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Running head: HEADER HERE 1 Guidelines for Laboratory Reports and Empirical Theses Department of Psychology St. Francis Xavier University November, 2013 HEADER HERE 2 Table of Contents Page How to Write a Laboratory Report or Empirical Thesis Using APA Style .................................... 4 Rules of Presentation .......................................................................................................... 4 Style ..................................................................................................................................... 4 Sections of a Research Report ........................................................................................................ 5 Abstract ............................................................................................................................... 6 Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 6 Method ................................................................................................................................ 7 Participants ............................................................................................................. 7 Apparatus ................................................................................................................ 7 Procedure ................................................................................................................ 8 Results ................................................................................................................................. 9 Tables and Figures ................................................................................................. 9 A. Tables ..................................................................................................... 9 B. Figures .................................................................................................. 10 Discussion ......................................................................................................................... 10 Referencing ....................................................................................................................... 11 In-text Citations .................................................................................................... 11 Quotations ............................................................................................................. 12 Reference List ........................................................................................................ 13 Electronic Sources ................................................................................................ 16 Secondary Sources ................................................................................................ 17 HEADER HERE 5 g. All pages should have a header (short version of your paper’s title) at ½ inch from the top left in all capitals. (Go to File – Page Setup (or Format – Document in MSWord for Mac) – Select the Layout tab – Change the Header position to 0.5” (1.27cm). Then go to View – Header and Footer –Type your header.) Please note that the header and page numbers appear grey in the page layout format of your working document in MSWord. It will appear in black ink in the printed format.) The header on the first page will be the Running head (see this document’s headers. In order to get a different header on the first page from the rest of the document, you must have a section break between the title page and the first page of text. With the curser at the end of your title page go to “Insert” – “break” – “Section break next page”. Then when you are in the header view (View – Header and Footer) on the second page unselect the “Link to Previous” box. Now you can type different headers on the page 1 (the title page) and on the remaining pages. h. All research reports will have at least two levels of headings (the abstract, title, references, etc. and subheadings within the method section). If you have only two levels of headings, each first level heading (Abstract, Title, References, etc.) should be in Title Case and bold. This means all main words are capitalized. They should also be centered on the page (Click on Align Center on the editing menu bar) and bold. Sub-headings should be aligned left (not indented but flush to the left margin) and in bold font with all main words capitalized. (Click on the B button on your menu bar for bold font.) If you have another level of heading (sub- sub-headings), they should be indented ½ inch, bold, in sentence case (only a capital on the first word) and end with a period. Then continue typing on the same line. (See examples throughout this document.) Never leave a heading at the bottom of the page where the text begins on the next page. Use a page break (Go to Insert – Break – Page Break).   