How to Write a Scientific Article: From First Draft to ...

How to Write a Scientific Article:

From First Draft to Publication Su-‐Ling Yeh and Art Woodward Department of Psychology National Taiwan University

Preface The main purpose of this manual is to provide writing instruction for researcher assistants and graduate students who spent much time conducting research, but have little time or training to write a manuscript in order to submit it for publication – even though it is well recognized that publication is the key for success in academia. A second purpose is to help busy advisors by increasing the efficiency of their advising activities, not only during manuscript writing, but also during revision after receiving reviews from a journal. By filling out the checklists as you follow the guidelines and procedures, you will be able to write your own ideas in a logical step-by-step way, using the numerous research articles that are included as “living examples” to imitate. Although the example papers in this manual are mainly perception research, we hope they will be useful in other related fields as well. In the fall semester of 2009, we taught a course named “Scientific Writing in Perception Research” in the Psychology Department at the National Taiwan University. It was meant to be a PI-centered lab writing course, after the students have taken two previous courses that emphasize more general-level basic English writing skills. In this course, we developed the basic structure of this manual. The course continued for three semesters under the direction of Professor Yeh, with the second semester emphasizing writing a new article and the third semester, revision. Thus we developed two separate checklists and instructions for these two important components of getting an article accepted in a peer-review journal. We used both checklists for instructions in the fourth semester before finalizing this version of the manual. We express our gratitude to Kuan-Ming Chen and San-Yuan Lin who were the teaching assistants for these courses. Without their technical support, this manual would not be possible. We also thank the professors and students in the writing courses who provided feedback useful for improvement of the manual. Enjoy, and we hope you have a fruitful writing experience.

Su-Ling Yeh and Art Woodward 2011, 7, 27

Please use ‘Bookmarks’ and red underlined links to navigate.

Part I: Checklists

Checklist for New Article Please print out this checklist and check each box when you have begun each step Title of Article ________________________________________________________ Authors _____________________________________________________________ Date begun ___________________________________________________________

☐ Target journal 1 ______________________________________________ ☐ Review instructions to authors (insert the link) ___________________________________________________________

☐ Target journal 2 ______________________________________________ ☐ Review instructions to authors (insert the link) ___________________________________________________________

☐ Select the category of importance of the paper. It belongs to the category of __________ 0. Overall structure

☐ Prepare figures (procedure and data) and tables for writing and communication with peers (be precise on correctness, ignore artistic aspects).

☐ Write the 4 Ws for the paper and the title (W1 = Why was the research done; W2 = What was done; W3 = What was discovered; W4 = Why is the discovery important?)

Discuss with advisor. Date: ___________________ A. First draft (follow the first draft writing tips)

☐ For each experiment separately and repeat for multiple experiments: ☐ Write the W1 for the introduction of experiment. ☐ Write the method section. Do not edit except to possibly insert some details not available during writing.

☐ Write the results section. ☐ Write the discussion section. Date completed________________

☐ Write the General Discussion. Suggestion: write only the topic sentences and check with advisor before writing the paragraphs. Add headings if the GD is long.

☐ Write the Introduction – make the introduction mainly introduce what you wrote in the discussion section. Suggestion: write only the topic sentences and check with advisor before writing the paragraphs.

☐ Write the general conclusion section and cut, paste, and revise to make the abstract. ☐ Highlight the 4 Ws and give the first draft to one peer. (Peer name____________________) Date completed ____________________ B. Second draft

☐ Follow the second draft tips and revise the entire paper. Date completed ____________________ C. Third draft

☐ Do (imagined) audience assessment (highlight all terminologies and ask yourself if the audience would understand).

☐ Check completeness and decoding time for all tables and figures. ☐ Revise and complete the title. ☐ Check accuracy of references and cross check with citation in the text.

☐ Verify APA style is correct. ☐ Verify the consistency of the terms used (name of effect, factor or the proposed hypothesis)

Note: These details, though not directly related to the research, they will create an impression of completeness of this article for the editor or the reviewers.

Date completed _____________________ D. Give the third draft to your advisor

☐ Highlight the 4 Ws and with your advisor compare (explicitly) to the four examples. (W1 = Why was the research done; W2 = What was done; W3 = What was discovered; W4 = Why is the discovery important?)

☐ Submit to Papercheck.com (including statement requesting excellent editor) ☐ Check the files with the advisors that all of them are ready to submit. ☐ Submit to target journal __________________________________ Action editor: _________________ ID No.: _________________ Date of submission: _______________

Checklist for Revision The date for receiving the decision letter: ______________________________ Title: ___________________________________________________________ Journal: _________________________________________________________ Editor: __________________________________________________________ Reviewer: _______________________________________________________ 1. Read Editor’s message: □ Accept Congratulations! Go celebrate! □ Minor revision Follow the suggestion without spending too much time on considering what to do □ Major revision □ Reject but can be resubmitted □ Reject 2. Read the opinions of reviewers: □ Highlight the key points in the decision letter. Save it to ‘JournalName_decision_marked.doc’ □ Discuss with other authors about the next step (link to manuscript triage) □ Do the “divide and conquer” procedure 3. Divide and Conquer: □ Save the results of ‘Divide and Conquer’ to another file, named as ‘JournalName_ Divide and Conquer.doc’ □ Using review mode to edit the text □ Delete sentences that are comments or descriptions □ Keep sentences with question marks, and is an obvious demand □ Deal with major comments □ Deal with minor comments (statistics, method descriptions…) □ Do as reviewer suggested □ Appropriately use footnote □ Not do as reviewer suggested □ Provide counter evidence

4. Write the cover letter and responses to reviewers, □ Edit the ‘JournalName_decision_marked.doc’ to become cover letter and responses to reviewers □ Mark the text you changed in the revision (mark the changes in red as is shown here) □ Check the consistency between the letter/responses and the revision 5. Before submission, check How to respond appropriately): □ Responded completely (back and forth between text marked in red and the responses to reviewers) □ Responded politely □ Responded with evidence □ Send the changed text for papercheck.com (only the changed part): specify to the editor that this is a re-submission (e.g., “This is a major revision of a previous manuscript that was submitted to a top-tier journal: XXX. I would like to have the same editor with a Doc ID XXX to review this paper.”) □ Write the cover letter to specify what was answered, and what was not (rebuttal), according to the divide and conquer procedure. Submitted to __________________________________ Action editor: _________________ ID No.: _________________ Date of submission: _________________

Part II: Guidelines for Writing

Inside-out Procedure for Writing an Article Su-Ling Yeh and J. Arthur Woodward National Taiwan University Department of Psychology November 2009 Revised: June 2010

Note 1: Consult with your advisor at any time the need arises. Note 2: Cross-referenced articles are attached as examples of each section of an article, along with papers illustrating where and how the 4 Ws are written into an article.   

