PSY 321:  Cognitive Processes
APA Style

The papers that you write for this class will follow an abbreviated American Psychological Association (APA) style. 

1. Title Page:
• Include a page header in the upper margin of each page.  The page header should be a short title of the paper and page number, flush with the right margin of the page.
• Include the running head on the title page.  Type "Running head:" (without the quotation marks) flush with the left margin on the first line of the page.  After "Running head:", type a short title of the paper in all capital letters.
• Include the title, author, and affiliation information on separate lines that are centered (left to right, top to bottom) on the title page.  In the title of the article, capitalize the first letter of all important words (not articles, prepositions or conjunctions), and capitalize the first letter of any word that is longer than 4 characters (even if it is a preposition). The affiliation is school or industry that the author is at when the manuscript is prepared.
2. Abstract (not required for PSY 321 papers):
• Center "Abstract" (without quotes) at the top of the page.
• Type the abstract as a single paragraph without indenting the paragraph.
• The abstract should be no longer than 120 words.
• The abstract should be self-contained -- define all abbreviations and acronyms.
• The abstract should summarize all aspects of the paper -- the hypothesis, method, results, and discussion
3. Introduction:
• Center the title of the manuscript (exactly as it appears on the title page) at the top of the introduction.
• The introduction should introduce the problem -- why is the problem important, what are the theoretical implications of the study?
• The introduction should develop the background -- this is usually accomplished by discussing prior research that is relevant to the current study.
• State the hypothesis of the study.  The prior parts of the introduction should clearly lead the reader to understand and expect the current hypothesis.
4. Method:
• Center the word "Method" (without quotes).
• The method section is typically divided into subsections -- Participants, Apparatus, and Procedure.  Each of the subsection headings are typed in italics flush with the left margin.  (Placement and style of headings can change for multi-experiment manuscripts.  Consult the APA publication manual for complete details.)
• The Participants section should describe who participated in the study.  Give the number of male and female participants, the number assigned to each group, relevant major demographic variables (e.g. age, race, socioeconomic status, etc.; for experimental psychology papers, age is usually all that is reported.)  State that the researchers treated the participants in accordance with the ethical standards of the APA.
• The Apparatus section describes the apparatus (e.g. computers) or materials (e.g. questionnaires) that were used in the study.  Standard laboratory equipment (e.g. desk, lights, chairs, pencils) need not be described.
• The Procedure section gives a detailed, step-by-step account of what happens in the study.  It should be sufficiently detailed so that the study could be replicated (repeated.)  Copying and/or editing the instructions given in the description of the study is plagiarism and will result in a grade of 0 on the paper.  The procedure section must be in your own words.
5. Results:
• For each hypothesis, include the following:
• Restate the hypothesis.
• Describe how the data relevant to the hypothesis were analyzed.
• Describe the relevant data (measures of central tendency such as the mean and measures of dispersion such as standard deviation are often included.).  The data can often best be described with either a table or a figure.  If you include a table or figure, be sure to cite the table or figure in the body of the manuscript.
• Give the appropriate inferential statistic that tests the hypothesis.  For PSY 321, we will sometimes not perform inferential statistics as a statistics course is not required for taking this course.  If we do inferential statistics, the Suggested Data Analysis section will tell you how to write the appropriate results.
• State whether the data support the hypothesis or not.
6. Discussion:
• Discuss the findings of the study
• For each hypothesis, include the following:
• State whether the data support the hypothesis or not.
• If the data do not support the hypothesis, give some possible explanations as to why.
• If the data do support the hypothesis, discuss the practical or theoretical implications of the results
• How do your results relate to the research that was discussed in the literature review in the introduction or to other relevant literature?
• Discuss any limitations of the study.  DO NOT include trivial limitations (the experiment was performed in a noisy room) unless they impacted one condition more than another.  In that case, explicitly describe how the limitation influenced some conditions but not others.
• Describe future research on the same topic -- that is, what questions remain to be answered?  DO NOT include trivial future research such as changing the color of the stimuli, increasing sample size, controlling for noise, etc.
7. References:
• Center the word "References" (no quotes) at the top of the page
• A reference to an article looks like this:

  Glanzer, M. (1966). Encoding in the perceptual (visual) serial position effect.  Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 5, 92-97.