Level 1 – Centered, Bold and Title Case Level 2 – Flush Left, Bold and Title Case Level 3 – Indented, bold and sentence case ending in a period. Level 4 – Indented, bold, italicized and sentence case ending in a period. Level 5 – Indented, italicized, and sentence case ending in a period. i. All paragraphs should be indented ½ inch (1.27cm) (except the abstract). Don’t leave more than one space between paragraphs. (Go to Format – Paragraph – and select First line from the Special pull-down menu. Make sure it says 0.5” (1.27 cm) in the By box. Make sure the Before and After boxes in the Spacing section both say 0 pt – not automatic or 6 or 12 pt.) j. In the text, the numbers zero through nine should be presented in word form EXCEPT IN THE ABSTRACT. Numbers of two or more digits should be expressed as numerals. Any number that begins a sentence should be written in word form. Example: Twenty-five female and 22 male volunteers participated in the present experiment. Sections of a Research Report The report is organised into six major sections. The names and order of these sections are as follows: abstract, introduction, method, results, discussion and references. a. The title of each section (Abstract, Method, etc.) should be centred, but not underlined. The Introduction section is titled with the title of your report (not the word Introduction). HEADER HERE 6 b. Do not begin the method, results and discussion sections on a new page. Simply double space and begin the next section. c. Start each of the title page, contents (only include if requested), abstract, introduction, references and appendixes and tables and figures on new pages. d. If you are required to include tables, figures, or appendixes, these items should appear after the References, in the following order: Appendixes, Tables, and Figures. Examples of the correct format for these pages are in the appendix. Abstract This is a brief, comprehensive summary of the study, and should not be more than 120 words. The abstract should describe five things: 1. The problem under investigation or purpose of the study 2. The participants, specifying pertinent characteristics (such as species, number, age) 3. The experimental method, including apparatus, data-gathering procedures, and complete test names, where applicable 4. The findings, including statistical information 5. The conclusions and their implications or applications. Some important points. a. The abstract should refer to previous research in the area, as well as, the purpose and content of your research. b. All abbreviations and acronyms must be defined, except units of measurement. c. All numbers should be in the digit form (Arabic) except those that begin a sentence. d. Terms should be defined and names of tests and drugs spelled out. e. Paraphrase; do not quote in the abstract. f. Be concise and specific. The abstract should only report 4-5 of the most important points, and should not interpret anything. Format. a. The abstract is started on a new page after the title page (page 2). (Use page break) b. The word ‘Abstract’ should be centered on the first line of the page (and bold). c. The beginning of the abstract starts on the next (double-spaced) line and is not indented. Introduction The introduction starts on the page following the abstract and it is labeled with the title of your paper. The introduction includes a review of the literature relevant to the topic. It should not include works of only tangential or general significance. The introduction should "funnel" the reader toward the hypotheses. It achieves this goal by first presenting general statements and then by becoming increasingly specific. You should end the introduction by giving a brief outline of your study and a statement of your hypotheses. This section should do the following: 1. Introduce the Major Purpose/Problem of your Study Orient the reader by providing one or two paragraphs that provides an overview of the HEADER HERE 7 purpose of your study, the problem under investigation, and a description of your research strategy and its conceptual link to your purpose. 2. Provide the Relevant Background Material a. Assume the reader is familiar with your general area. b. Avoid an exhaustive review of past studies. c. Only review the studies that are directly relevant, highlight essential details, findings and conclusions. d. Your review should provide a context for the study. 3. The Development of your Research Question Indicate the precise relationship between the major purpose of your study and the research you have reviewed (shortcomings, gaps, puzzling findings, etc. that guided the development of your question.) Clearly detail the logical connection between previous work and your research. 4. Overview the Specific Linkage between Your Major Purpose and the Research Procedures You will Employ a. Orient the reader by providing an overview of the linkage between your problem and the research procedures you will use. b. Make sure you define, in a GENERAL manner, what your procedures will be. c. Clearly define all variable. d. Formally state your hypotheses. Method The method describes what you did in the experiment and how you did it, so that another researcher can replicate your work. It follows directly after the introduction, and can include participants, apparatus and procedure. Participants. This subsection describes the participants in the study (their species (if not human), age, sex), the procedures for selecting and assigning them, and the agreements and payments made. Only include detailed recruitment procedures if the recruitment is done in a unique or unusual way that