Question 1

What are the standards by which the formatting and structure of a research paper are determined?
A) The American Psychological Association
B) The British Psychological Society
C) The American Psychological Society
D) The British Psychological Association

Accepted Answer

The way that psychological research papers are structured and formatted is determined by the American Psychological Association (APA) standards.

Question 2

What information should an abstract contain?
A) The authors names and the institutions they work at
B) A summary of the methods used
C) A very concise summary of the Introduction, Methods, Results and Discussion.
D) A summary of the key findings of the study

Accepted Answer

An abstract is a short summary of the entire research report.

Question 3

The final paragraph of an Introduction should contain…
A) The analysis strategy
B) The key findings of the study
C) The hypotheses
D) The number of participants recruited to the study

Accepted Answer

Your hypotheses should be the very last thing you include in your Introduction.

Question 4

The Methods section should contain four subsections, but which is the correct order that they should be presented in?
A) Participants, Materials, Design, Procedure
B) Materials, Procedure, Participants, Design
C) Participants, Design, Materials, Procedure
D) Participants, Materials, Procedure, Design

Accepted Answer

The correct order is Participants, Materials, Procedure, Design

Question 5

Which of the following would NOT be an appropriate way to present the descriptive statistics in a Results section?
A) In a table
B) In at least two different ways
C) In a graph
D) In the text

Accepted Answer

You should only present the descriptive statistics once; in the text, a table or a graph.

Question 6

Which of the following should you NOT do in a Discussion section?
A) Give a brief summary of the findings
B) Criticise the study
C) Contrast the findings with previous research
D) Repeat the actual statistics and numbers from the Results

Accepted Answer

You should not include any of the actual Statistics or numbers within the summary.

Question 7

Which of the following would NOT be an appropriate way to end the Discussion of a memory study conducted on undergraduate participants?
A) Suggesting how these results could help to develop memory aids for patients with amnesia
B) Suggesting how these results could contribute to furthering the existing theoretical models of memory
C) Suggesting a further piece of research that could resolve some of the methodological limitations from the present piece of research
D) Suggesting a further piece of research that could resolve some of the unanswered issues from the present piece of research

Accepted Answer

Suggesting how these results could help to develop memory aids for patients with amnesia

Question 8

Which of the following is NOT true about the References section?
A) References should be presented in APA format
B) All of the papers that you have read should be included, even if you did not cite them in your paper
C) Only papers that you read and cited should be included in the References
D) References should be presented in alphabetical order

Accepted Answer

The References section should only include sources that you have cited within your paper. Including papers that you have read but not cited is not required and does not follow standard academic practice.

Question 9

Which of the following references is presented correctly using APA style?
A) Shinskey, Jeanne, & Jachens, Liza. (2014). Picturing objects in infancy. Child Development, 85, 1813-1820.
B) Shinskey, J. L., & Jachens, L. J. Picturing objects in infancy. Child Development, (2014), 85, 1813-1820.
C) Shinskey, J. L., & Jachens, L. J. (2014). Picturing objects in infancy. Child Development, 85, 1813-1820.
D) Shinskey, J. L., & Jachens, L. J. (2014). Picturing objects in infancy. Child Development, 1813-1820.

Accepted Answer

The correct answer presents the authors' initials and last names, year of publication, article title, name of the journal (italicized), volume number, and page numbers. Option A is close, but lacks initials for the second author, while Option B is incorrect for omitting the year of publication within parentheses. Option D lacks the volume number.

Question 10

Which of the following is an example of using a "wildcard" in a search for research papers?
A) (analyse OR analyze)
B) (analysis AND correlation)
C) "Pearson's correlation analysis"
D) Analy*

Accepted Answer

Using an asterisk wildcard will search for any words that start with the string of letters before the *. This search will return analysis, analyse, analyze, etc.

Quiz 3: How to Find, Read, Write and Think About Research Papers

What are the standards by which the formatting and structure of a research paper are determined?

What information should an abstract contain?

The final paragraph of an Introduction should contain…

The Methods section should contain four subsections, but which is the correct order that they should be presented in?

Which of the following would NOT be an appropriate way to present the descriptive statistics in a Results section?

Which of the following should you NOT do in a Discussion section?

Which of the following would NOT be an appropriate way to end the Discussion of a memory study conducted on undergraduate participants?

Which of the following is NOT true about the References section?

Which of the following references is presented correctly using APA style?

Which of the following is an example of using a "wildcard" in a search for research papers?