HOW TO DO A LITERATURE SEARCH How Do I Find Relevant Literature? What is a Primary Source? What Should I Get Out of a Source? How Can I Avoid Plagiarism?

How Do I Find Relevant Literature? Search ACADEMIC databases – PsycArticles – PsycInfo – Academic Search Premier Ask Experts Find Textbook References

What is a Primary Source? A primary source is an article, book chapter, book, or other document written by the original researchers Secondary sources are not original reports of the research: textbooks, popular media, news reports

What is a Primary Source? Primary sources are peer-reviewed Primary sources include original data

What Should I Get Out of a Source? Decide on your purpose for reading it. Look for information you need (e.g., method, results, main conclusions). Take notes, make comments, ask questions.

How Can I Avoid Plagiarism? Give credit where credit is due Clearly indicate direct quotes Use quotes sparingly Integrate and summarize Cutting and pasting : A BAD IDEA

Example: Original Text From Wells, Orson, and Charman (2003, p.44): After viewing a staged crime video, participant witnesses were asked to identify the culprit from a six- person photographic lineup. Unaware that the lineup did not contain the culprit, all witnesses identified someone. Participants were then randomly assigned to receive confirming feedback, no feedback, or disconfirming feedback, either in the current session or 48 hr later.

Example of Plagiarism In research by Wells, Orson, and Charman (2003), participants were asked to identify the criminal from a six-person photographic lineup after viewing a crime video. The lineup did not contain the culprit, but all witnesses identified someone.

Example of Unnecessary Quoting In research by Wells, Orson, and Charman (2003, p. 44), “participant witnesses were asked to identify the culprit from a six-person photographic lineup. Unaware that the lineup did not contain the culprit, all witnesses identified someone.”

Example of Paraphrasing Wells, Orson, and Charman (2003) showed a crime video and then asked witnesses to identify the criminal from a lineup consisting of six photographs. The participants did not know that the photographic lineup did not contain the actual culprit, but they all identified a suspect anyway. Wells et al. then assigned the witnesses to one of three feedback conditions at random.

Example of Appropriate Summarizing An example of research on the effects of feedback on witness identification is a study done by Wells, Orson, and Charman (2003). They manipulated the type of feedback witnesses received after a photographic lineup. An important aspect of this method is that the lineup never contained the actual perpetrator, so the witness identifications were always in error.