contributes to the design of the study (hence might be replicated by someone in the future). a. When a particular demographic characteristic is an experimental variable the group should be described specifically (race, ethnicity, national origin). b. For nonhuman subjects, report the genus, species, or other specific identification, such as the location of the supplier. Give the animal's sex, age, weight, and physiological condition. Specify, too, all essential details of their handling. c. Give the total number of participants and the number assigned to each experimental condition. d. If any participants did not complete the experiment, state how many and explain why they did not continue. HEADER HERE 10 B. Figures. The figures are presented at the end of the lab report. The figures appear on separate pages and do not have a title at the top of the page. The figure caption for each figure appears on the line below (still double spaced) the figure. The caption begins with the label, “Figure X.”, (where X is the figure number) which is flush left, in italics (with a period) and then the label is followed by a brief explanation. Some rules to follow with figures: a. In a figure, the independent variable should be presented on the horizontal axis and the dependent variable should appear on the vertical axis. b. The units of measure must be specified. The top border and the right axis must be removed. c. All labelling should be horizontal except for the y-axis. d. All labelling should be in a sans serif font (such as Arial) and be between 8 pt and 14 pt. d. Your figure may include a legend if appropriate, positioned within the limits of the borders of the figure. e. In the text, the word "table" and "figure" are capitalized. Thus, always refer to "Figure 1", not "figure 1". See examples from pages 22-25 for more information on tables and figures or Chapter 5 of the APA manual. Discussion In this section, the goal is to discuss and evaluate your results, and whether or not the results confirm your hypotheses. Although, you should attempt to relate your findings to the literature presented in the introduction, this section need not address every point made in the introduction. As opposed to the Introduction section, the Discussion section should start out with specific statements and then become increasingly more general. There are two major points that must be present: a. Open the discussion with a clear statement of support or non-support for your original hypotheses. b. Similarities and differences between your results and those of other researchers should be discussed. Some other things that may be discussed: a. Evaluate and interpret the implications of the results with respect to your hypotheses. b. Include a discussion of the theoretical implications of your results c. Highlight the shortcomings of your study. d. Indicate future directions this research could take. It is especially important to suggest explanations to account for hypotheses that were not confirmed. The explanations can be methodological or conceptual in nature. This means that the methodology needs to be examined critically. Sources of error or bias that may have affected the results should be pointed out. Suggestions for future research should always be made. Example: Close examination of Figure 2 reveals that the participants who did not show a significant visual field effect (FS+ females and FS- males) were more accurate, albeit not HEADER HERE 11 in a significant manner, than participants who demonstrated a significant visual field effect (FS- females and FS+ males). It is possible that the absence of a significant laterality effect in FS+ females and FS-males is due to a ceiling effect. Specifically, it is possible that since these participants were already performing at a relatively high level in the right visual field, the improvement in performance required to achieve an LVFA was constrained by task demands. This impossibility for participants to improve their performance (ceiling effect) would be responsible for the non-significant laterality effect in FS+ females and FS- males. Future studies should attempt to reduce the influence of a ceiling effect by increasing task difficulty. Referencing In text citations. 1. Citations can sometimes be part of a sentence. In this case, the format is as follows. Example: In their study, Jamison and Signorella (1980) had participants perform a paper-and-pencil version of the water level task. 2. When the citation is used to support a statement, the source or sources is/are presented as follows. Example: Several studies report that participants who identify with masculine sex roles perform better in spatial tasks than those who identify with feminine sex roles (Jamison & Signorella, 1980; Nash, 1975; Signorella & Jamison, 1978, 1986; Vaught, 1965). Note: citations are always presented in alphabetical order based on the name of the first author. Notice that "&" is used (instead of "and") only when the references are presented within parentheses. When a source contains only two authors, both names should always be presented: do not use "et al." 3. When a source has three to five authors, you should list all the authors the first time you cite the source. For the second and subsequent