The following sections are required for your Results and Discussion Sections for your Music and Memory Paper:
Results (This is a main heading)
This will be a short section. You will need to run some statistical tests on the data including descriptive analyses and a t-Test (See Lecture Slides for Chapter 12). This section will be about ½ page and will include the items below. Remember to use Data Set #2 to run statistical tests (t-Test).
The description of the type of statistical test conducted.
A restatement of the hypothesis (the one you stated at the end of your literature review and in the assignment in which you practiced writing hypotheses and research questions. Make it easy for me to find)
A complete statement of whether there was a significant or non-significant difference between groups.
Include means, standard deviations, and statistical t-Test results.
Include a complete statement of t-Test results in words that people can understand describing the data in words explaining if the hypothesis was supported. **For Degrees of Freedom, the following page: Conducting t-Test, Means, and Standard Deviation Analyses and determining Degrees of Freedom
Discussion (This is a main heading)
This section will include your evaluation of the research study as the results apply to the literature search conducted. The Discussion section should logically refer back to the arguments you presented in your literature review. Properly cite (in-text) and reference all research studies that you mention in this section. This section should be at least 1 ½ pages and needs to include the following:
A restatement of the problem/research question/purpose of the study. As a reminder of the Music and Memory study, the purpose of the study was to determine whether there would be an effect on memory recall of words after listening to one of two types of music: classical or rock. A hypothesis could be: students who listen to classical music will remember more words than students who listen to rock music OR students who listen to rock music will remember more words than students who listened to classical music OR type of music will have no effect on word memory recall (this means that both groups will have the same average of word recall).
Was/were the hypothesis (or hypotheses) supported?
What were the most interesting findings?
What are the implications (significance) of the results for the hypothesis (es) either being supported or not supported?
How do the results relate to the literature/problem that was previously identified.
How do the results relate to the previous research studies you had discussed in your literature review.
All the references that you used in your Literature Review must be mentioned in this section as well.
Critique/Limitations (this is a sub-heading)
In this section, you will identify any limitations or problems that occurred with the research study or methodology?
Retrospectively, should have/could have been done differently?
What were the limitations of the study in terms of internal validity?
…from experimental manipulation or lack of experimental manipulation?
…from the independent or dependent variable?
….from the variables were operationalized?
…from the overall design of the research design?
…from any unanticipated problems?
What were the limitations of the study in terms of external validity?
…from the independent or dependent variable?
…from the research setting or context?
…from the sample or sampling procedure?
Considering the results, how is this study important for psychology/social science?
How has theory been (or not been) advanced?
Future (this is a sub-heading)
What research follows logically from this one? Specifically, what could future research do to further understand the problem?
Additional Writing, Style, and Submission Requirements
___Paper in correct APA format throughout.
___ All empirical references listed in your Literature Review should be listed in your Reference section and all listed within the paper.
___Entire paper written in your own words unless you are explicitly quoting another source and using correct citation format. But remember, I don’t really like directly quoted statements.
___ No more than 1 direct quotation from your articles and only if there is no other way to paraphrase the idea. More than 1 direct quotation will receive point deductions.
___Formal writing style, from the researcher’s perspective, written in third person and in active voice.
___Free of grammar and spelling errors, correct paragraph structure, sentence structure, and written with overall clarity
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