You discuss environmental classroom changes for visual working memory performance. What changes do you think will have the greatest impact on learning by confining someone to a room? Are you interested in auditory or visual distractors in everyday environments versus confined testing rooms? If yes, then you need to really define the factor of interest for your independent variable. Your control group should be identical EXCEPT for the factor you are interested in. After clarifying your independent and dependent variables of interest, you will need to cite five peer-reviewed articles that are related to your independent and dependent variables. In the example above, you would want to look for articles that may investigate cognitive testing indoors versus outdoors or the effects of different types of auditory and visual distractors on learning, etc.
Final poster presentation instructions
Now that the prep work has been completed with assignments #1 and #2, you will prepare a 5-minute elevator pitch video with a single PowerPoint poster slide. Although a poster template has been attached to this assignment, you are welcome to use any poster template of your choosing. A general APA Poster Presentation Checklist is also available with this assignment on Blackboard. Please remember to adhere to the instructions noted below before reviewing the general checklist for final assignment submission.
Your video should be addressed to ABC school, ORG non-profit organization, or XYZ company. In your talk, you should explain your hypotheses, what you plan to do and find, and how this work will be of great value to ABC school, ORG non-profit organization, or XYZ company. Although your poster only requires visuals for the Methods and Results, I expect you to clearly explain the precise steps for what you plan to do and find.
The PowerPoint poster should include the following sections.
You should provide a title for your poster and include your name and affiliation as William Paterson University.
You do not need an Abstract section for this poster.
For the Introduction, please organize the sentences from written assignment #2 to form a concise and cohesive paragraph.
For the Methods, look for example stimuli and sample characteristics tables from other research articles to describe what you would like to do. Please remember to cite the sources for your figures in your References section.
For the Results, look for example figures from other research articles to describe what you may find. Please remember to cite the sources for your figures in your References section.
For the Discussion and Conclusion sections, please combine these individual sections into one section. Here, you will provide a one-paragraph explanation of why you should lead this innovative study at the organization hiring you.
General Checklist for Final Assignment Submission
APA-based poster presentation guidelines
Note. Please remember to complete a spelling and grammar check before uploading your poster to the course website for grading.
You should download the poster template (PowerPoint) or poster formatting instructions from the course website. When you are conducting an oral presentation of your poster, begin with the sequence of required sections. You do not have to present the optional sections or mention any information noted in parentheses. While you are expected to provide a succinct explanation of your Results (i.e., There was a significant positive correlation between the GRIT “I am a hard worker.” item and estimated weekly income.), you do not have to mention the statistical tests, p values, or effect sizes. However, it is very important to have this information noted in the Results text.
Required sections
Title that reflects the primary findings of your study
Investigator Names
Primary Affiliation(s) – Where (e.g., university, hospital, clinic) did the investigators do this research?
Background/Introduction – In this section of a poster, you should be citing the past literature that provides a suitable basis for your hypotheses. You should not be making statements based on your opinion. You should always cite articles to support every statement you make in the Introduction.
Global significance paragraph – four sentence and four citation minimum
Independent variable(s) paragraph – four sentence and four citation minimum
Dependent variable(s) paragraph – four sentence and four citation minimum
Aims/Hypotheses – Explain the expected relationship(s) among independent and dependent variables.
Materials and Methods – Three subheadings
Table and description of Sample characteristics – You are most likely to provide a description of your primary sample characteristics in a table. Your table should include a title (e.g., Table 1. Sample characteristics.). You can exclude a table and focus on written descriptions if you are conducting a secondary analyses of previously published data. Then, you would cite the paper associated with your data set.
Experimental paradigm or Observational or Survey design – You should provide a brief description of the survey or experimental paradigm.
Images or screenshots of task stimuli or assessments if applicable
Statistical analyses – Software and primary statistical tests conducted
Results
Focused text descriptions that reference the appropriate figure or table. I recommend explaining your figures and tables as they appear in your Results text. This will help the audience follow your study effectively.
Figures (Figure 1., Figure 2.) and Tables (Table 1. or begin with Table 2. if you have a Sample characteristics table) related to your primary results. Each figure or table must include a title.
Discussion/Conclusion
Summary – This section is a brief summary with citations of past research that may or may not align with your study findings. Here, you may want to explain in your personal opinion why your findings are similar or different from other investigators.
Study limitations – Brief description of the major concerns. Minimize focus on generalizability – this information is already available in your Sample characteristics section.
Conclusions/Future directions – Here, you want to make a one or two sentence summary that demonstrates why your study findings were so important. Although you are not required to explain the exact details of your next experiment, you should be able to make some real-world links or applications for your study results.
References – All references should be cited in APA format
Optional sections
University logo(s) – Recommended if you are presenting at a conference.
Abstract – Recommended if you are presenting to an audience that has not received your poster presentation abstract.
Contact information – Recommended if you want people to contact you about your research after seeing your poster at an event.