IVANOVA & COSTA 2008 - RR1

Name ______

  1. After reading the abstract and skimming over the first few pages, try to take a stab at articulating: what is the research question that Ivanova & Costa (2008) are going after? [In this course, I will use the termresearch questionto refer to thebroadquestion that a study is going after. This is not something super specific like'Are responses in task X for conditions Y the same or different?' It would be more general like (to take an example from a different study) 'To what extent are comprehenders distracted by irrelevant information?']
  1. Read through the authors’ review of the background literature (page 277 and first column of page 278). In a couple bullet points, what do you think are the main points to take away about what the previous research has shown so far?
  1. Usually the introduction of a research paper contains a statement of a specific point that is not known or a prior claim which is dubious or of concern—this being a ‘hole’ in our knowledge which the current study will try to fill in. In this paper this occurs on p. 278. Summarize this ‘hole’ for the current case.
  1. Any good experiment is designed to provide evidence to compare at least two reasonable hypotheses that make different predictions for how the experiment will come out. What are the two hypotheses that this experiment are designed to compare?
  1. Graphics can be enormously helpful for quickly understanding how an experiment worked. After reading pages 279-281, draw a picture (or several) designed to illustrate how the experimental paradigm works so that it’s easier for the audience to understand it.
  1. Draw two pictures that illustrate roughly the pattern of results predicted by your hypothesis 1 and 2 from question 4 above. You don’t have to include all of the measures or conditions; you can just pick a couple that seem most relevant to the hypotheses.
  1. Which hypothesis ends up being best supported by the data?
  1. Are there loose ends in the form of data points that don’t exactly fit the main pattern in the results? Do you think this is more likely to be just noise or to be an important clue about something that we still don’t understand (and which merits further research)?
  1. In just a few sentences, what future research ideas does this paper inspire for you?
  1. What are the potential implications of this research for real-life policy?