THIS COMES FROM ANDREW’S COG CLASS. REWRITE IT FOR MY RESEARCH REPORT
Method
The method section addresses how the experiment was done – it is the recipe, where we lay out and explain the design of the experiment. How were the general ideas operationalized into a concrete procedure? Exactly how was the procedure carried out? What are the independent and dependent variables? The key to a good method section is thoroughness and precision.
The general idea is to include enough detail so that someone else could carry out substantially the same experiment just by reading your lab report. The most important thing is to make sure you explain exactly why the procedure was designed the way it was. Hence in describing the procedure, it is NOT enough to just repeat the description in the handout, which lays out the design but doesn’t explicitly spell out the reasoning behind it. Never leave the reader thinking “Why did they do that?” Remember, I know why they did what they did…I want to know if you know why they did what they did.
The method section is divided into separate subsections. In this lab you will need to include all of them in every report, but usually it depends on the experiment in questions which ones are included. Because of space limitation you need to be sensitive to how much detail is necessary for each of the subsections (balancing thoroughness and precision with economy – not an easy feat).
Participants: Describe the participants in the experiment, how many, their age, gender, and ethnicity (if appropriate), how the sample was selected and how the participants got
compensated. The rule of thumb is to include information on participants that might be relevant to the outcome of the experiment. For example, age is important in reaction time experiments but gender might not be. [Note: For the lab reports the important thing is how many and who are they – you can save some space by not including gender, ethnicity, and compensation].
Design: Describe the design of the experiment (within or between) and the independent and dependent variables. This section not only describes the design but justifies it; it needs to be clear how the experiment is addressing the research question. You need to be specific in describing the variables; list the levels of the independent variables and how the dependent variable is operationalized. For example, it is not enough to say that performance was the dependent variable – you need to say what you consider to represent performance (reaction time, accuracy etc).
Materials: Describe apparatus and stimuli used in the experiment. How detailed you need to be about the apparatus (usually a computer these days) depends on the experiment. If there are any unusual apparatus used you need describe them in detail (for instance an eye-tracker, a new input device etc.). You should also describe the stimuli used in the experiment, for instance if you have a list of words to memorize you should describe the word frequency, length and whether they are semantically related (to name a few properties).
Procedure: Describe all relevant events in the experiment as well as the timeline (what happens when). Bear in mind that you need to describe the procedure at two levels: The first is the overall experiment (practice trials, learning trials, recall trials, how many of each, etc.). The second is the individual trial, that is, what happens within the trial (for example, fixation point for 100 ms, stimuli, response).
Results
This section presents the results of the experiment described in the previous section – in this section you explain what happened. You should describe the data collected (response time, percentage correct, etc.), how the data was analyzed (the statistics used) and the results themselves. This is where you would include tables and graphs detailing the results (although they will technically be on a different page). You also need to describe the statistical hypotheses (null and alternative) and whether you reject the null or not. The results section should be written in full sentences, and data presented in figures or tables must be addressed in the text.
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