OK, lets imagine that we did a chocolate chip cookie taste test of various brands of cookies. We hypothesize that the better tasting cookies (as determined by an average of all subject ratings for each brand) are also more expensive.
Here's how you could writeup your hypothesis test (NOTE!!! we haven't used APA line spacing here, nor is there a header on this page--you should do EVERYTHING in APA format--we're just showing you how easy the writeup can be). This should be a single sheet of paper (dead tree) even when you have more than one hypothesis to test (this happens later in the semester). I don't want a cover page, or an abstract, or anything like that. Just one page that has that APA-look. Put this page on top and use your last name for the heading. Staple everything together. If you are submitting a revision, you MUST staple the revision to the top of the original submissions. Most revisions only require a new APA-style hypothesis page. Usually the output can just have a few new comments added and the figure comments I give you are usually just to guide you to better graphs in the future.
I hypothesize that the better tasting the brand of cookie is, the more expensive it will be.
As hypothesized, there was a significant positive correlation between the taste rating (M = 3.67, SD = .45) of a cookie and the price (M = .97, SD = .12), r(47) = +.83, p = .02.
Nothing goes in Blackboard for this assignment - everything goes into the Lab Folders outside of my office. To your paper (that is beneath it), staple (no paper clips) a copy of your output with hand written comments. Follow the guidelines in our nifty tutorial, but don't put numbers in the bubbles - put comments. These comments should relate to the descriptive and inferential statistical information on your output that would be necessary to fully interpret your hypothesis. For example, "Room 217 had a higher mean temperature," with arrows to the relevant numbers on the output. When interpreting independent groups t-tests, be sure to include comments relating to interpretation of the F-Test and the subsequent choice of which t statistic to use. Always include a comment stating whether the relevant test statistic is significant with an arrow to the relevant p value on the output. Be sure to write your hypothesis on the output too. Also, if you have done any data manipulations (computes, recodes, etc.) directly related to your hypothesis test make sure that the syntax for these events are on your outputs and include comments to explain what these manipulations are for. DO NOT, however, include a separate syntax file and be certain to not spit back to me the ton of syntax I/we wrote for you! There's no need for me to read my own syntax.
Remember, you must attach a figure to this assignment (whether they are to be hand drawn, or done on computer will be in the Schedule of Assignments). If you, for some reason, also wish to include discussion of a figure, or table in your results section (which we don't typically require you to do), you are allowed to put the figure/table right in with the text (not on a separate page, as APA would normally require).
In order to plot a scattergram for a Pearson Correlation, you read your number pairs from the data file, or use List Variables (that's in the Quick Guide).
CONSULT THE APA MANUAL FOR HOW TO FORMAT YOUR PAPER AND TYPE THE RESULTS OF YOUR DATA ANALYSIS. YOU MAY HAVE TO LOOK IN MORE THAN ONE LOCATION IN THE MANUAL TO GET THINGS RIGHT. CONSULT HOW TO WRITE A RESULTS SECTION FOR THE BIG PICTURE. ANOTHER USEFUL MANUAL LOCATION DEALS WITH "TYPING."