Overview
Results (5 points)
Instructions: Please draft an outline of your results. Refer to the Individual Project Rubric and the Project Guidelines slideshow for guidance. The Results section should be briefly describe the data without expanding upon the methods or making conclusions. Describe the data in the text and using figures or tables. Report descriptive and inferential statistics. I acknowledge that some of you may not have taken courses in Statistics or Research Methods yet. Refer to those in your group who have. Do the best you can given the examples from this class and seek help from the instructor when needed. Because we don’t have time or permission to collect data for this course, we will be using random number generators to create fake datasets to analyze. Of course, it is never appropriate to manufacture data in a real experiment, but this will give you an opportunity to work with raw data in the context of this course.
- Manufacture data that supports your hypothesisYou may also elect to manufacture data that contradicts your hypothesis.Use the following web sites to create a dataset:http://www.generatedata.com/http://www.apa.org/research/responsible/data-links...https://www.randomizer.org/
- Describe the outcome of your experiment
- Include descriptive statistics that describe the data within groups
Data were collected from 30 older adults diagnosed with dementia, with 15 participants in the experimental group and 15 in the control group. The experimental group completed a brief mindfulness meditation session and received an Ayurvedic herbal supplement before performing the memory recall task. The control group completed the same memory task without any prior intervention. The main outcome measured was the number of words correctly recalled from a list of ten words displayed on a computer screen. A secondary measure recorded reaction time (in seconds) for participants to begin recalling the words after the list disappeared.On average, participants in the experimental group recalled more words (M = 5.00, SD = 0.87) than those in the control group (M = 3.05, SD = 0.93). Reaction time was also faster in the experimental group (M = 3.33 s, SD = 0.73) compared to the control group (M = 4.41 s, SD = 0.74). An independent-samples t-test revealed that these differences were statistically significant. Participants who completed mindfulness meditation and received Ayurvedic supplements before the task recalled significantly more words than the control group, t(27.89) = 5.92, p < .001. Reaction times were also significantly faster for the experimental group, t(27.99) = −4.00, p < .001. These results indicate a strong effect of the intervention, with large effect sizes.
- Include inferential statistics to describe the relationship between groups
- Refer to the WEB LINKS for materials that describe how to compute the following statistics.
- If you kept your experiment simple, you are most likely comparing the mean of two groups using a t-test.
- E.g., “The mean reaction times for students in the caffeine condition were 1.25 sec (SD = 0.25 sec), and reaction times for students in the placebo condition were 1.5 sec (SD = 0.10 sec). Our results indicate that students in the caffeine condition were faster than students in the placebo condition (t-test, p < 0.05).” You can also refer to the manual I uploaded under WEB LINKS (Chapter 7) as well.
- Create figures or tables to describe your data
- When possible use figures instead of tables. A picture is worth a 1000 words.
- You can create figures in PowerPoint. Double click the figure in the Project Guidelines to see how. Refer to the WEB LINKS for materials on making figures as well. You can also use Excel.
- For a paper, figures go at the end of the paper and you refer to them in the text like this (Figure 1).