FINAL PAPER

Research Paper Assignment –

“INSTRUCTIONS”

Can’t Find the Right Words? We’ll Help You Write a Winning Essay.

Tell us about your paper and we will find the best writer for your essay.

Write My Essay For Me

· Elaborate a high quality, well-written, and well-developed research paper

· The research paper must be 11-pages or more / Proper APA Format = Times New Roman, 12-Points, Double-Spaced

· It is essential that you use critical thinking skills and interact around the topic questions in this assignment.

Overall Structure of the Paper (Total 100 Points): The final paper is a culmination of the knowledge you have accumulated in this course.  By completing the paper, you will demonstrate your ability to: conduct a literature search, write an introduction, design a study, and prepare your work in an APA-style manuscript.  Although this part of the class might be daunting, be sure to take things one step at a time.

Below is an outline of what you will do to complete the final paper.  Complete each step-in order.  Be sure to begin the process immediately.  Some steps can be completed rather quickly, while other steps will take some time.  Be sure to look ahead and plan accordingly.  Let’s begin!

1. Participate in Stroop’s experiment:

1. The first thing you will need to do is participate in Stroop’s classic research experiment. 

2. Go to the following website: http://cognitivefun.net/test/2

3. Participate in the experiment.  Specifically, you will view a series of words and the instructions ask you to report the color of the ink of the words by selecting the first letter of the color. For example, if the word is written in red ink, you would select the letter R.

4. Click the blue button or press “enter” to begin the experiment.

5. When your results are available, a box will appear in the bottom right hand corner that says, “results now available.” This typically takes a minute or two.

6. Click the button when the results are ready.

7. Then click “continue anonymously.”

8. Your results will appear on the top line.  Compare your results for the “normal time” to the “interfere time.”  The results in the “normal time” column represent your response time when the color of ink matched the word itself.  For example, when you saw the word red written in red ink.  The results in the “interfere time” column represent your response when the color of ink did not match the word itself.  For example, when you saw the word red written in purple ink.  If you are like most people, your response time in the normal column will be faster than in the interfere column.

9. You just participated in an example of research conducted in 1935 by J. Stroop.

2. Read the original Stroop article and the 1991 integrative review:

1. Now that you have participated in a version of Stroop’s research, you need to read Stroop’s original article.  It is saved as, “StroopEffect.”

2. You also should read the 1991 article that summarizes 50 years of research and around 400 studies based on Stroop’s original study.  It is saved as, “StroopMacLeod91.”

3. Think about your results from the Stroop task.  How were they similar or different to Stroop’s findings?

3. Conduct a literature search:

1. For the final paper, you will write an introduction that contains 12 total articles.  The 2 articles I have provided can count toward the total.  Thus, you will need 10 more articles.  These articles need to be obtained from conducting a PsycINFO search.  (If you need a reminder on the topic, be sure to revisit chapter 6 in your textbook).

2. Visit the PsycINFO tutorial created by Mary Alice Wade from the Forsyth Library.  Using the information provided in the tutorial, search for 10 additional articles on the topic.  You will need the full articles, not just the abstracts.  You may select to read a few of the articles summarized in the 1991 paper.  Just be sure to locate the original article in its entirety to read.

3. The articles that you read will be used to write your introduction of the paper. Additionally, information on how to write an introduction is provided below.

4. Design a study:

1. After you have participated in Stroop’s experiment and gathered articles to read on the topic from a PsycINFO search, it is now time to design your own study.  I want to be clear from the beginning and let you know that you will not actually conduct the study.  Rather, this is an opportunity for you to utilize what you have learned in the class regarding research methodology to design a proposed study.

2. This study will be an extension of Stroop’s original experiment.  However, the exact details of the study will be developed by you.  You will need to use the information you learned in the articles you read to gather ideas.  As you develop your study, think about the questions listed below. This will be the information you need to provide in the method section of your paper.

1. What is your research question (s)?

2. What is your independent variable (s)?

3. What is your dependent variable (s)?

4. What methodology will you use?

5. How will you control for threats to internal validity?

6. Where would your participants be recruited from and what sampling procedure would you use?

5. Write an APA-style paper which contains the following components: title page, abstract, introduction (summarizing 12 articles), proposed methodology, predicted results and discussion, and references.  Below is helpful information for each of the sections of your paper.

6. Title page and abstract: For your paper, you will need a title page and an abstract.  The title page provides information including your name, title of your work, and university affiliation.  The abstract provides a brief summary of the entire paper and is contained on the second page.  For more information on these pages, see the Chapter Resource and Self-Assessment sections.  The Chapter Resources contain assigned readings in the textbook which provide more detailed information on the topic.  The Self-Assessment section contains information on APA-style and sample title pages.

7. Introduction: You might find the introduction to be the most difficult piece of the paper to write.  But, do not be discouraged.  Set aside some time to read the materials related to the introduction in the Chapter Resource and Self-Assessment sections.  I have also provided you with examples of previous students’ work under the Chapter Resource section.  In general, your introduction will follow an inverted triangle format.  This means as you summarize the previous research on the topic from your 12 articles you will move from broad to specifics.  See the chapter in your textbook on APA-style for suggestions of how to structure introductions.  The last few paragraphs of your introduction will state the purpose of your study and the hypotheses.

8. Method: You will write a method section in your paper.  The method section will have two subsections: participants and materials and procedure.  Again, see the Chapter Resource and Self-Assessment sections.  I have provided examples of previous students’ work under the Chapter Resource section.  However, keep in mind that your method section is only a proposal.  The examples provided are from on-campus students who actually conducted an experiment.  Thus, you will need to change the writing style to indicate that your method is only proposed (e.g., write in future tense) and not something that has already happened.

9. Predicted Results and Discussion: In this section of your paper, you will write your predicted results.  You do not need to specify what statistical procedures you would use to analyze your data.  Rather, write a few sentences explaining your predictions.  Then provide a few paragraphs for the discussion.  The discussion should contain information on how your predicted results would support previous research, possible shortcoming / limitations of the study, and ideas for future inquiry.  I can’t stress enough how important it is for you to thoroughly review information contained in the Chapter Resource and Self-Assessment sections.

10. Finally, you will need a reference page.  This contains an alphabetically listing of all the sources used in your paper.  Examples and APA-style rules for references are contained in the Chapter Resource and Self-Assessment sections.

11. A rubric will be used to grade the final paper.  This rubric will be listed below. Be sure to look closely at this rubric.  It provides you with information on how you can earn points in each section of your paper and how you can lose points.

Final Paper Assignment Information: This paper is worth 150 points.

Due Date: November 30th by 11:55 pm CST (upload through SafeAssign)

**Please note that failure of a paper to pass through SafeAssign will result in 0 points earned.

12. The instructor also wants a rough draft of the introduction at least 2 weeks before the deadline, so I can receive feedback from her.  Please, send the rough draft first so I can submit it, then assignment.