Select target journal 1 and target journal 2. Download the journal policy and instructions to authors. Read them. Check the example of APA style APA style example

Follow Inside out procedure (do not edit until the entire first draft is completed) In writing the first draft of each section, open one of the articles provided in this document (e.g., the most similar to your paper). If necessary, find another article you are familiar with that is suitably similar to your paper. Then use it as a model for what to say first, second, etc, at what level, and in what amount. To the extent it is useful, transfer the schema to your paper. A. First draft (Follow the first draft writing tips.) Steps First draft writing tips 1) For each experiment separately, write (a) through (c): a) Write a first draft of the method section. Do not edit except to possibly insert some details not available during writing. b) Write a first draft of the results section (including tables and figures). c) Write a first draft of the discussion section. 2) Now stop and write the 4 Ws for the paper and the title. 4W1 4W2 W4 Titles 3) Write general discussion. 4) Review with at least one peer. 5) Write the general introduction – make the introduction mainly introduce what you wrote in the discussion section. 6) Write the general conclusion section and (mainly) cut and paste the abstract. B. Second draft Second draft writing tips Follow the second draft tips and revise the entire paper. C. Third draft 1) Do the (imagined) audience assessment (For example, highlight all technical terms and decide if your audience would understand them as written.) 2) Do audience assessment to check completeness and decoding time for all tables and figures.

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3) Finish the title. Titles D. Give the third draft to your advisor (the English should be sloppy) 1) Highlight the 4 Ws; author and advisor compare (explicitly) with the four examples. 4Ws1 4Ws2 2) Submit to Papercheck.com. (Be sure to include the statement to the editors of paper check.) For example, modify the following example: (This paper will be submitted to a top-tier journal: “Attention Perception & Psychophysics” for brief report. In a previous review by a journal, the editor requested more proof reading to get the English as c orrect as possible. He wrote “If possible, the authors should seek the editing help of a professional English language editor to correct and smooth usage. Please assign a senior editor familiar with editing for top tier journals.) 3) Submit to journal.

~ End of Guidelines ~

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Appendices

Steps for Writing the First Draft Note 1: Use these guidelines and cross references to the attached articles: (1) (C-Y): Chen & Yeh; (2) (Th): Theeuwes, et al; (3) (Ca): Cavanagh, et al; (4) (M-E): Moore and Egeth; and (5) (R):Rowe to follow the steps from Part A above. Note 2: Use the highlighted sections from attached articles to see examples of how to write the 4 Ws into your article. 4W1 4W2 Experiment 1 Introduction to Experiment 1 1) Write the main purpose of this particular experiment (w1). Th1 Th2 M-E 2) Critical manipulation needed to answer w1 (w2). M-E 3) Do not list details of method or procedure unless it is necessary. Ca Method for Experiment 1 1) Write the details of experiment 1 so that others could replicate the experiment (participants, stimuli, apparatus, design, and experimental procedure including practice trials). See for examples: Th M-E C-Y 2) Complete the figure to show the procedure from the point of view of the participant. M-E C-Y POV Results for Experiment 1 1) Statistics (e.g., ANOVA) should be stated as supplements to main findings.

Th

2) Do not list unnecessary statistics (e.g., irrelevant high-level interactions); if possible, condense them into one sentence, uses Fs > xx, ps < xx for summary. Th 3) Do not list the non-significant results unless it is critical. M-E 4) Complete the tables for Experiment 1. Discussion for Experiment 1 1) State the main finding first (w3). Th1 Th2 M-E 2) Talk about possible confounding before concluding this experiment, and provide a transition to the next experiment (not necessarily placed here; it could be in the introduction of the next experiment too). M-E Th 9

Return to Inside-out Procedure Return to Checklist for New Article

3) Mention the other findings but do not stress too much if irrelevant to W1. 4) Note the difference between small w and big W. Ideally each experiment should have their own 4 small ws. Repeat the above for each experiment

General Discussion Opening paragraph of the general discussion 1) State the research purpose and summarize the main findings (short paper may go directly to the main findings). C-Y Th 2) Combine the purpose and finding of each experiment in short sentences. Th 3) This is the 3rd Ws, but not the 4th one (which should appear later).

4) 5) 6) 7)

Middle paragraph of the general discussion Optional discussion of limitations and scope. R Relate to literature. R Final paragraph of general discussion Write mainly the 4th W. M-E If possible, end with a conclusion that fits the topic sentence of the first paragraph in the introduction. R C-Y

General Introduction Opening two paragraphs of the Introduction 1) Write the first paragraph in a general tone, better come with a daily example. (general and familiar). C-Y Ca R 2) If possible, write the research purpose in the first paragraph, and then elaborate it in the following paragraphs. C-Y Additional topics to be covered in the introduction 3) Cover those that mentioned in the general discussion.