  M. Glanzer is the author. 1966 is the year of publication.  Encoding in the perceptual (visual) serial position effect is the title of the article.  Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior is the journal title. 5 is the volume number of the journal.  92-97 are the pages of the article.  

• A reference to a book looks like this:

  American Psychological Association (2001). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (5th ed.).  Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

  American Psychological Association is the author.  2001 is the year of publication.  Publication manual of the American Psychological Association is the title of the book. The book is in its fifth edition.  Washington, DC is the place of publication.  American Psychological Association is the publisher.

• See the APA publication manual (reference below) for additional examples of reference style.
8. Author Note (not required for PSY 321 papers):
• Center "Author Note" (without quotes)
• Each author note is to be typed as a separate paragraph.
• Type the author names and affiliations
• Include the mailing address and email address of the corresponding author (the author that any questions should be sent to)
• If appropriate, acknowledge sources of funds that were used in the study
• If appropriate, give thanks to any helpers
9. Footnotes (not required for PSY 321 papers):
• Center "Footnote" (without quotes)
• Type each footnote as a separate paragraph.  Start each footnote with a super-scripted number that corresponds to the footnote number in the text.
10. Tables (include only if appropriate):
• Each table begins on a separate page
• Flush left, type "Table 1" (without quotes) at the top of the page
• On the next line, type the title of the table in italics and capitalize the first letter of each important word (not articles, prepositions or conjunctions) and capitalize the first letter of each word that is more than four letters long (even it is a preposition).
• Draw a line across the page from left to right.
• Type the body of the table
• Draw another line across the page
• In the body of the manuscript, refer to each table.  For example, "Table 1 shows the mean and standard deviation ..."
11. Figure Captions (include only if appropriate):
• Center "Figure Caption" or "Figure Captions" (without quotes) at the top of a new page.
• Flush left, type "Figure 1." (without quotes) and then type the title of the figure.
• Repeat the previous item as necessary for additional figures.
12. Figures (include only if appropriate):
• Figure pages do not have the page header
• Prepare figures professionally (no hand drawn figures)
• Be sure to label the X and Y axes of the figures with both the values of the variables and the name of the variables
• Bar graphs are usually used when the X axis variable is discrete or discontinuous; if the X axis variable is continuous, use a line graph (there are exceptions to the rule -- use the type of graph that best displays the relationships that you are trying to show)
• Do not artificially restrict (to exaggerate differences) or expand (to hide differences) the range of the Y axis.
• On the back of the figure, write lightly the following: TOP, the figure number, and the page header
• Each figure goes on a separate page
• In the body of the manuscript, refer to each figure.  For example, "Figure 1 shows the relation between ..."
13. APA format: 
• Margins are to be at least 2.54 cm.
• The paper is to be double spaced.
• Indent the first line of each paragraph by a fixed amount (e.g. 5 spaces).
• Type on only one side of the paper
• Use a clear and legible font (e.g. Times Roman, Arial) at least 10, but no more than 12 points in size
• The title page, abstract, introduction, and each section after the discussion start on new pages.  The Method, Results, and Discussion immediately follow the end of the previous section (on the same page if possible.)
• Use the active voice instead of the passive voice. 
• Always use metric measurements.
• See the sample APA style paper.
• Do not use contractions.
• Numbers larger than nine use digits UNLESS they start a sentence.  Numbers smaller than 10 are spelled out UNLESS they are part of a series of numbers and at least one number in the series is larger than nine.  Figure and table numbers are always numeric.

Here are some APA style resources.  I cannot guarantee that these resources contain correct information or that they will always be available.:

• PSY 321 APA Style Sample Paper
• APA Research Style Crib Sheet
• APA Style Essentials | Revised July, 2004

The definitive APA style resource is:

American Psychological Association (2001). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (5th ed.).  Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.