THE PSYCHOLOGY STUDENTS' GUIDE TO WRITING A LAB REPORT A typical lab report is made up of four sections: 1) the title page, 2) the abstract, 3) the report, and 4)

the references. The report itself is made up of an introduction, the method, the results, and the discussion. Before you commence writing, there are a few points worth keeping in mind: 1) Promote your work There are a number of mistakes that students make because they think of a lab report as a hurdle requirement rather than as a method of communicating findings. An example of this is the way limitations are raised and discussed. A scientist (or clinician) should be capable of criticizing their own work, as it demonstrates a level of objectivity, but being overly critical nullifies the validity of your findings for your reader. 2) Narrative Each part of the lab report reflects the story being told. The title is the first glimpse of the story (the film poster of the report, if you will). The abstract is the trailer (one of the too- detailed variety from which you can determine whether you want to see the elongated film itself). The body of the report is the film itself. Throughout each of these sections, you tell the same story, but with a variety of concision. Note that the introduction, method, results, and discussion should all form the same narrative. 3) Time is money (and words are time) A clear and concise message will triumph. A message that is needlessly and fruitlessly descriptive and flowery will send the individual reading the sentence off to the land of nod to sleep for ...ZZZZZ... (you see where I'm going with this)./nProcedure Each trial was initiated by a button press A fixation cross was presented for 1000 ms followed by a blank interval of 100 ms A stimulus was then presented until a response was made Participants were instructed to press the "F" key on the keyboard to categorize the amoeba int category A ("Toraphagus") or the "J" key to categorize the amoeba into category B ("Bacillicus") There was one practice block in which each stimulus was presented once This was followed by 10 experimental blocks in which each stimulus was presented once. Duri the practice phase, feedback was provided for 1000 ms after both correct trials ("Correct") incorrect trials ("Wrong") During the experimental phase, feedback was only presented after incorrect trials Trials timed out after 20 s if no response was made