Short-Term Effectiveness of Stimulant Medications
Activity: How to Read a Research Report & Create an Outline
Instructions: Now, pick an article and follow the 4 steps outlined above to answer the questions below. As you answer the questions, use the prompts to move on to the next step.
(Step 1)
1) What is the title and date of publication?
2) What journal is it published in? Is it peer-reviewed?
3) Who is the first author? Where are they from?
4) What is the research hypothesis?
5) Did the main findings support or challenge the research hypothesis?
(Step 2)
6) Is the study theory driven? If so, is the theory clearly explained? (for future reference, jot down the theory)
7) Did the literature review provide the necessary support for the study? Make a diagram explaining how past findings led to the current study (if you think you’ll want to read a cited article, jot down the first author and year for future reference)
Example:
Marsh (1987)
Stimulant Medications for treating ADHD improve attention
Hughes (1981)
Attention Deficits in ADHD
Dilbert (2002)
Extended-Release Medications for treating ADHD
Pitts (1996)
Short-Term Effectiveness of Stimulant Medications w/ ADHD
Q: would new, extended-release mediations be more effective for treating attentional deficits?
Current Issue
8) Is this study a systematic replication or extension of previous work, or is it an entirely novel or exploratory approach?
9) How do the results relate to the findings reported in the introduction? Support, extend, or challenge?
10) Are there any significant limitations mentioned? Should others have been noted?
11) Why are the results important to the field? (If they weren’t it wouldn’t be published)
(Step 3)
12) What was the population group in the study? Summarize the key characteristics (e.g., recruitment approach, sample size, key demographic characteristics and elimination criterion).
13) How would you categorize the methods? Experimental or non-experimental, quantitative or qualitative, nomothetic or idiographic, factorial design?
14) What was the study design? (single-subject or group design, longitudinal or cross sectional, within or between participant manipulation of independent variables (IVs))
15) Were the IVs operationally defined? List the IV(s) and operational definition(s).
16) If present, how were ethical issues addressed?
17) How were the dependent measures recorded? Did this directly relate to the operational definition of the IV(s)?
(Step 4)
18) Well, what were the main results?
19) If applicable, did the tables and/or figures help you understand the results? If so, write down the table or figure number.
20) Overall, did you have trouble understanding the results? How would you have conveyed the findings better?
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