For this assignment, you will complete a research paper on The Stroop Effect and selective attention. The Stroop Effect is a phenomenon that occurs with the Stroop Task, a test that looks at what happens when we are asked to perform an ordinary task (such as reading or identifying a list of colors) when there is some sort of visual interference.
You are acting like you are the researcher who conducted this study! However, you do not have actually to collect the data – I already have that for you. In order to understand how the study works and how data was collected, you will need to participate in an online experiment on the Stroop Effect located within the “psychology learning tools”.
Once you have completed the experiment, you will need to analyze data (remember that I will give you data) and write a lab report (7- 10 pages – this page count does not include the title page or references) in APA style consisting of the following sections:
- Title Page
- Abstract
- Introduction
- Method
- Results
- Discussion
- References
(More information on each section is located below)
Just like the mini lab report, you will participate in the online experiment so you know what the experiment is like. You will be given the data to analyze.
Here is the data file: DATA
Remember that you were given additional details in the Week 4 Discussion topic: Research Project Topic/Hypothesis
You will write the report as if you were the researcher conducting the experiment. You have some options in your research question for this project. The data you are given includes the gender and age of the participants as well as two columns of results data (reading the words and saying the colors). If you have a particular interest and want to modify the data, you have that choice. We will talk about this as you work on your hypothesis. You should try to use as much of your data as possible. Do not discard data unless there is a really good reason to do so.
Careful attention must be paid to APA Style as it represents a significant portion of your grade for the paper and is an intended learning outcome for the course. At the end of the term, you will submit your completed paper to your assignment folder.
Research Report – Stroop Effect Rubric
Main components on your research paper
- Title page – Make sure that the main points of a title page are included.
- Abstract – This is a well written summary of your paper. A reader should be able to get a clear picture of your paper based on the abstract. Include everything from a quick introduction of the topic to a sentence that implies that you will discuss results and implications.
- Introduction – This is so much more than a summary of your paper and should not be treated that way. For this paper, your introduction should be 2-3 pages of double spaced writing. Start by introducing your topic in general. Then you should discuss research from relevant published studies. Most, if not all, of your 8 references from peer reviewed sources will be cited in this section. Discussing these studies are important as they help provide a rationale for your study. Give that rationale next. Finish by clearly stating your hypothesis.
- Here is an article to get you started. Remember that this website isn’t the source for this article. You need to locate and cite the original source!
- Methods – Split this section into participants, materials and procedures subsections. You know the gender and age of all of your participants. You are welcome to include other demographic or recruiting information as it helps you with your study. Try the study here so you can adequately write about the procedures. Click on Run Experiment to get started.
- Results – Use the data I provided to calculate your results. Remember that your hypothesis drives your statistics. Think about what statistics you need to include to test your hypothesis. Write out all of your numbers even if you are including them in a table. Don’t forget to include a chart or table!
- Discussion – This is the best section because it is finally time to talk about what YOU think. After restating your results, talk about what they mean. What are the implications of your findings? Why are they important? For instance, why should we care that one gender is better at this than the other or that there aren’t gender differences for this study? After that, talk about the limitations to your study and give specific ideas for future research.
- References – Don’t forget that your references (and all of your paper) need to be in APA format. You need at least 8 references from peer reviewed sources (e.g., journals).