citations, cite the first author's name followed by the abbreviation "et al." (This means "and others" in Latin.) The abbreviation may be used in both forms of citation. Note the period which follows "al." since “al.” is an abbreviation of the Latin word alia. HEADER HERE 12 Example: This point was demonstrated in a study by Imperato, Gautier, Pichardo, Voyer, and Bryden (1991). Imperato et al. (1991) tested normal males and females as well as androgen insensitive participants on the WAIS. d. When more than five authors are listed, only the first author is listed, followed by "et al." Quotations. The number of quotations you include in your report should be kept to a minimum. The relevant reference should be presented as well as the page(s) number indicating where in the source the quotation can be found. A quotation with less than 40 words is presented as part of the text and is enclosed with double quotation marks. Otherwise it is indented (1/2 inch) separated from the text; no quotation marks are used. Direct quotations must be exact. If you leave a word or words out of a quote, use … to indicate where the word was. If you change a word (change tense for example), indicate the changed word by setting it within square brackets. When quoting always provide the author, year and the specific page in the text. Examples: Quotations with more than 40 words (including lead in): 1. However, it is possible that these findings are the result of a gender-bias correction process. Feingold (1988) rejects this possibility by claiming that: If it were the case…the temporal trends reported in the present study would have been flat, with the exception of steep drops in gender differences in the year that sex-related item analyses were introduced to eliminate or reduce sex differences in test performance. (p. 102) However, such steep drops in gender differences could still produce a linear decrease over time. 2. Feingold (1988) was aware of the plausibility of this interpretation: One could argue that these findings are the result of a gender-bias correction process. This possibility can be rejected since if it were the case, the temporal trends reported in the present study would have been flat, with the exception of steep drops in gender differences in the year that sex-related item analyses were introduced to eliminate or reduce sex differences in test performance. (Feingold, 1988, p. 102) HEADER HERE 15 Please refer to the Publication Manual of APA (6th ed., 2009, pp. 198-224) for more types of reference examples. 1. Journal article with DOI: Herbst-Damm, K. L., & Kulik, J. A. (2005). Volunteer support, marital status, and the survival times of terminally ill patients. Health Psychology, 24, 225-229. doi:10.1037/0278- 6133.24.2.225 2. Journal article with DOI, more than seven authors: Taylor, S., Zvolensky, M. J., Cox, B. J., Deacon, B., Heimberg, R. G., Ledley, D. R., … Cardenas, S. J. (2007). Robust dimensions of anxiety sensitivity: Development and initial validation of the Anxiety Sensitivity Index-3. Psychological Assessment, 19, 176-188. doi:10.1037/1040-3590.19.2.176 2. Journal article without DOI (when DOI is not available): Light, M. A., & Light, I. H. (2008). The geographic expansion of Mexican immigration in the United States and its implications for local law enforcement. Law Enforcement Executive Forum Journal, 8(1), 73-82. References to Books When a book is included in your reference list, the title of the book is underlined or italicized. Again, only the beginning words are capitalized unless they are proper nouns or follow a colon. The title of the book is followed by the city of publication, the state (or province) if the city is not well known, and the name of the publishing company. If there is a DOI available, include it. If the book was viewed from an on-line repository and a DOI is not availbale, include the URL. 1. One author, no DOI: Chomsky, N. (1979). Language and responsibility. New York, NY: Pantheon. 2. Two or more authors, no DOI: Alexander. F., & French, T. (1946). Psychoanalytic theory. New York, NY: Ronald Press 3. Book chapter: Haybron, D. M. (2008). Philosophy and the science of subjective well-being. In M. Eid & R. J. Larson (Eds.), The science of subjective well-being (pp. 17-43). New York, NY: Guilford Press. 4. One author of a second or later edition, no DOI: HEADER HERE 16 Aronson, E. (2008). The social animal (10th ed.). New York, NY: Worth Publishers. 5. Electronic version of a print book: Schiraldi, G. R. (2001). The post-traumatic stress disorder sourcebook: A guide to healing, recovery, and growth [Adobe Digital Editions version]. doi:10.1036/0071393722 6. Multi-volumed books, each volume of which you cite, no DOI: Koch, S. (Ed.). (1959-1963). Psychology: A study of science (Vols. 1-6). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill. 7. Multi-volumed book, only one of which you cite, no DOI: James, R., Smith, W., & MacDonald, R. (1994). The auditory modality (Vol. 2). New York, NY: Wiley. 8. Two authors of an edited book, no DOI: Letheridge, S., & Cannon, C. R. (Eds.). (1980). Bilingual education: Teaching English as a second language. New York, NY: Praeger. 9. Corporate author, published by that author, no DOI: American Psychological Association. (2009). