Title: Create a title that is appropriate and captures the critical aspect of
your work
Abstract: The abstract gives basic information about the study.
Information that should be clear: the topic, the dependent measures and
critical manipulations of the experiment, the findings, what the findings
mean in terms of theory.
Below is an abstract from a recent paper by Jones and Atchley (2002, p.
374).
Two experiments examined conjunction memory errors on a
continuous recognition task where the lag between parent words
(e.g., blackmail, jailbird) and later conjunction lures (blackbird)
was manipulated. In Experiment 1, contrary to expectations, the
conjunction error rate was highest at the shortest lag (1 word) and
decreased as the lag increased. In Experiment 2 the conjunction
error rate increased significantly from a 0- to a 1-word lag, then
decreased slightly from a 1- to a 5-word lag. The results provide
mixed support for simple familiarity and dual-process accounts of
recognition. Paradoxically, searching for an item in memory does
not appear to be a good encoding task.
Good aspects of this abstract: (1) the abstract is concise (only 106
words); (2) the number of experiments is given (two); (3) the task is
given (continuous recognition); the dependent measure of interest is
given (conjunction errors); (4) the critical manipulation is given (lag);
the results of the two experiments are described; (5) the results are
related to theory
See lab manual (p. 4, p. 46) for guidance on the individual sections of
the body.
Citations in text (plagiarism problem)
Correct: According to Ashcraft (1998), “priming
is very possibly the most fundamental process of
retrieval from semantic memory” (p. 181).
Incorrect: According to Ashcraft (1998), priming
is very possibly the most fundamental process of
retrieval from semantic memory.
Correct: “Priming is very possibly the most
fundamental process of retrieval from semantic
memory” (Ashcraft, 1998, p. 181).
Incorrect: Priming is very possibly the most
fundamental process of retrieval from semantic
memory (Ashcraft, 1998).
Even worse: (a) Priming is very possibly the most
fundamental process of retrieval from semantic
memory. (b) Priming is possibly the most basic
process of retrieval from semantic memory.
Poor writing
Examples
Fragment: Whether priming is automatic on a
lexical decision task with related and unrelated words.
Run-on: Collins and Quillian’s (1972) network
theory can account for some semantic priming effects,
this is when a prime that is related to a subsequent target
facilitates a judgment for that target.
S-V agreement
Correct: Network theories of semantic memory
predict facilitation in a semantic priming paradigm.
Incorrect: Network theories of semantic memory
predicts facilitation in a semantic priming paradigm.
Correct: These data or those data
Incorrect: This data or that data
Correct: This set of data
Incorrect: These set of data
Pronouns: this, that, these, those
Good: Pronoun specifies the subject
e.g., This problem plagues many students.
Poor: Stand-alone (ambiguous) pronoun
e.g., This plagues many students.
it’s: contraction of it is
Correct: It’s good that you have come for help.
Incorrect: Its good that you have come for help.
its: possessive form of the pronoun it
Correct: The theory, along with its predictions, is vague.
Incorrect: The theory, along with it’s predictions, is vague.
Abbreviations
e.g., RT for reaction time, SOA for stimulus onset asynchrony
The first time the term is used, spell out the term and put the
abbreviation in parentheses. From that point forward, you can use
the abbreviation.
Correct: The median reaction time (RT) data for the individual
participants were aggregated, and the means of those median RTs are
shown in Figure 1 as a function of target expectancy, actual prime-target
relationship, and stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA).
Plural form of abbreviated terms
Correct: RTs, SOAs
Incorrect: RT’s, SOA’s
that vs. which; British and NZ English differ from American English
Brits/NZers often use which instead of that
but there are similarities
Correct: I decided that I would like a glass of wine.
Incorrect: I decided which I would like a glass of wine.
Correct: My decision, which had no relevance to the help
session, was appropriate for the occasion.
Incorrect: My decision that had no relevance to the help session
was appropriate for the occasion.
Significance
Correct: The results of the t-test confirmed that the reaction
times (RTs) for the related and unrelated conditions were not
significantly different.
Incorrect: The results of the t-test demonstrated that the reaction
times (RTs) for the related and unrelated conditions were insignificant.
Incorrect: The results of the t-test demonstrated that the reaction
times (RTs) for the related and unrelated conditions were unsignificant.
Good: For the short SOA condition, the related prime-target
condition produced a significantly faster reaction time than the unrelated
prime-target condition, t(99) = 2.987. (All t-tests were two-tailed,
paired t-tests with alpha = .05.)
Notes:
The t value that is reported is the obtained t value (not the critical t
value).
alpha ( α ) = the significance level that was chosen before the statistics
were conducted; alpha = .05 is the significance level that is most often
applied (a more lenient criterion, e.g., alpha = .10, is rare; a more
stringent criterion, e.g., .01, may be seen on occasion);
use alpha = .05 as your significance level for the lab report
In the case above, the absolute value of the obtained t was greater than
the critical t value for 99 degrees of freedom. Thus, there was a
significant difference.
Note on degrees of freedom
degrees of freedom for paired (dependent) t-tests = N – 1
(N is the number of individuals in the group)
degrees of freedom for independent t-tests = N – 2
(N is the total number of individuals from the two groups)
p, when reported in SPSS, is an estimate of the actual significance
probability based on the obtained t value; if the p value is less than the
alpha you have selected, then the scores are significantly different.
When one uses statistical software, a p value usually is generated, so
you do not need to look up the critical t value; do not report the specific
p value given by SPSS.