This week has been another eventful one for me and my AP Research project. Personally, I got a job at Raising Cane's, so come on down and have some chicken fingers. With my new job, I have had a little less time to fool around during the day. But the time dedicated to my research project has not really changed. This week, we gathered the results and analyzed them and now we are moving on to writing the results section. So in order to get a better understanding of how our results section should look, we have looked at other results sections from other studies that used similar methods. I am going to go through three different studies and note what I saw in their results sections and then I will hopefully be able to find the commonalities that I can use for my own results section.
1. The Near-Miss Effect in Blackjack: Group Play and Lone Play by Gunnarsson, Whiting, and Dixon
This study had participants play blackjack hands and rate each hand they got on a scale of 1 to 10. In order to show the average rating of each participant for each possible hand, they used a few bar graphs the mapped the hand rating vs the distance from 21. The study then did statistical analysis on the numbers to see if they were significant and they showed those in a table as well. It then explained the statistical calculations and how they showed that people changed their average hand rating after the near-miss effect was induced.
2. The Effect of Time Pressure on Consumer Choice Deferral by Dhar and Nowlis
The study had participants choose between risky and safe choice or defer choice to a later time while under time pressure or no time pressure conditions. The results section consisted of a table recording what people chose under time pressure vs no time pressure and the percentage of people who chose anything at all under both conditions. The paper then detailed the observations of the experimenters and discussed the statistical significance of the numbers they found. It explained that it was not by chance that more people deferred choice during the time pressure condition.
3. Priming Motivation Through Unattended Speech by Radel, Sarrazin, Jehu, and Pelletier
The study was investigating auditory priming's effect on people's motivation and actions. The results section consisted of a bar graph showing the change in motivation to do activities between primed and unprimed groups. It then explained what the results meant. Next it showed a table with the change in word choice between primed and unprimed groups. It then explained the statistical significance and showed why the auditory priming was actually affecting the behavior of the subjects.
Though looking at many different sections and coming up with an idea is daunting at first, breaking it down helped me come up with an idea for my results section. Since all the studies used graphs, and mostly bar graphs, I should use bar graphs along with tables to show my change in betting caused by each of the effects. I need to explain what the bar graphs mean and how we can draw conclusions from them. But in order to draw any meaningful conclusions, I will have to fully explain all the statistics I did to show significance and calculate all of the numbers in my experiment. I think I have a pretty good idea of what I am going to do, but I will make any necessary changes as next week goes on. I'm excited to see my experiment and research paper begin to take its final shape. (608)
Hey Max! How's the new job? I might stop by soon :)
ReplyDeleteAs for your research project, I really agree that using some form of graphs, whether or not you decide on bar graphs, would be really helpful in terms of conveying your points clearly and effectively. I know you said that you still needed to figure out how to do the stats a while back, so I was wondering if you managed to get that all figured out. Also, I would think a bit more on how you're going to convey all the statistics you did to get your results, as its likely your AP grader might not have a solid background in stats. Other than that, it looks like you took away really good ideas from looking at the three results portions and I'm excited to see how everything ends up!
Hey Max!
ReplyDeleteYou did a great job analyzing the different papers! Your project is one of the ones I am really excited to see what happens. What type of graphs do you think are going to convey your findings the best? How are you going to determine what information has priority over others? How are you actually going to explain the statistical significance of your findings? I can't wait to see how your project turns out!
HEY MAXXXXX!!! I'm gonna go to Canes and hit on you while you work the cash register lol. But in all seriousness, I love the way you organized your blog post. In addition, I love the way your organization skills have translated to your plan for your results section! I really like how you want to break everything down into bar graphs to show the cause and effect relationship! I talked with you about this earlier, so I know that your results plan is excellent and ready to be implemented! One quick question, have you decided what statistical test you will use? I think you should use a T test. Have you consulted with Yash or Mr. Peacher?
ReplyDeleteThanks, Ved
I think that you've done a great job extracting general themes from results sections to your research, but I'd like to see a little more specifically how they apply to your research. I think that when we talked you had a clearer picture of what your results will look like, and I think you also found some meaningful results, so I, too, can't wait to see how it all turns out.
ReplyDelete