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4) The scope should be from general to specific, in a reverse order as in the general discussion. 5) Write 1st, 2nd Ws about here. Final paragraph of the introduction 8) Write an oververview of the experiments. Ca 9) Write predictions, if applicable. Ca General Conclusion (conclusion section is optional) The general conclusion section should include 1) Cover the 1st, 3rd, and 4th Ws here in a short paragraph. Ca 2) If possible, end with a sentence that is related to the first paragraph and/or the title. Ca


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Describing the experimental procedure and creating figures

The most important principle in describing the experimental procedure, including tables and figures is this: Describe the procedure from the point of view of the participant Participant POV 1) Describe in words what the participants actually saw, in the order they saw it. Different experimental conditions should be included so the critical differences in what the participants experienced in the different conditions will be clear. 2) Describe in an accompanying figure a representation of what the participant actually saw and when they saw it. a) The figure should show the actual stimuli if possible, but usually they will be schematic representations of what they saw. For example, when the stimuli are white on a black background this consumes too much journal ink, so the background can be made white and the figure black, with an accompanying explanation; b) The figure should show the sequence and time line; c) All symbols in the table should be defined (there should be no undefined symbols) d) The labels and figure title should contain the units (inches, seconds, average milliseconds etc); e) Different experiment conditions should be represented in the figure using the same names of the independent variables as used in the text; f) The dependent variables should be referred to by the same names as in the text; g) The figure caption should closely match the words in the text section that refers to the figure; h) In figures and tables with several independent variables see the following examples form published article (adopted from Fortin et al., 2010);

Figure 7. Experiment 4. (a) Mean reaction times to the second stimulus as a function of memory set size in switch and no-switch trials. Error bars represent the SEM computed with the MSE.

Return to Inside-out Procedure 12

The 4 Ws

Art Woodward Fall 2009

The four Ws are:

W1: Why did you do the research? W2: What did you do? (Note this is a verbal explanation of what was done that appears in the introduction) W3: What did you discover? W4: Why is the discovery important? (Note in answering this question, do not simply restate the discovery. Instead, explain why the discovery is important.) Five articles are used to illustrate the 4 Ws: (1) (S): Shams, L., Kamitani, Y., & Shimojo, S. (2000). What you see is what you

hear. Nature, Vol. 408, pp.788. W1 W2 W3 W4(1) W4(2)

(2) (T-E): Tong, F. H., & Engel, S. A. (2001). Interocular rivalry revealed in the

human cortical blind-spot representation. Nature, 411, 195-199. W1 W2 W3(1) W3(2) W4(1) W4(2) W4(3) W4(4)

(3) (S-K): Saxe, R. & Kanwisher, N. (2003). People thinking about thinking people:

The role of the temporo-parietal junction in theory of mind. NeuroImage. 19 1835-1842 W1 W2(1) W2(2) W2(3) W2(4) W3(1) W3(2) W4(1) W4(2)

(4) (W-K): Wojciulik, E., & Kanwisher, N. (1999). The Generality of Parietal

Involvement in Visual Attention. Neuron. 23 747-764 W1(1) W1(2) W2 W3 W4(1) W4(2) W4(3)

(5) (R): Rowe, G., Hirsh, J.B., & Anderson, A.K., (2006). Positive affect increases

the breadth of attentional selection. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, 104(1): 383-8. W1 W2(1) W2(2) W2(3) W3(1) W3(2) W3(3) W4

Return to Inside-out Procedure Return to Steps for Writing 1st Draft Return to Checklist for New Article 1

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First draft Writing Tips Please do NOT do these while writing the first draft: Do not insert any un-needed details like names, dates, etc, unless automatic. 1) Do not try to improve the English as you write – write in Chinese-English. 2) If you don’t know the English word, insert Chinese characters and move on. 3) Do not edit your first draft as you write. Complete the entire first draft before editing. Instead, please DO these things as much as you can (even if it slows you down): Before you write, spend 5 minutes planning what you will write. Think about: (1) An attractive title; G (2) Intro: Write General Specific and Familiar Not Fam. Intro Discussion: Do the reverse and Step 1 Cross reference Step 2 (Do not forget the 4 Ws) F

Not F

Step 3

Attempt to take two steps

Gen. Discussion S

(3) Pause and think hard about the first sentence in each paragraph (called the topic sentence). The topic sentence should name the topic of the paragraph and state the controlling idea (see example on the next page); (4) Concentrate on conciseness (use no unnecessary words and do not repeat); (5) Concentrate on cohesion (connect the sentences logically); (6) Concentrate on coherence (make all sentences in a paragraph be about the same topic and obey the controlling idea of the topic sentence); (7) Use headings to help the reader identify the different main topics in your document; (8) Take the perspective of the reader (do not use words the reader may not understand; do not expect readers to remember what they read on previous pages.)

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Return to Inside-out Procedure

Practice for topic sentences and controlling idea Use bubbl.us (http://bubbl.us/) Write clear and well defined topic sentences. See the following examples. 1. There are three reason NTU is the best university in Taiwan. Topic: _NTU is the best university in Taiwan_; Controlling idea: _three reasons it’s the best__; Give some specific examples of the controlling idea:

2. The food in Taiwan is unique in East Asia because of the special spices used. Topic: __________________________________; Controlling idea: __________________________; Give some specific examples of the controlling idea:

3. Taiwanese food is unique in East Asia because of the many fresh ingredients. Topic: __________________________________; Controlling idea: __________________________; Give some specific examples of the controlling idea:

Return to Inside-out Procedure 15

Get off to a good start with W1 Make sure sentences similar to these examples appear in the first several paragraphs of your paper. Before submitting to a journal, review explicitly your 4 Ws in the paper by comparing them to the examples below. Example 1: Shams, Nature (ISI; 12/3/09;144)

“Vision is believed to dominate our multi-sensory perception of the world. Here we overturn this established view by showing that auditory information can qualitatively alter the perception of an unambiguous visual stimulus to create a striking visual illusion.” Example 2: Tong & Engel. Nature (ISI; 12/3/09;155) “Despite extensive research, the neural basis of binocular rivalry has remained highly controversial. Specifically, it is debated whether discrepant monocular patterns rival because of interocular competition or pattern competition. To resolve this issue, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to monitor rivalry-related activity in a monocular region of human V1 corresponding to the blind spot.” Example 3: Saxes and Kanwisher, NeuroImage (ISI; 12/3/09; 213) “The remarkable human facility with social cognition depends on a fundamental ability to reason about other people. Specifically, we predict and interpret the behavior of people based on an understanding of their minds: that is, we use a “theory of mind.” In this study we show that a region of human temporo-parietal junction is selectively involved in reasoning about the contents of other people’s minds.”

