Report Format -

In writing your reports, please follow the report format described here. When we mark your reports, we are looking for the specific points as described below - we use the report format as the marking scheme.

The format for laboratory reports in this course is the APA (American Psychological Association) style described in full in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (2001).  A paper written in APA style consists of five sections: Introduction, Method, Results, Discussion, and References.

1.The Introduction is an introduction to the research question and to the strategy used to tackle the question.  The introduction should provide the following information (note that it is not necessary to label each section):

a)Statement of the problem: what was the question – what were we trying to find out in the experiment done in the lab?

b)The background information to the question: What do we know already - what previous experimental findings are relevant for this question? What must a reader know (e.g., definition of terms, descriptions of experimental protocols) to be able to understand the lab experiment?

c) The logic of the experiment: what conditions were tested in the study?  How do these conditions address the question? What outcome is expected - why?

Although APA style does not specifically require such a statement, please identify both the independent variable (the variable that was manipulated, for example, the amount of practice in an experiment on learning) and the dependent variable (the variable that was measured, for example, the numbers of throws that hit a target) in your report.  Remember that the dependent variable is always a number or score, for example, reaction time, number correct, or amount of error.

2.The Method section tells the reader just how you did the study.  Experimental procedures should be reported in enough detail to allow an experienced investigator to repeat your experiment. The Method section must be reported in subsections headed Participants, Apparatus, and Procedure. For each section include the following information:

a) Participants:  who were they...males, females, kids, elite athletes, lab members?  How many people were tested? Be sure to report the total number of participants tested, readily available from the lab data collection sheet.

b) Apparatus:  What equipment and/or materials were used in the experiment?  Often, a drawing (labelled a Figure) is useful to describe what equipment was used. Note that details are important in this section.

c) Procedure:  The Procedure describes how the experiment was done; step by step, what was each participant required to do?  This section should include a description of instructions given to subjects and a complete description of each experimental condition.

3.The Results section summarizes your data and describes any statistical analyses you have performed.  The APA manual (1994) says: “First, briefly state the main results or findings.  Then, report the data in sufficient detail to justify the conclusions.  Discussing the implications of the results is not appropriate here.” (p.15).

It's always a good idea to use Figures (graphs, diagrams or pictures) or Tables (tables of numbers) to display your results.  However, do not show the same data in both a Table and a Figure; pick the clearest method to make your point. Keep in mind that there must be some verbal description of your results as well as Figures and Tables; at very least, you have to explain to the reader what is being shown in your Figures and Tables.  Finally, in experiments where the average scores for groups of participants are compared, it is usually not necessary to report the results from individual participants; calculating the group average allows any trends in your data to be illustrated more clearly.

4.The Discussion section is an evaluation of your findings with respect to the question the experiment was designed to answer, in other words, this is where you interpret your results. You can also to talk about the implications of your findings and draw conclusions.  You might also evaluate your study (describe what you would change given the chance to repeat the study), and suggest future studies that might be done. 

The advice given by the APA manual (1994) is:

"In general, be guided by the following questions:

• What have I contributed here? 
• How has my study helped to resolve the original problem?
• What conclusions and theoretical implications can I draw from my study?

The responses to these questions are the core of your contribution, and readers have a right to clear, unambiguous, and direct answers." (p. 19)

5.As you know, you must indicate the source of all facts and ideas included in your report that are not your own. APA format does not use footnotes. Instead, the authour’s name (or authours’ names) is/are incorporated into the report at the point where you use information from the particular source. For example, suppose you are writing a report about Fitts’ Law. You want to describe this law in the introduction to your paper. Since you are not Fitts and did not discover the law, you must include a citation to indicate where you leaned about it, as shown in the following sentence: Fitts’ Law (as described in Allard, 2008) formalizes the relationship between the difficulty of a movement and the time it takes to carry out the movement.

The Reference section is a list of all articles and books cited in your report. Any source that you cite in your report must have a reference. If you have read about a paper in another source (for example, in a textbook), the proper referencing procedure is:

a)To cite both the original paper and the secondary source in the text of your paper, i.e., Fitts (1954, as cited by Allard, 2008).

b)But to include only the secondary source – Allard, 2008 in this case – in the reference list.

In your reference list, authors should be listed in alphabetic order, in the following format.

For an article with one author:

Harlow, H.F. (1962).  Fundamental principles of preparing psychology journal articles.  Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology, 55, 893-896.

That is, the author or authors, the year of publication (in brackets). The title of the paper. The name of the journal, the volume number, and the page numbers on which the article appears.

For books, cite the author, the year of publication in brackets. The title of the book (underlined).  The city in which the book was published: the publisher.

Reference for course notes:

Allard, F. (2008). An introduction to psychomotor behaviour. University of Waterloo.

To reference material from electronic sources (e.g., Web, email, CD-ROM) and other forms of information, see APA help at: http://www.apastyle.org/apa-style-help.aspx

Keep in mind that any ideas, words, diagrams, facts, that are not your own must have a reference. Direct quotations must have both a reference AND quotation marks around the quote. Failing to acknowledge your sources properly can result in a charge of plagiarism.