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (6th ed.). Washington, DC: Author. References to Articles (or Chapters) in Edited Books An edited book is often a collection of articles with authors other than the editor(s), compiled by the editor(s). The reference always begins with the name of the author(s) of the article, not the book, followed by the title of the article. This is followed by the name of the book editor(s), preceded by "In," then the book title, the page numbers for the article, and finally the publication information for the book. The book title is italicized and, as before, only the first letters of the titles are capitalized. Note that the editors' initials precede their surnames. Authors' initials follow their names. 1. One editor: Hartley, J. T., Harker, J. C., & Walsh, D. A. (1980). Contemporary issues and new directions in adult development of learning and memory. In L.W. Poon (Ed.), Aging in the 1980s: Psychological issues (pp. 239-252). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. 2. Two editors: HEADER HERE 17 Gurman, A. S., & Kniskern, D. P. (1981). Family therapy outcome research: Knowns and unknowns. In A. S. Gurman & D. P. Kniskern (Eds.), Handbook of family therapy (pp.741-775). New York, NY: Brunner/Mazel. References to Websites and E-Mail You will find up-to-date information on how to cite various web materials and e-mail at the following web address: http://www.apastyle.org/apa-style-help.aspx Internet references should include, at a minimum, a document title or description, date of publication or of retrieval, and an address. Whenever possible, the authors should be included. References should direct the reader as closely as possible to the information and provide URL addresses that work. The URL is the most critical element of the reference, unless the information is an online publication that is an exact duplicate of a print version. Note: page numbers are not included. Use n.d. (no date) when a publication date is not available. Emails are referred to as personal communications, and because the data is non-recoverable, personal communications are not listed in the reference list, but only cited in text with the date received. The example below is taken from the APA Publication Manual (6th ed.), p. 179. 1. Email: T. K. Lutes (personal communication, April 18, 2001) stated that… Secondary sources. For secondary sources, only the consulted source is presented (the source in which the reference was cited). However, remember to keep these to a minimum. Here is an example of how a secondary citation is done: On page 57, Carlson and Buskist (1996) refer to a study by Grant (1986). If you wish to describe Grant's study in your paper and have not read Grant's study, you would now consider Carlson and Buskist as a secondary source which has provided you with information about Grant's research. Because you have not read the actual Grant (1986) paper you must let your reader know where you read about it. It is not necessary to include the year of Grant’s paper since the reader would look for it in Carlson and Buskist’s reference list. Then, put only the Carlson and Buskist (1996) reference on the reference page. This secondary citation is done by referring to the study in the narrative as follows: Grant (as cited in Carlson & Buskist, 1996) found that the mortality of finches during droughts related to the size of their beaks. If the citation is within parentheses, it takes the following form: The size of finches' beaks affects their mortality during times of drought (Grant as cited in Carlson & Buskist, 1996). HEADER HERE 20 Appendix Samples This appendix contains samples of a title page, abstract, table, and figure. They can be found on the following pages. Running head: INDIVIDUAL DIFFERNCES IN SPATIAL SKILLS 1 Gender, Age, and Individual Differences in Spatial Skills by Ronald B. MacDonald 200812345 A laboratory report presented to Dr. E. Austen in Psychology 225 Sensation and Perception Department of Psychology St. Francis Xavier University December 3, 2008 INDIVIDUAL DIFFERNCES IN SPATIAL SKILLS 22 Abstract The purpose of the present study was to investigate the influence of training on gender-related differences in mental rotation. There were 47 participants given the first part of the MRT (mental rotation test) and then divided into training and non-training groups. Training group participants completed the Space Relations subtest of the Primary Mental Abilities test battery and manipulated three-dimensional block constructions resembling the structures found in the MRT. They then completed the second part of the MRT. Non-training group participants rested during the time required for training. All participants also completed an activities questionnaire about spatial and non-spatial sports. The hypotheses were: participants who practised spatial activities would get better scores on the MRT than participants who practised non-spatial activities; both males and females would benefit from training; and, females would benefit from training more than males. Only the first 2 hypotheses were confirmed. Results are discussed in relation with their implications for the development of gender-related differences in spatial abilities.