LAB REPORTS Some guidelines

Abstract Summarise your report in under 200 words What was your question? How did you investigate it? What did you find? What are your conclusions? DON’T include stats or subject numbers!

Introduction What was your question? Why did you choose to look at this? How does your research differ to what people did before? What are your predictions based on previous research? If you can, make a directional hypothesis Define all terms!

Method Participants Describe them appropriately: Number, Age – range and mean, gender, handedness?, eye sight?, recruitment procedure Apparatus and Stimuli Enough detail to replicate the experiment If you used it – report it

Method Procedure Again – enough detail for replication, but don’t go overboard! Data Analysis Describe you IV(s) and DV(s) Describe you IV(s) and DV(s) Design – Repeated Measures? Design – Repeated Measures?

Results What did you do to the data before using a statistical test? What did you find? Describe in writing REPORT THE MEANS of your main effects – whether you get a significant result or not Main Results: Graph OR Table – NOT both Error Bars on the Graph

Results - continued Give titles to figures (titles go below graphs and tables) A main effect or interaction is determined STATISTICALLY – not from a graph There is no such thing as a non-significant interaction Results is the only place to report stats

Figures and figure captions Error (mm) Figure 1: Direction errors during pre- and post- adaptation phases while standing on one or two legs. Data bars represent mean errors (+ve = rightward) for the last 4 pre- and first 4 post-test trials respectively. Standard error bars are not shown because I was too lazy and didn’t want a good mark.

Discussion What was your main finding? What do your results mean? If they differ from previous research – why? If they are the same as previous research – why? What are the implications of your results? How do they add to the literature? Suggest further research – give concrete examples of how to go about it Come to a definite conclusion

Appendices Need to be as neat as the report Must be mentioned in your report Numbered separately MUST be RELEVANT to the replication of the study

DO Be clear and concise Explain your reasons for important points i.e. why you chose the time delay that you used (and back it up with references) Explain in detail – not just ‘what’ but ‘how’ Back up ALL claims with references Speculate – as long as you can back it up

DO Use APA formatting for references – not ‘primary and secondary resources’ Follow instructions on web page:

DON’T Go over the word limit - 2,500 words Ask rhetorical questions Include irrelevant information Denigrate your own experiment – mention confounds but be sensible Make claims that you can’t back up with references You cannot ‘prove’ anything in science – merely collect evidence for or against a theory: contradict or support!

Never Reference the web Always Abbreviate et al. correctly (short for alii.) Occasionally Try to avoid using ‘where’ when you really mean ‘in which’ or ‘when’

Remember You do not carry out experiments because they are ‘interesting’ You cannot determine significance from a graph Participants are males and females not boys and girls You are not aiming to find a result or replicate a result, you are investigating an effect or replicating a study

Problems Dr Newport Student Drop-in : 12:00 – 2:00 Tuesdays Room B47