Example 4: Wojciulik and Kanwisher, Neuron (ISI; 12/3/09; 273) “However, very little work has been directed to the crucial question of whether visual attention in

fact consists of a single general-purpose mechanism or whether it instead consists of a heterogeneous set of different mechanisms, each involved in a different kind of selection. In the present study, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to address this question, asking whether there is any region of the human brain that is activated by each of three very different attention-requiring tasks yet not activated by a language task that is difficult but does not place heavy demands on visual attention.”

Return to Inside-out Procedure Return to Steps for Writing the 1st Draft

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Categories of importance for documenting W4 Category of Importance Develop a new theory or model

Example

Modify a famous theory or model

 

Rummelhart D.E. and McClelland J. L. (Distributed Processing Models) David Marr. (Level of analysis; computational model of visual processing) Young, T., and Helmholtz, H. (Trichromatic Theory of Color Vision) Gibson, J. J. (Direct perception) Wolfe J.M. (Guided Search)

Overturn a widely held belief



Shams, L (Double Click Illusion)

Describe or explain a puzzling mystery



Develop a new method or paradigm

  

Ramachandran V.S. (e.g., explains phantom pain)

“In this paper we present a new model for…”

  

“Here we overturn the widely held belief that…”

Discover a new phenomenon and rule out alternative explanations



Pearl J. (Bayes Net Models) Lauterbur, P., and Mansfield, P. (Magnetic Resonance Imaging): they applied MR physics to develop MRI scanner for human body; they won a Nobel prize in Physiology/ Medicine, 2003. Egly et al., 1994 (The double rectangle cueing paradigm that can probe location- and objectbased attention in a single experimental framework) Tsuchiya and Koch (Continuous Flash Suppression) Kanwisher, N. (Repetition Blindness)

Resolve an existing debate or controversy



Tong, F.H. and Engle S.A. (Binocular Rivalry)

Discover the underlying connection between two existing phenomena



Theory that influences other disciplines



Maxwell’s equations in Electronic and Magnetic. [There may be no integral theories like this in psychology] Kahnmann & Tversky (Prospect Theory): Two psychologists won the Nobel prize in economics

Useful for practical applications



“This study presents a new paradigm for..”





“This is the first study to …”

“Thus our study contributes to resolving the controversy about…”

Karremans, Stroebe, & Claus, 2006 (Subliminal priming that can be used in movies or commercial advertisements) Return to Inside-out Procedure Return to Checklist for New Article 17

Some Ideas for Good Titles A good title will attract the attention of potential readers, arouse their curiosity, and correctly prime them for the content of the article. 1) Some guidelines and suggested characteristics are: a) should contain familiar (older) information; b) may contain a clear statement of the main finding “Conditions where implicit and explicit cross-modal information are processed independently” c) may contain a question that will be answered by the research, so curiosity is aroused “Can implicit and explicit cross-modal sensory information be processed independently” d) may be a “play on words” or a metaphor, “What you hear is what you see” e) The title could be some reflection of the first W, third W, or fourth W 2) Examples: Which of the above characteristics apply to the following real article titles? “What you see is what you hear” “Interocular rivalry revealed in the human cortical blind-spot representation” “People thinking about thinking people: The role of the temporo-parietal junction in theory of mind.” “The Generality of Parietal Involvement in Visual Attention”


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Top-Down Second Draft Writing Tips Creating your second draft 1) Revise your title if you can make it more attractive and interesting to your audience. 2) Look at all your heading; add and remove headings as necessary; 3) Paragraph coherence: a) look at each topic sentence and decide if it needs to be made more clear for the reader; b) Make sure all the sentences in the paragraph match the topic sentence. If they don’t remove them, or create another paragraph. 4) Sentences a) Re write any run on sentences; b) Combine any sets of too short sentences; c) Insert any missing details, such as dates, names, or English words you did not know. Note: You do not need to improve the English grammar very much. Let the editor show you how to do that so you can practice revising according to professional edits. However you do need to be sure the writing is concise, cohesive, and coherent. The editors at Papercheck.com cannot improve the quality your thinking. Here are some useful sites for practice concise, cohesive, and coherent: Concise http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/quizzes/wordy_quiz.htm http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/quizzes/nova/nova8.htm http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/quizzes/nova/nova11.htm Cohesion http://www.uefap.com/writing/exercise/parag/refer.htm#top Coherence http://lrs.ed.uiuc.edu/students/fwalters/cohex3d.html Return to Inside-out Procedure Return to Checklist for New Article

Some Useful Information When Having the Paper Edited 1.

Have the paper edited (sent to papercheck.com) after everything is ready (references, figures, tables included)

2.

If you have a preferable editor, add the following: “Please have the editor who edited document XXXXXX (ID) work on this document".

3.

Examples: “This paper will be submitted to a top-tier journal: xxx.” If applicable, add: “In a previous review by a journal, it was suggested that we seek the editing help of a native English speaker to correct and smooth usage.” Or “This is the final version and we will submit the manuscript after revising according to your English edits.”


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Figure 2.1. Sample One-Experiment Paper (The numbers refer to numbered sections in the Publication Manual.)

Running head: EFFECTS OF AGE ON DETECTION OF EMOTION

1

Establishing a title, 2.01; Preparing the manuscript for submission, 8.03 Effects of Age on Detection of Emotional Information Christina M. Leclerc and Elizabeth A. Kensinger Boston College

Formatting the author name (byline) and institutional affiliation, 2.02, Table 2.1

Elements of an author note, 2.03 Author Note

Christina M. Leclerc and Elizabeth A. Kensinger, Department of Psychology,

2

EFFECTS OF AGE ON DETECTION OF EMOTION

Boston College.

