition Appendix
You must provide a copy of the raw statistical output from SPSS produced when conducting your statistical analyses. The SPSS output does not need to be in APA format. Writing Style and APA: Overall, the report must comply with APA formatting. The aspects of APA formatting that will be particularly assessed in this assignment include: Double spacing of text The first line of each paragraph is indented (except in the abstract) Use of 2.54 cm margins (Normal margins this is the default setting) Abstract starts on a new page and has the heading Abstract centred at the top Introduction starts on a new page and has the title of the report centred at the top Method, Results, and Discussion run continuous after the Introduction (i.e., does not start on a new page) and also have centred level 1 headings References starts on a new page and has the heading References at the top centred. The figures and table should be inserted into the body of the report. Each figure should have an appropriate label (e.g., Figure 1) and caption above it. Citations in the text should be in correct format and all citations made should be included in the reference list. If you directly copy quotes from articles, indicate this using quotation marks and including a citation with a page number. The format of common abbreviations (e.g.,, i.e., etc. and c.f.) should not be used outside of parenthetical comments Biased and pejorative language must not be used Italics are used where appropriate for headings and statistical copy Statistical copy should be in APA format. Avoid abbreviations and acronyms, except for familiar terms All references should be in APA 7th Edition format
