Lab Assignment #3

(worth 40 points)

This assignment is going to look familiar, as it’s very similar to Lab Assignment #2. However, here you are asked to

state a narrowed conceptual hypothesis,

locate a research article that speaks to that hypothesis or is related to that hypothesis

and

write a summary and critique of the relevant article

You will be graded on your statement of your hypothesis and your summary and critique of the relevant research article. This is expected to be a short paper (2 to 5 pages in length). Your summary/should (a) have 1 inch margins, (b) be double spaced, (c) be printed on one side of the paper, (d) have page numbers in the upper right hand corner and (e) be typed in Times New Roman 12 point font.

All papers should start with a paragraph that states and explains the logic behind your narrowed conceptual hypothesis. Your hypothesis should be stated in “if . . . then” terms. The remainder of the paragraph should explain why you chose the article you did (e.g., because it is related to the independent variable of interest, because it is related to the dependent variable of interest, because it addresses the same research question, because it addresses a related research question).

Then, as in assignment #2 you should (1) review and explain the research question(s) (or hypotheses) that guided the research, (2) identify the independent and dependent variables, (3) briefly describe the method used in the study, (4) identify the measurement and experimental operational definitions (i.e., identify how the researchers operationalized the independent and dependent variable), and (5) describe the results and conclusions.

Like assignment #2 you will be asked to (6) give your opinion about the research (e.g., criticisms or questions about the research question, experimental design, ect., or ideas about other interesting research questions not addressed in the article). Importantly, however, here you must also think specifically about how this research informs your thinking about your hypothesis.

Your statement of your narrowed research hypothesis and your explanation for why you chose the article you did will be worth 4 points.

You should also write:

a paragraph or 2 addressing points (1) and (2). worth 10 points

This can be accomplished by making sure that your few paragraphs answer each of the following questions

· What is the hypothesis or hypotheses? (3 points)

· Why is the hypothesis or hypotheses important or interesting? (1 points)

· What is (are) the independent variable(s)? (3 points)

· What is (are) the dependent variable(s)? (3 points)

a paragraph or 2 addressing points (3) and (4) worth 10 points

· What did experimental participants do when they arrived at the laboratory? (5 points)

· What part of the procedure (that you just described in the previous question) involved the operationalization of the independent and dependent variables? (5 points) Stated differently, what did the experimenter manipulate to create an experimental group and a control group? What was the measured variable or outcome variable (i.e., the variable that the experimenters seemed to be particularly interested in)?

These are tough questions. Most frequently, researchers do not refer to experimental and control groups and often researchers neglect to point out the exact operationalization of their variables. So in order to answer these questions you are going to have to think about what the method is intended to do given the argument in the introduction.

a paragraph or 2 addressing point (5) worth 10 points

This may be one of the harder sections of your summary, as we have not discussed statistical analyses nor have you seen a results section yet. However, we have talked about the meaning of an F-ration in class (conceptually). And you should be able to make sense of the results section if you keep the hypotheses and the methods in mind and answer the following questions:

· Given the design of the study (the way in which the independent and dependent variables were operationalized), what would you expect to find if the hypothesis is correct? (4 points, e.g., in which group would you expect numbers to be higher?)

· What did the authors find? Or what did the dependent variable look like across the experimental and control groups? (3 points). And was this consistent with the predictions? (3 points)

a paragraph or 2 addressing point (6). worth 10 points

Some questions you may want to think about as you give your impressions about the research: (a) Do you think the independent and/or dependent variables could have been operationalized in a better way, (b) if the independent and dependent variables were operationalized differently do you think you would get the same results, (c) would different groups of experimental participants have responded similarly, (d) are there any possible confounds in the research that might have produced the results (rather than the dependent variable), (e) did the hypothesis seem logical, (f) might other hypotheses seem like more viable explanations for what is going on, (g) do you think you would find similar results in different contexts (i.e., are the results generalizable).

In addition, you must also discuss how this research informs your thinking about your own research question. Possible topics of consideration include, but are not limited to, how this research presents possible ways to manipulate or measure conceptual variables; how this research makes you rethink your hypothesis (e.g., in the case that the findings are contradictory); how this research helps you further narrow your hypothesis. The important point is that you critique and think about the work in the context of your research questions.

Important note: Some of you may have article that contain multiple studies. We do not expect you to describe all of these studies. Instead, pick the study that is most relevant to your own hypothesis, and limit your paper to this one study.