Abstract

Writing the abstract, 2.04

This research arch was supported by National Science Foundation Grant BCS 0542694 Age differences were examined in affective processing, in the context of a visual search task. awarded to Elizabeth beth A. Kensinger. Young and older adults were faster to detect high arousal images compared with low arousal and Correspondence ndence concerning this article should be addressed to Christina M. Leclerc, neutral items. Younger adults were faster to detect positive high arousal targets compared with Department of Psychology, sychology, Boston College, McGuinn Hall, Room 512, 140 Commonwealth other categories. In contrast, older adults exhibited an overall detection advantage for emotional Avenue, Chestnut ut Hill, MA 02467. Email: [email protected] images compared with neutral images. Together, these findings suggest that older adults do not display valence-based effects on affective processing at relatively automatic stages. Keywords: aging, attention, information processing, emotion, visual search

Double-spaced manuscript, Times Roman typeface, 1-inch margins, 8.03

Paper adapted from “Effects of Age on Detection of Emotional Information,” by C. M. Leclerc and E. A. Kensinger, 2008, Psychology and Aging, 23, pp. 209–215. Copyright 2008 by the American Psychological Association. 21

Return to Inside-out procedure

Figure 2.1. Sample One-Experiment Paper (continued) EFFECTS OF AGE ON DETECTION OF EMOTION

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Writing the introduction, 2.05 Effects of Age on Detection of Emotional Information Frequently, people encounter situations in their environment in which it is impossible to attend to all available stimuli. It is therefore of great importance for one’s attentional processes to select only the most salient information in the environment to which one should attend. Previous research has suggested that emotional information is privy to attentional selection in young adults (e.g., Anderson, 2005; Calvo & Lang, 2004; Carretie, Hinojosa, Marin-Loeches, Mecado, & Tapia, 2004; Nummenmaa, Hyona, & Calvo, 2006), an obvious service to evolutionary drives

Selecting to approach rewarding situations and to avoid threat and danger (Davis & Whalen, 2001; Dolan the correct tense, 3.18 & Vuilleumier, 2003; Lang, Bradley, & Cuthbert, 1997; LeDoux, 1995). For example, Ohman, Flykt, and Esteves (2001) presented participants with 3 × 3 visual

Numbers arrays with images representing four categories (snakes, spiders, flowers, mushrooms). In half expressed in words, the arrays, all nine images were from the same category, whereas in the remaining half of the 4.32

Ordering citations within the same parentheses, 6.16

Numbers that represent statistical or mathematical functions, 4.31

arrays, eight images were from one category and one image was from a different category (e.g.,

Use of hyphenation for compound words, 4.13, discrepant ant stimulus. Results indicated that fear fear-relevant r- relevant images were more quickly detected than Table 4.1 eight flowers and one snake). Participants were asked to indicate whether the matrix included a

elevant items, aand larger search facilitation effects were observed for participants who fear-irrelevant arful of the stimuli. A similar pattern of results has been observed when examining the were fearful EFFECTS OF AGE ON DETECTION OF EMOTION

4

n-grabbing (includ ing those attention-grabbing nature of negative facial expressions, with threatening faces (including Calvo & Lang, 2004; Carretie et al., 2004; Juth, Lundqvist, Karlsson, & Ohman, 2005; nded to) identified more quickly than positive or neutral faces (Eastwood, Smilek, & not attended Nummenmaa et 1988). al., 2006). e, 2001; Hansen Merikle, & Hansen, The enhanced detection of emotional information is From this research, it seems that younger adults show benefits for ited to threatening stimuli; there is evidence thatclear any high-arousing stimulus candetection be not limited arousing of information environment. It is lessvalenced clear whether these 2005; effects d rapidly, regardless whether itinis the positively or negatively ((Anderson, 5 are preserved detected across the adult life span. The focus of the current research is on determining the extent to which

Continuity in presentation aging influences the early, relatively automatic detection of emotional information. of ideas, 3.05 Regions of the brain thought to be important for emotional detection remain relatively intact with aging (reviewed by Chow & Cummings, 2000). Thus, it is plausible that the detection of emotional information remains relatively stable as adults age. However, despite the preservation of emotion-processing regions with age (or perhaps because of the contrast between the preservation of these regions and age-related declines in cognitive-processing regions; Good et al., 2001; Hedden & Gabrieli, 2004; Ohnishi, Matsuda, Tabira, Asada, & Uno, 2001; Raz,

No capitalization in naming theories, 4.16

2000; West, 1996), recent behavioral research has revealed changes that occur with aging in the regulation and processing of emotion. According to the socioemotional selectivity theory

Citing one work by six or more authors, 6.12

(Carstensen, 1992), with aging, time is perceived as increasingly limited, and as a result, emotion regulation becomes a primary goal (Carstensen, Isaacowitz, & Charles, 1999). According to socioemotional selectivity theory, age is associated with an increased motivation to derive emotional meaning from life and a simultaneous decreasing motivation to expand one’s knowledge base. As a consequence of these motivational shifts, emotional aspects of the

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5

Using the colon between two grammatically complete clauses, 4.05

To maintain positive affect in the face of negative age-related change (e.g., limited time remaining, physical and cognitive decline), older adults may adopt new cognitive strategies. One such strategy, discussed recently, is the positivity effect (Carstensen & Mikels, 2005), in which older adults spend proportionately more time processing positive emotional material and less time processing negative emotional material. Studies examining the influence of emotion on memory (Charles, Mather, & Carstensen, 2003; Kennedy, Mather, & Carstensen, 2004) have found that compared with younger adults, older adults recall proportionally more positive information and proportionally less negative information. Similar results have been found when examining eye-tracking patterns: Older adults looked at positive images longer than younger adults did, even when no age differences were observed in looking time for negative stimuli

Capitalization of words beginning a sentence after a colon, 4.14

(Isaacowitz, Wadlinger, Goren, & Wilson, 2006). However, this positivity effect has not gone uncontested; some researchers have found evidence inconsistent with the positivity effect (e.g., Grühn, Smith, & Baltes, 2005; Kensinger, Brierley, Medford, Growdon, & Corkin, 2002).

