• Have your title reflect what you did, and in the case of experimental designs, think about their ability to generate data that potentially reveals a cause-and-effect relationship between your IV and DV (Is there a control group?) Remember to write your abstract lastly and summarize each section (begin with some relevant background).

INTRODUCTION

• Your introduction should state why the problem is worthy of investigation and provide an overview of what has already been discovered about the topic in the literature. Since you have analyzed the effects of irrelevant speech (and white noise) on immediate, free recall (not serial) for word lists, it may be best to first introduce the idea of the verbal span. Next focus on irrelevant speech studies (where they originated, what they have been used for, etc.). Follow this with short summary of white noise, as well as the differential efficacy of native vs. foreign language (familiar vs. unfamiliar phonemes) to disrupt the verbal span.

• Narrow your story by paraphrasing the most relevant studies. I found many possibilities in a short time, but I did not search the databases enough to have any preferences. Salam & Baddeley (2013), LeCompte (1994 and with others), Jones & Macken (1993), as well as Denny & Shaibe (1997) look promising. You may wish to explore conflicting evidence on the importance of native, vs. foreign phonemes.

• You will need 7 sources in all. You can use these 4 or not or some… it’s up to you.

• Your introduction should end with a statement describing your rationale (how your study extends previous work), objectives, and clearly stated hypotheses.

• What is (are) our Hypotheses?

METHOD

• Begin your method section with the main heading Method, centered and bolded. Follow it with the subheading Subjects (or Participants) which simply includes the ‘N’ of students from Experimental Psychology classes.
• Materials will include the Word List Recall Test (describe it in detail) as well as the three audio streams (a brief description and possibly the link).
• Procedure will follow from the instructions.

RESULTS

• Your results are based on the repeated-measures ANOVA, with descriptive stats and post-hoc analysis (if needed), and a boxplot graph that will become figure 1.

DISCUSSION

• Interpret your findings, and whether or not they were as hypothesized, what they mean, etc. After a brief mention of limitations, finish broadly by focusing on the ongoing exploration of the qualities of irrelevant speech (and other audio stimuli) necessary to disrupt the verbal span, ideas for further testing, and even potential applications in psycholinguistics.