Basic Information Worksheet: Questions for Primary Research Articles

Before you answer these questions, make sure to look up the meaning of any terms/words in the article
with which you are unfamiliar.

Answer all of these questions in your own words.DO NOT quote the article except where indicated.

1. In 1-5 words, explain the phenomenon of interest is in the study. In other words, what variable(s)
are the authors most interested in learning about; what is the topic of the article?

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2. In 1-3 sentences, describe the overall hypothesis/hypotheses (typically in the intro) for this set of
studies. If there is not a specific directional hypothesis, indicate the general purpose of the study.

3. Briefly (1-3 sentences) describe the sample (typically in the method).

4. Briefly (3-5 sentences) describe the overall procedure (in the method) for this set of studies.

5. Complete the chart below for the primary IVs and DVs (there may be more than one of each). Be as
specific as possible when providing operational definitions. *If the researcher used a survey or
questionnaire to assess the DV, you may quote a specific question from the survey.* Remember not
to quote anywhere else on this document. Hint: Include the specific operational definitions for each
of the experiments (if multiple experiments used the same operational definitions, you can note
that rather than repeating the definitions)

Conceptual Operational

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 IV(s)

DV(s)

6. Is the design of the study descriptive, correlational, quasi-experimental, or experimental? How can
you tell?

7. Is the design of these studies cross-sectional or longitudinal? Why?

8. What were the specific results from this set of studies? Did the results support the hypothesis
(answer for each tested hypothesis)? If so, describe how.

9. In 1-3 sentences, explain what the article found about the phenomenon of interest. That is,
conceptually, what did the article show about the terms you listed in #1?

10. In 1-3 sentences, explain what the article indicates about how other variables may influence, or be
influenced by, the phenomenon of interest. This question relates to possible limitations, and/or
future directions of the study.

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 Specific Analytical Questions for Twenge et al. Article

1. A. Identify the independent variable by name and the number of levels in that variable for
experiment 1. Is this IV a between or repeated-measures variable? Is this IV a manipulated or
subject variable? Fully explain your answers.

B. What is the DV in experiment 1? Is it measured on a categorical (nominal), ordinal, interval, or

ratio scale? Explain your answer.

A. B. B

2. What is the purpose of random assignment? That is, why did the researchers use it in all of the
experiments in this article?

3. What type of claims (frequency, association, causal) does the introduction of this article
primarily report? The Introduction is the first part of the article that summarizes the previous
background research. In terms of research claims (frequency, association, causal), what is the
advantage to using the lab to conduct this set of studies?

4. Why is a oneway ANOVA the appropriate statistic for the primary analysis reported in the first
sentence of the results and discussion for experiment 1? Is this a between-groups or repeated
measures oneway ANOVA?

5. In experiment 2, the researchers could have done a t-test instead of an ANOVA. Why is this so?
Are there any other experiments in this paper for which a t-test could have been for the primary
analysis done instead of an ANOVA?

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 6. In experiment 3, why do the researchers conduct a Tukey’s HSD test? What specific result does
the Tukey test show for this experiment?

7. Re-read the first sentence in the results and discussion section of experiment 5 (page 61). What
is the critical value for this ANOVA using α = .01? In the first sentence, the p stands for
probability, and the .01 can also be read as 1%. Exactly what is this p the probability of?

PSYC 3530 Tusher