Hypotheses and their correspondence to research design, Introduction, 2.05

Based on this previously discussed research, three competing hypotheses exist to explain motional processing associated with the normal aging process. First, age differences in emotional emotional informationn may remain important throughout the life span, leading to similarly OFin AGE ON DETECTION OF Second, EMOTION younger and older adults. with aging, facilitated detection of emotionalEFFECTS information

Using the semicolon to separate two independent 6 clauses not joined by a conjunction, 4.04

emotional informationn may take on additional importance, resulting in older adults’ enhanced rapidly detect emotional information. We hypothesized that on the whole, older adults would be al information in their environment. Third, older adults may focus detection of emotional slower to detect information than young adults would be (consistent with Hahn, Carlson, Singer, principally on positivee emotional information and may show facilitated detection of positive, but & Gronlund, 2006; Mather & Knight, 2006); the critical question was whether the two age nal information. not negative, emotional groups would show similar or divergent facilitation effects with regard to the effects of emotion The primary goal in the present experiment was to adjudicate among these alternatives. on item detection. On the basis of the existing literature, the first two previously discussed ed a visual search paradigm to assess young and older adults’ abilities to To do so, we employed hypotheses seemed to be more plausible than the third alternative. This is because there is reason

Using the comma between elements in a series, 4.03 Punctuation with citations in parenthetical material, 6.21

to think that the positivity effect may be operating only at later stages of processing (e.g., strategic, elaborative, and emotion regulation processes) rather than at the earlier stages of processing involved in the rapid detection of information (see Mather & Knight, 2005, for discussion). Thus, the first two hypotheses, that emotional information maintains its importance across the life span or that emotional information in general takes on greater importance with age, seemed particularly applicable to early stages of emotional processing. Indeed, a couple of prior studies have provided evidence for intact early processing of emotional facial expressions with aging. Mather and Knight (2006) examined young and older

Citing references in text, inclusion of year within paragraph, 6.11, 6.12

adults’ abilities to detect happy, sad, angry, or neutral faces presented in a complex visual array. Mather and Knight found that like younger adults, older adults detected threatening faces more quickly than they detected other types of emotional stimuli. Similarly, Hahn et al. (2006) also found no age differences in efficiency of search time when angry faces were presented in an array of neutral faces, compared with happy faces in neutral face displays. When angry faces, compared with positive and neutral faces, served as nontarget distractors in the visual search

Prefixes and suffixes that do not require hyphens, Table 4.2

arrays, however, older adults were more efficient in searching, compared with younger adults,

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7

negative stimuli were not of equivalent arousal levels (fearful faces typically are more arousing than happy faces; Hansen & Hansen, 1988). Given that arousal is thought to be a key factor in modulating the attentional focus effect (Hansen & Hansen, 1988; Pratto & John, 1991; Reimann & McNally, 1995), to more clearly understand emotional processing in the context of aging, it is necessary to include both positive and negative emotional items with equal levels of arousal. In the current research, therefore, we compared young and older adults’ detection of four categories of emotional information (positive high arousal, positive low arousal, negative high arousal, and negative low arousal) with their detection of neutral information. The positive and

Prefixed words that require hyphens, Table 4.3

negative stimuli were carefully matched on arousal level, and the categories of high and low arousal were closely matched on valence to assure that the factors of valence (positive, negative) and arousal (high, low) could be investigated independently of one another. Participants were presented with a visual search task including images from these different categories (e.g., snakes, cars, teapots). For half of the multi-image g arrays, y , all of the images g were of the same item,, and for the remaining half of the arrays, a single target image of a different type from the remaining

Using abbreviations, 4.22; Explanation of abbreviations, 4.23; Abbreviations used often in APA journals, 4.25; Plurals of abbreviations, 4.29

items was included. Participants were asked to decide whether a different item was included in EFFECTS OF AGE ON DETECTION OF EMOTION

8

the array, and their reaction times were recorded for each decision. Of primary interest were for the arousing items than shown by the young adults (resulting in an interaction between age differences in response times (RTs)) based on the valence and arousal levels of the target and arousal). ung and older adults were equally focused on emotional categories. We reasoned that if young Method information, then we would expectt similar degrees of facilitation in the detection of emotional

older adults were more affectively focused than stimuli for the two age groups. By contrast, ifParticipants

Elements of the Method section, 2.06; Organizing a manuscript with levels of heading, 3.03

adults (14 women, 10 men, Mage = 19.5 years, age range: 18–22 years) were were younger adults, older adults should show eitherYounger faster detection speeds for all of the recruited with flyers posted on the Boston College campus. Older adults (15 women, nine men, utral items) than shown by young adults or greater facilitation emotional items (relative to the neutral Mage = 76.1 years, age range: 68–84 years) were recruited through the Harvard Cooperative on

Identifying subsections within the Method section, 2.06

Aging (see Table 1, for demographics and test scores).1 Participants were compensated $10 per hour for their participation. There were 30 additional participants, recruited in the same way as described above, who provided pilot rating values: five young and five old participants for the assignment of items within individual categories (i.e., images depicting cats), and 10 young and 10 old participants for the assignment of images within valence and arousal categories. All

Using numerals to express numbers representing age, 4.31

participants were asked to bring corrective eyewear if needed, resulting in normal or corrected to normal vision for all participants. Materials and Procedure

Participant (subject) characteristics, Method, 2.06

The visual search task was adapted from Ohman et al. (2001). There were 10 different types of items (two each of five Valence × Arousal categories: positive high arousal, positive low arousal, neutral, negative low arousal, negative high arousal), each containing nine individual exemplars that were used to construct 3 × 3 stimulus matrices. A total of 90 images were used, each appearing as a target and as a member of a distracting array. A total of 360 matrices were presented to each participant; half contained a target item (i.e., eight items of one type and one target item of another type) and half did not (i.e., all nine images of the same type). Within the

24



9

matrix. Within the 180 target trials, each of the five emotion categories (e.g., positive high arousal, neutral, etc.) was represented in 36 trials. Further, within each of the 36 trials for each emotion category, nine trials were created for each of the combinations with the remaining four other emotion categories (e.g., nine trials with eight positive high arousal items and one neutral item). Location of the target was randomly varied such that no target within an emotion category was presented in the same location in arrays of more than one other emotion category (i.e., a negative high arousal target appeared in a different location when presented with positive high arousal array images than when presented with neutral array images). The items within each category of grayscale images shared the same verbal label (e.g., mushroom, snake), and the items were selected from online databases and photo clipart

