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

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)