Lab 7: How to Write an APA Methods Section

Andrew Reineberg 10-19-11

Today we will:

• Learn how to write an APA methods section• Work on programming our experiments to run

in class– We will conduct our studies on 11/2 and 11/9

(Wednesday section) or 11/4 and 11/11 (Friday section)

APA Methods

• “describes in detail how the study was conducted…” –APA style guide

• Consists of a few subsections to organize the information

Subsections

• Participants• Materials• Procedure• These are not set in stone

• Methods label “Methods” is centered at the top of a new page

• Subsections are aligned left and do not start on a new page

Participants

• Always use term “participants”– You are not the king; they are not your subjects

• Give basic demographic information– Where were they recruited from– How were they compensated– Age, gender, race/ethnic, level of education breakdown– For you, okay to say things like “ethnic breakdown of

participants reflects the demographics of Univ. of Colorado Boulder”

Andrew’s sample

• “Four undergraduates (3 females and 1 male) at the University of Pittsburgh participated for payment. Participants were paid $7 per hour, with a $20 bonus for completing the experiment. All subjects were native English speakers with normal vision. None of the participants were familiar with the text used in the study.”

Materials

• Highlight any special materials used to conduct your study:– Pictures from a database– Words from a database– Pictures of scenes you created– Any type of questionnaire or inventory

– Make sure you explain why you used them and also give credit to where you got them

Andrew’s sample– “Participants read the entirety of Sense and Sensibility by

Jane Austen (1811/2008). The novel consisted of 50 chapters, with 7 to 17 pages per chapter and a maximum of 25 lines per page. Four-alternative multiple-choice questions were created (3–4 per chapter) to measure participants’ comprehension of the material. Participants read the material over multiple days so they could adapt to both reading on the eye tracker and the general procedure; this was done to make the reading as routine as possible and thereby maximize the probability of observing mindless reading.”

Procedure

• What kind of design?– e.g. – two-group, between-subject design

• Exactly what did the participant experience in your study?– Setting of experiment– Quantity and duration of exposure to stimuli– Breakdown of time spent on different parts of

study

Andrew’s example - pt. 1

• “Each participant read the novel at his or her own pace across 12 to 15 (M = 13.5) hour-long sessions. Each session and chapter began with a calibration of the eye tracker. Calibration was not done more frequently to avoid being intrusive and possibly reducing the frequency of mind wandering. Participants read at their own pace by pressing the “F” key to move forward through the text and pressing the “B” key to move backward through the text.”

Procedure cont’d

• Make sure you highlight any important instructions:– e.g. – “Participants were provided with the

following definition of zoning out: “At some point during reading, you realize that you have no idea what you just read” and that “not only were you not thinking about the text, you were thinking about something else altogether.” Participants were instructed to press the “Z” key whenever they caught themselves zoning out.”

Your Experiments

• We will use two 2-hour sections to run our experiments

• You will run one person at a time for 10 minutes each

• Your experiment must be entirely autonomous (runs on its own)– Must have good/clear instructions– Typically students use pen/paper or PowerPoint to

present stimuli

Rest of this class and next 2 classes

• Time to work on procedure• I will not answer questions about this in office

hours or via email (unless we run out of time in class)

• I must approve of your procedure, including any forms or instructions by end of class next week