Latin abbreviations, 4.26 Numbers expressed in words at beginning of sentence, 4.32

packages. Each image depicted a photo of the actual object. Ten pilot participants were asked to write down the name corresponding to eachhead: object; any object didON notDETECTION consistently generate Running R EFFECTS OFthat AGE OF EMOTION

10

the intended response was eliminated from the set. For the remaining images, an additional 20 selected such that the arousal difference between positive low arousal and positi positive high arousal pilot participants rated the emotional valence and arousal of the objects and assessed the degree was equal to the difference between negative low arousal and negative high arou arousal. of visual similarity among objects within a set (i.e., how similar the mushrooms were to one between Similarity ratings. Each item was rated for within-category and between-categories another) and between objects across sets (i.e., how similar the mushrooms were to the snakes). similarity. For within-category similarity, participants were shown a set of exemplars exem (e.g., a set Valence and arousal ratings. Valence and arousal were judged on 7-point scales (1 = of mushrooms) and were asked to rate how similar each mushroom was to the re rest of the negative valence or low arousal and 7 = positive valence or high arousal). Negative objects mushrooms, on a 1 (entirely dissimilar) to 7 ((nearly identical identical)) scale. Participants made these received mean valence ratings of 2.5 or lower, neutral objects received mean valence ratings of ratings on the basis of overall similarity and on the basis of the specific visual di dimensions in 3.5 to 4.5, and positive objects received mean valence ratings of 5.5 or higher. High arousal which the objects could differ (size, shape, orientation). Participants also rated hhow similar objects received mean arousal ratings greater than 5, and low arousal objects (including all objects of one category were to objects of another category (e.g., how similar the mushrooms neutral stimuli) received mean arousal ratings of less than 4. We selected categories for which were to the snakes). Items were selected to assure that the categories were equate equated on withinboth young and older adults agreed on the valence and arousal classifications, and stimuli were category and between-categories similarity of specific visual dimensions as well as for the

Italicization of anchors of a scale, 4.21

overall similarity of the object categories ((p (pss > .20). For example, we selected pa particular h ti l cats t so that th t the th mushrooms h i il to t one another as were the mushrooms andd particular were as similar cats (i.e., within-group similarity was held constant across the categories). Our object selection also assured that the categories differed from one another to a similar degree (e.g., that the mushrooms were as similar to the snakes as the cats were similar to the snakes). Procedure Each trial began with a white fixation cross presented on a black screen for 1,000 ms; the matrix was then presented, and it remained on the screen until a participant response was recorded. Participants were instructed to respond as quickly as possible with a button marked yes if there was a target present, or a button marked no if no target was present. Response latencies and accuracy for each trial were automatically recorded with E-Prime (Version 1.2) experimental

25


Figure 2.1. Sample One-Experiment Paper (continued)


11

software. Before beginning the actual task, participants performed 20 practice trials to assure compliance with the task instructions. Results

Elements of the Results section, 2.07

Analyses focus on participants’ RTs to the 120 trials in which a target was present and was from a different emotional category from the distractor (e.g., RTs were not included for

Abbreviations accepted as words, 4.24

arrays containing eight images of a cat and one image of a butterfly because cats and butterflies are both positive low arousal items). RTs were analyzed for 24 trials of each target emotion category. RTs for error trials were excluded (less than 5% of all responses) as were RTs that

Symbols, 4.45; Numbers, 4.31

were ±3 SD from each participant ’s mean (approximately 1.5% of responses). Median RTs were then calculated for each of the five emotional target categories, collapsing across array type (see Table 2 for raw RT values for each of the two age groups). This allowed us to examine, for example, whether participants were faster to detect images of snakes than images of mushrooms,

Nouns followed by numerals or letters, 4.17

regardless of the type of array in which they were presented. Because our main interest was in examining the effects of valence and arousal on participants’ target detection times, we created scores for each emotional target category that controlled for the participant’s RTs to detect neutral targets (e.g., subtracting the RT to detect neutral targets from the RT to detect positive high arousal targets). These difference scores were then examined with a 2 × 2 × 2 (Age [young, older] × Valence [positive, negative] × Arousal [high, low]) analysis of variance (ANOVA). This ANOVA revealed only a significant main effect of arousal, F(1, 46) = 8.41, p = .006, ηp2 = .16, with larger differences between neutral and high arousal images (M = 137) than between neutral and low arousal images (M = 93; i.e., high arousal items processed more quickly across both age

Reporting p values, decimal fractions, 4.35 Statistical symbols, 4.46, Table 4.5

groups compared with low arousal items; see Figure 1). There was no significant main effect for valence, nor was there an interaction between valence and arousal. It is critical that the analysis

Numbering and discussing figures in text, 5.05

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12

revealed only a main effect of age but no interactions with age. Thus, the arousal-mediated effects on detection time appeared stable in young and older adults. The results described above suggested that there was no influence of age on the influences of emotion. To further test the validity of this hypothesis, we submitted the RTs to the five categories of targets to a 2 × 5 (Age [young, old] × Target Category [positive high arousal,

Statistics in text, 4.44

positive low arousal, neutral, negative low arousal, negative high arousal]) repeated measures 2

ANOVA. Both the age group, F(1, 46) = 540.32, p < .001,

ηp2

= .92, and the ta rget category,

Spacing, alignment, and punctuation of mathematical copy, 4.46

F(4, 184) = 8.98, p < .001, η p2 = .16, main effects were significant, as well as the Age Group × Target Category interaction, F(4, 184) = 3.59, p = .008, η p2 = .07. This interaction appeared to reflect the fact that for the younger adults, positive high arousal targets were detected faster than targets from all other categories, ts(23) < –1.90,p < .001, with no other target categories differing significantly from one another (although there were trends for negative high arousal

Capitalize effects or variables when they appear with multiplication signs, 4.20

and negative low arousal targets to be detected more rapidly than neutral targets (p < .12). For older adults, all emotional categories of targets were detected more rapidly than were neutral targets, ts(23) > 2.56, p < .017, and RTs to the different emotion categories of targets did not differ significantly from one another. Thus, these results provided some evidence that older adults may show a broader advantage for detection of any type of emotional information, whereas young adults’ benefit may be more narrowly restricted to only certain categories of

Elements of the Discussion section, 2.08

emotional information. Discussion

As outlined previously, there were three plausible alternatives for young and older adults’ performance on the visual search task: The two age groups could show a similar pattern of enhanced detection of emotional information, older adults could show a greater advantage for

27




13

emotional detection than young adults, or older adults could show a greater facilitation than young adults only for the detection of positive information. The results lent some support to the first two alternatives, but no evidence was found to support the third alternative.

