Thursday 18th October 2018

Introduction to Experimental Psychology

Scientific Report Writing 1

What are Lab Reports?

Experimental reports written in the style of academic journal articles for psychology

Aims of a Research Report:

 To communicate a method so it can be replicated
 To disseminate knowledge
 To make readers interested in your research

The Scientific Method:

1. Ask a question
2. Research the literature to see if this question has been answered (Introduction)
3. Design an experiment to investigate the question
4. Carry out the experiment (Method)
5. Analyse the results (Results)
6. Interpret the findings (Discussion)

Introduction:
o What’s the general research question
o Why is it interesting
o What do we already now
o What still needs to be found out
o How will the current experiment address the question
o What is the exact hypothesis of the current experiment

Method:
o Participants
o Materials
o Procedure
o The experimental design
 Manipulate the IV
- Define the IV
- Operationalise the IV
 Measure the DV
- Define the DV
 Within Groups Design
- Everyone participants in all conditions
- Adv: controls for individual characteristics of pps affectin the results
- Disadv: The order in which the partiicpants take part in conditions can affect
the results
 Between Groups
 - Different groups participate in different conditions
- Adv: avoid order effects & minimise likelihood of subjects guessing
experimental hypothesis
- Disadv: different characteristic between group can affect the results &
generally needs more participants than within groups design

Controlling for Bias and Confounds:

Bias: a systematic error in the design, recruitment, data collection or analysis that results
in a mistaken estimation of the true effect e.g. sampling bias.
Confounds: a situation in which the effect or association between an exposure and
outcome is distorted by the presence of another variable.

Results:
o Which statistical analysis were used, in order to replicate or critique the experiment
o What were the results; were they significant (p<0.05)

Discussion:
o Understand the authors’ interpretation of the results, although this may not be the
same as your own interpretation
o The authors’ reflections on any limitations of the study
o The authors’ reflections on the generalisability of the results – do the results just
explain the behaviour of the sample or the general population
o The implications of the findings
o Also to generate ideas about possible ideas for future studies/ directions for the
research

Critiquing a Paper
 Has the experiment answered the research question defined in the introduction?
 Do the chosen methods successfully test the experimental hypothesis?
 Do you agree with the authors interpretation of the results? Any alternative
explanations?
 To what extent has the research made a novel contribution to our knowledge about
psychology?