APA Format Research Paper Example 2017
Writing a research paper requires you to demonstrate a strong knowledge base and academic writing skills. This type of assignment also allows you to enhance your research and analytical skills. Your ability to write in APA style will serve you well throughout your academic and professional careers. This article provides an example of a research paper written in APA format. We examine both the style elements and structure that are necessary to write such a paper effectively.
Abstract
The abstract is a short summary of your paper. For student papers, you should have a running head (a shortened version of your title in all caps) flush left with the page number flush right at the top of the page. On the ensuing line write the word “Abstract” centered without formatting. Then write a summary of around 150-250 words that includes theProblem, Method, Results, and Conclusion. No citations or references should be included in the abstract. The text should be double-spaced and in Times New Roman 12pt font for the entire paper. Here is a sample:
RUNNING HEAD: EFFECTS OF SLEEP ON MEMORY
Abstract
This study examined the effects of sleep on memory consolidation in college students. One-hundred students from a large public university participated in a memory task followed by a period of sleep or awake time. Participants who slept after the memory task performed better on a subsequent recall test than participants who remained awake. These results suggest that sleep plays a role in memory consolidation.
Introduction
The introduction should establish the relevance of the research problem or phenomenon and provide a clear statement of the purpose or research objective. Start with a general discussion of the topic and work your way into more focused hypotheses or research questions. End with a one to two sentence thesis statement that clearly states the purpose of the study. Here is an example introduction:
Sleep is essential for refreshment of the body and mind. Researchers have established that sleep plays an important role in memory consolidation (Maquet, 2001). Typical college students often experience sleep deprivation due to conflicting obligations such as exams, assignments, extracurricular activities or employment. Sleep deprivation has negative consequences for academic performance as it impairs memory functioning (Curcio, Ferrara, & De Gennaro, 2006). The purpose of the current study was to examine the effects of sleep on the memory consolidation of recently acquired information in university students. It was hypothesized that students who obtained a full night of sleep after learning new material would demonstrate better memory for that material on a delayed test compared to students who were deprived of sleep.
Method
Section
The Method section should describe the procedure used to collect data. Subsections may include Participants, Materials, and Procedure. Describe your participants without providing identifying information. Specify how many participants, their demographic characteristics relevant to your study, and how they were recruited. Identify the materials used including any measures, stimuli, questionnaires. Provide enough detail that another researcher could replicate your method. Describe the procedure in past tense, broken into logical steps. Here is an example:
Participants
One-hundred undergraduate students between the ages of 18 and 25 years (M = 19.58, SD = 1.83) were recruited from introductory psychology courses. They received partial course credit for their participation.
Materials
A list of 30 common nouns was used as study material. Two versions of a 30-item cued-recall test were counterbalanced across conditions. Sleep logs were used to record participants’ sleep hours.
Procedure
Participants studied the 30 word list for 5 min and then completed an immediate cued-recall test to assess initial memory encoding. They were randomly assigned to either the sleep or wake condition. Those in the sleep condition were instructed to obtain their normal amount of nightly sleep. Those in the wake condition were asked to remain awake for 12 hours prior to returning for the delayed cued-recall test. All participants returned 24 hours after the immediate test to complete the final cued-recall test.
Results
Section
Describe your main findings without interpretation. Present relevant statistical results beginning with most complex analysis and moving to simpler tests. Include descriptive statistics for all key measures. Use appropriate headings for different statistical tests and provide statistics in APA style. Report exact statistics with confidence intervals or effect sizes rather than p values alone. Here is an example:
Memory Performance Over Time
A 2 (Condition: sleep vs. wake) x 2 (Time: immediate vs. delay) mixed ANOVA revealed a significant Condition x Time interaction, F(1, 98) = 23.68, p < .001, ηp2 = 0.19.
Immediate Recall Performance
An independent-samples t test indicated no difference in immediate recall between the sleep (M = 18.21, SD = 3.58) and wake (M = 17.89, SD = 4.21) conditions, t(98) = 0.32, p = .75.
Delayed Recall Performance
Delayed recall was significantly higher in the sleep condition (M = 21.32, SD = 4.12) than the wake condition (M = 16.79, SD = 5.32), t(98) = 4.56, p < .001, d = 0.91.
Discussion Section
The discussion section should provide an interpretation of the results and address if and how they support or contradict the hypotheses. Discuss theoretical and practical significance. Relate findings to previous research and explain discrepancies. Describe limitations and strengths of the study. Suggest future research directions. End with a concise conclusion that summarizes why the results matter. Here is an example discussion:
Consistent with hypotheses, memory for newly learned information was significantly better after a period of sleep compared to an equivalent period of wakefulness. This finding provides further evidence that sleep benefits memory consolidation. Although performance decreased over time in both groups due to forgetting, the magnitude of this decline was substantially less for those who slept than those who remained awake.
The current results support theories proposing an active role of sleep in strengthening and reorganizing memories (Diekelmann & Born, 2010). Specifically, offline memory reactivation during sleep may facilitate the transfer of memories from vulnerable hippocampal networks to more permanent neocortical sites (Marshall & Born, 2007). This process of systems consolidation enables memories to become progressively independent of the hippocampus and more resilient to forgetting over time.
A limitation was that sleep quantity and quality were not directly controlled or measured except via self-report logs. Future research should utilize polysomnography to objectively confirm whether the current findings depend on specific sleep stages or architectures. strengths included a between-subjects design, well-matched samples, controlled experimental manipulations, and multiple memory tests allowing discrimination of encoding versus consolidation influences.
Andrew Stroud