Journal-Article Writing Assignment

Note regarding questions about topic:

If you have a question regarding whether the topic you are thinking about using
would be appropriate for the assignment, please email me.

Note regarding assignment submissions:

You should upload both your assignment and the journal article you summarized.
For this assignment, you will find an empirical article (i.e., it must have a Method
section and a Results section) from a peer-reviewed journal that relates to any of
the topics we will have covered or will have covered this semester (based on the
topics in the chapters from the textbook that we have covered and will cover). Your
task is to summarize the article and connect the research in the article to something
in the real world. This could be something you saw on the news, something you
experienced, or something youd like to be able to explain. The goal is for you to
think about how the research relates to one of the cognitive processes we have (or
will have) discussed in class and how it could be applied to a real-world situation.
Here are a few examples:
How could what we discussed about figure-ground organization and what makes it
easier or more difficult be applied to some aspect of city or highway planning? How
might this information be used to improve the effectiveness of an ad on a billboard?
How could what we discussed about selective attention be used to improve the
design of studying spaces?
How could we use what we discussed regarding divided attention to decide in what
types of situations it might be safe (or unsafe) to install hands-free
communication devices?
(These examples are not meant to be restrictive.)

Note regarding articles with multiple studies:

If the article you are using contains more than one study (most will), you should
summarize only one of them. If one is more relevant to the application you have
chosen, that would be one reason for selecting one study over another.

Format, Content, and Length

The body of your paper should be about two pages (double spaced, with 12-point
font and 1-inch margins), and the following aspects of APA style should be followed:

Your paper should have a running head and page numbers (a title page is not
necessary)

You should have a separate References page with an APA-formatted reference

entry for the journal article (and for any other articles you mention in your
paper, if applicable)

You should use APA-formatted citations where appropriate

You should use the past tense where appropriate

You should use hedging language (i.e., these results suggest, what the
authors found may explain why ) when appropriate

You should include the following information in your summary of the article (you will
lose points if any of the information listed here is missing):

The general question being examined: to gather information using an fMRI to

determine deception behaviors as it relates to brain activity

The specific question being examined: to study a specific population

(antisocial) of inmates and determine

The authors research hypothesis (if they don't have a hypothesis, you should
indicate this; otherwise, you should list the predictions made in their
hypotheses)

Any specific research they were calling into question (that may have
motivated their own research)

A summary of the results of one study in the Introduction that seems directly
relevant to the question the authors were asking in their research (this should
comprise two or three sentences at most)

The theory-based or research-based rationale for the prediction in the

authors hypothesis (if applicable; i.e., if they indicated why they made the
prediction in their hypothesis)

A brief summary of the methodology (including the variables in the

hypothesis)

A brief summary of the results that are directly connected to the hypothesis

A brief summary of what the authors concluded regarding their original

question

Grading

Your summaries will be graded on the following:

Completeness of information (based on the items listed above; as noted, you

will lose points for missing items)

Clarity of writing (including using simple language and paraphrasing

appropriately)

Not using direct quotes (these should not be necessary, and I will deduct
points if they are used)

Coherence of writing (i.e., all ideas in a paragraph should connect to the

paragraph's topic sentence; the sequence in which the information is
presented should follow the sequence of ideas in the article; any variables
you discuss in the early part of your summary should be discussed in the
later parts as well, and vice versa)

Appropriate use of APA format (use of the past tense when appropriate,
correct use and formatting of author-date citations, appropriate use of
hedging language when interpreting the results of research, correctly
formatted running head, correctly formatted References section)

The extent to which the connection you make between the article and whatever you
are connecting it to makes sense (I will be fairly liberal with this point)