Stroop Effect Paper

General Psychology

Spring, 2004

This paper will be based on the experiment we conducted in class and will give you some practice with scientific writing. Although we will not follow all the steps of APA format, you will need to write most of the sections of an APA format paper. Any statistics needed will be calculated in class.

The paper you complete must be double-spaced, typed, and proofread. I WILL grade on spelling and grammar (i.e., more than 10 spelling and/or grammar mistakes per paper will mean a 5-point deduction). Write the paper in APA format as discussed in class (also, see my website for a link with APA format guidelines). Your paper should include the following:

1) Title Page

2) Abstract

3) Introduction (provided by me, except you need to add one more study and your hypotheses)

Literature Review (done, except for one study from you)

Statement of Problem/Research Questions (done)

Hypotheses (you add this)

4) Method

Participants

Materials

Procedure

5) Results

Results of Analyses

Table of Group Means (normally would go after references, but you can put it here for this paper)

6) Discussion

Hypotheses Supported?

Interpretation with Reference Back to Issues Developed in Introduction

Validity of Results/Limitations

Future Research/Directions

7) References (we won’t use these on this paper)

I’m happy to review drafts (this is OPTIONAL), but please get the draft to me by Tuesday 3/30. Drafts will be returned on Tuesday 4/6. Feel free to ask me questions (in class or via email) anytime before then, too.

The FINAL paper is due on Thursday 4/8 at the start of class.

If papers are late, 10 points will be deducted for each day late. There is no length requirement, but 2 pages is definitely not enough and 10 is probably too much (shoot for 5-6 pages).

To get the Introduction section: The file will be available on my website, or if you gave me your email address, I’ll send it to you as an email attachment. You can then click on it in the note and it will open in Word and you can copy to disk.

Quick APA Format Guidelines

See my website for more detailed explanations and examples of what your paper should look like.

Page Breaks

Only the Title Page, the Abstract, and the Intro start on a new page. All subsequent sections flow without page breaks.

Headings

Major section headings (Abstract, Method, Results, Discussion) are centered and in upper and lower case. The Intro doesn’t get a heading because it’s the first section and the heading is assumed.

Subheadings (Hypotheses, Participants, etc.) are on their own line and get italicized. Use the Intro section given to you as a guide. The only subheading you really need in your Discussion is Future Research/Directions.

Page Header

In APA format, each page has a short header phrase and page number. If you use Word, simply pull down the View menu, click on ‘Header and Footer’ and you can type in your phrase (Stroop Effect will be good). Then put in one space and click on the little # icon and this will insert a page number automatically. To right-justify the header, simply highlight your header and click on the right-justify icon.

Citations

When you refer back to any of the research mentioned in the Intro section, refer to the articles by author(s) and year, the same way they are formatted in the Intro.

Abstract

The abstract is a one-paragraph summary of the entire study. This is the only paragraph in the paper that is not indented.

Introduction

All you need to add are hypotheses, one on an overall effect and one on gender differences. The CD-ROM will give you some good ideas, but DO NOT take any hypotheses verbatim!!

Method

The key to this section is to provide enough detail so someone else could repeat your study just as you conducted it.

Results

A table with means for each trial by gender will be required. A brief description of the results in the table is also necessary.

Discussion

This section is worth close to half of your grade. Don’t leave out any parts. This is where your critical thinking about the results and their meaning are demonstrated. You have to go beyond the simple points made in the introduction and discuss what the results mean and why they’re important.