Question: In this assignment, you will ADD a full introduction to the previous writing assignment (14. APA Formatting Assignment). This document explains how to write the introduction.
Background for the Introduction
Introduction is where researchers
1) Educate the reader about the previous research on the key variables' relationship (i.e., address the basic phenomenon involving the two variables).
2) Address previous researchers' accounts of the phenomenon (why such and such phenomenon exists)
3) Put their research in the context of the previous research (i.e., making logical connections between the proposed study and previous studies to justify the new research question)
4) And briefly describe the plan to answer your research question.
What kind of research question is worth a new study? To be a valuable question, the study outcome should be able to
1) Fill in the gap in our knowledge regarding the phenomenon (e.g., why doing two things at the same time is difficult)
2) Or provide practical values (e.g., effective study strategies).
In order to identify such questions, we need to know what we know and what we do not now about a certain phenomenon. More specifically, we need to know previous researchers' accounts about the phenomenon and their limitations. One of the primary purposes of the introduction is to educate readers about the previous accounts.
1. Previous accounts cannot explain certain specific aspect of the phenomenon (e.g., (the response-selection bottleneck hypothesis suggests that dual-task cost occurs when the response-selection processes of two tasks overlap. This hypothesis does not consider motor-response stages as the cause of dual-task cost. However, whether or not performing a motor response affects the dual-task cost.). Or they cannot predict how the phenomenon would manifest under certain circumstances. In other words, you notice limitations of the previous accounts in terms of their ability to explain or predict the phenomenon when another variable is considered.
a. Then, to develop your own research question, you need to invite and systematically manipulate a new variable that may modify the phenomenon: For example, when the two variables of interests are dual-task cost and the decision making process, the newly invited and manipulated variable could be the motor-response stage.
b. In order to invite a new variable that is worth for a new study, there should be a reason why the new variable may affect the phenomenon (how the interactions between two variables in a given phenomenon may vary when the new variable is introduced and manipulated). Such a new variable that may affect the phenomenon must be identified based on literature review. For example, previous dual-task cost research did not investigate gender difference on dual-task cost but many studies on the overall performance difference between two genders suggest significant differences between them. Therefore, there might be a gender difference in terms of dual-task cost.
c. Finally, propose a study that can test the new variable's effect on the phenomenon.
2. Specific mechanism of previous account is not well understood
a. For example, whether or not the lipstick effect shows automaticity characteristic in terms of visual attention.
b. Using previous paradigm with which one can measure automaticity, whether or not women's attention can be captured by beauty-enhancing products.