Are there flaws in the inferential tests employed by the authors?

PSYC 305

Fall 2018

Beyond the Textbook

APA Paper Rubric

Primary Aim Student Work/Scores
Brief summarization of key points from peer-reviewed literature (6 points) Introduction (2 points)

· What is the goal of the authors?

· What is the proposed theory?

· What hypotheses will be tested in the study?

Method (2 points)

· Briefly describe each subsection: participants, materials, procedure

· What are the independent, dependent, and control variables

· If your article describes multiple experiments, describe each one in sequence

Results (2 points)

· Briefly summarize the findings. Include the specific inferential tests that were constructed as well as whether the analyses revealed statistically significant effects (i.e. p < .05). Report all statistical findings according to APA style

· How do the authors interpret their findings? Do they believe their hypotheses were supported?

Discussion of the implications of such research (5 points) · Why should we care?

· Why does this study impact society, future research, this class, etc.?

Discussion of gaps or limitations of such work along with recommendations for future work

(5 points)

· Does the method test the hypothesis?

· Is the recruited sample representative of the intended population?

· Are the employed measures reliable/valid?

· Are the independent and dependent variables clearly defined?

· Are there plausible confounding variables (e.g. bias)? Are there plausible alternative explanations that account for the findings?

· Was a pilot-test necessary? How would it have helped?

· Is the method section described in enough detail that it could easily be replicated by other researchers?

· Are there flaws in the inferential tests employed by the authors?

· Are the conclusions made by the authors substantiated by the evidence? Do the authors over-generalize such conclusions? Are there implications that the authors overlook?

· Are there ethical concerns with this study?

· What questions are left unanswered (specifically those not acknowledged by the authors)?

APA Style

(4 points)

· Title page (0.5 point)

· Headings (0.5 point)

· In-text citations (1 points)

· References (2 points)