Clear statement of support or nonsupport of hypotheses, Discussion, 2.08

In line with the first alternative, no effects of age were found when the influence of valence and arousal on target detection times was examined; both age groups showed only an arousal effect. This result is consistent with prior studies that indicated that arousing information can be detected rapidly and automatically by young adults (Anderson, Christoff, Panitz, De Rosa, & Gabrieli, 2003; Ohman & Mineka, 2001) and that older adults, like younger adults, continue to display a threat detection advantage when searching for negative facial targets in nd neutral distractors (Hahn et al., 2006; Mather & Knight, 2006). 6 Given the arrays of positive and relative preservationn of automatic processing with aging (Fleischman, Wilson, Gabrieli, Bienias, EFFECTS OF AGE ON DETECTION OF EMOTION nnings & Jacoby, 1993), 3 it makes sense that older adults would remain able & Bennett, 2004; Jennings

14

to take advantage off these automatic alerting systems foreffects detecting high arousal information. processing, given that no of valence were observed in older adults’ detection speed. In the espite the similarity in arousal-mediated on detection between the two However, despite effects present study, older adults were equally fast to detect positive and negative information, ent study did provide some evidence for age-related change (specifically, age groups, the present consistent with prior research that indicated that older adults often attend equally to positive and ment) in the detection of emotional information. When examining RTs for age-related enhancement) negative stimuli (Rosler et al., 2005). Although the pattern of results for the young adults has in detecting positive the five categories of emotionaldiffered targets,across younger adults were efficient studies—in the more present study and in some past research, young adults have shown 2 whereas high arousal images (as presented in Table 2), older adults displayed an Anderson, overall 2005; Calvo & Lang, 2004; Carretie facilitated detection of positive information (e.g., ting all emotional This2006), pattern advantage for detecting images compared withNummenmaa neutral images. et al., 2004; Juth et al., 2005; et al., whereas in other studies, young adults nfluence ofhave suggests a broader influence emotion onan older adults’ for detection of information stimuli, providing support & Dolan, 2002; Hansen & shown advantage negative (e.g., Armony hat as individuals age, emotional becomes more salient. for the hypothesis that Hansen, 1988; Mogg, information Bradley, de Bono, & Painter, 1997; Pratto & John, 1991; Reimann & ng that thisMcNally, second set of findings It is interesting is clearly inconsistent with 1996)—what the hypothesis 1995; Williams, Mathews, & MacLeod, is important to note is that the ffect in older information that the positivity effect adults operates at relatively automatic stages of older adults detected both positive and negative stimuli at equal rates. This equivalent detection of positive and negative information provides evidence that older adults display an advantage for

Use of an em dash to indicate an interruption the detection of emotional information that is not valence-specific. in the continuity of a Thus, although younger and older adults exhibited somewhat divergent patterns of sentence, 4.06; emotional detection on a task reliant on early, relatively automatic stages of processing, we Description of an em dash, 4.13 found no evidence of an age-related positivity effect. The lack of a positivity focus in the older adults is in keeping with the proposal (e.g., Mather & Knight, 2006) that the positivity effect does not arise through automatic attentional influences. Rather, when this effect is observed in older adults, it is likely due to age-related changes in emotion regulation goals that operate at later stages of processing (i.e., during consciously controlled processing), once information has been attended to and once the emotional nature of the stimulus has been discerned. Although we cannot conclusively say that the current task relies strictly on automatic processes, there are two lines of evidence suggesting that the construct examined in the current

28




15

Use of parallel construction with coordinating conjunctions used in pairs, 3.23

research examines relatively automatic processing. First, in their previous work, Ohman et al. (2001) compared RTs with both 2 × 2 and 3 × 3 arrays. No significant RT differences based on the number of images presented in the arrays were found. Second, in both Ohman et al.’s (2001) study and the present study, analyses were performed to examine the influence of target location on RT. Across both studies, and across both age groups in the current work, emotional targets were detected more quickly than were neutral targets, regardless of their location. Together, these findings suggest that task performance is dependent on relatively automatic detection

Discussion section ending with comments on importance of findings, 2.08

processes rather than on controlled search processes. Although further work is required to gain a more complete understanding of the agehe early processing of emotional information, our findings indicate that related changes in the ults are similar in their early detection of emotional images. The current young and older adults EFFECTS OF AGE ON DETECTION OF EMOTION her evidence that mechanisms associated with relatively automatic processing study provides further

the life span of emotional imagess are well maintained throughout the latter portion of References

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Table 1 Participant Characteristics Younger group Measure M SD Years of education 13.92 1.28 Beck Anxiety Inventory 9.39 5.34 BADS– DEX 20.79 7.58 Selecting effective STAI–State 45.79 4.44 STAI–Trait 45.64 4.50 presentation, 4.41; Digit Symbol Substitution 49.62 7.18 Logical and effective Generative naming 46.95 9.70 table layout, 5.08 Vocabulary 33.00 3.52 Digit Span– Backward 8.81 2.09 Arithmetic 16.14 2.75 Mental Control 32.32 3.82 Self-Ordered Pointing 1.73 2.53 CTS OF AGE ON DETECTION OF EMOTION EFFECTS WCST perseverative errors 0.36 0.66 Table 2

Older group M SD 16.33 2.43 6.25 6.06 13.38 8.29 47.08 3.48 45.58 3.15 31.58 6.56 47.17 12.98 35.25 3.70 8.25 2.15 14.96 3.11 23.75 5.13 9.25 9.40 1.83 3.23

F (1, 46) 18.62 3.54 10.46 1.07 0.02 77.52 .004 4.33 0.78 1.84 40.60 13.18 4.39 24

p