APA STYLE INTRO

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APA STYLE INTRO

• Writing the Intro for Memory Study
• (Paper 1)

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Week 6 Agenda

• Return and discuss quiz 2
• Next weeks assignment
• Lab work finding journal articles
• Another resource http//www.dianahacker.com/resdo
  c/social.html
• Click on Documenting Sources on the left for
  information regarding APA style

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Quiz 2 Results
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What is in the intro?

• Your reason for doing the current study.
• What is the general area/topic you are
  researching?
• What research has been done in the past?
• Why is your study the obvious next step?
• Briefly, what will you do in your study?

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More specifically

• I. Define or Identify the general topic, issue,
  or area of concern.
• II. Review the literature
• III. Summarize
• IV. State hypothesis.
• Triangle shape (broad to narrow)

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I. Define or Identify the general topic, issue,
or area of concern.

• Point out overall trends.
• Point out conflicts in
• theory do researchers differ in how they define
  it?
• methodology do researchers differ in how they
  study it?
• evidence do researchers differ in what they
  find?
• conclusions do researchers differ in what they
  conclude from the data?
• Point out gaps in past research.

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II. Review the literature

• Start broad, end narrow.
• Group similar types of studies together based on
• topic what they studied
• type how they studied it
• findings what they found
• Do not review each article in detail. Instead,
  summarize.
• Only review an individual article in detail if it
  is very relevant to your current study.
• Provide umbrella sentences at the beginning of
  the paragraph or sections.
• Tell how these studies are all alike, why are you
  grouping them together?
• Provide so what summary sentences throughout.

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III. Summarize

• Summarize the major contributions of the articles
  you have reviewed (2 sentences to 2 paragraphs).
• Point out flaws, gaps, or inconsistencies in the
  previous research.
• Explain how your study is the next logical
  step--how will your study fill a gap, help
  clarify inconsistencies?

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IV. State hypothesis.

• State your hypothesis (your predictions).
• Briefly describe how you will conduct your study.

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Helpful hints for the Intro.

• In APA style, the introduction does not have a
  heading
• Catch your readers attention, but in a manner
  consistent with a scholarly audience. Rhetorical
  questions are acceptable, especially in the
  beginning or end.
• Write in past tense
• Be sure you are correctly citing the studies you
  mention

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Helpful hints for the Intro.

• Make the WORK the focus of your sentences, NOT
  the researchers or the institution.
• E.g., When possible, avoid phrases like, In
  2001, Smith examined the nature of encoding.
• Rather, use, Explorations of the nature of
  encoding has typically revealed two major
  subtypes (Smith, 2001).
• It IS acceptable to use authors names when you
  are differentiating between competing theories
• For example Sternberg and Grajek (1984)
  examined three models designed to reveal the
  structural nature of love.
• In general though, make sure that few sentences
  focus on researchers
• Finally, do not use researchers first names.

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FALSE MEMORY EXPERIMENT

• The experiment will be a 2 x 2 mixed factorial
  design with condition (random versus blocked) as
  a between-subjects factor and type of word
  (true/actual words presented and critical lures)
  as a within-subject factor.
• The dependant variable is of actual words
  recalled and the of lures recalled in each
  condition.
• We have five different categories (so this will
  mean 5 different lures) versus 10 presented words
  from each category (50 words total).

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FALSE MEMORY EXPERIMENT

• Hypotheses
• 1) We hypothesize that there will be a main
  effect of condition on recall, such that the
  participants in the blocked condition would
  remember a higher percentage of words, overall,
  than participants presented with the randomized
  word list.
• 2) It is also predicted that, regardless of
  condition, participants will remember similar
  percentages of actual words and critical lures
• 3) Finally, it is predicted that there will be an
  interaction between condition and word type, such
  that participants in the blocked condition will
  remember a higher percentage of critical lures
  than participants in the randomized condition.

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For next time

• Read or finish reading the two articles I gave
  you
• Obtain and read one additional article you find
  on your own. Suggestions
• Use the reference list of any of the articles I
  gave you and look on the GMU library website.
  (see hand-out on how to find library articles)
• Keyword search Roediger McDermott paradigm
• Use these materials to write Intro draft
• Staple the grading criteria sheet to your draft

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More helpful reminders

• There are examples of Introduction sections in
  both of your books (just turn to the pages that
  have the sample papers on them)
• I have posted a Helpful Hints Guide to Writing
  Introductions on the website
• I have also posted the grading criteria for both
  the Introduction Draft Assignment and the Final
  Version of Paper 1 assignment