Guidance for PhD students

1. Heres an excellent example of a very clear Results section. This a relatively famous paper on the idea that testing yourself on material studied enhances retention more than simply piling on the study hours by arguably the worlds most famous memory researcher (Roediger) published in one of psychologys higher impact journals (Psychological Science). Note how it opens with a plain, patient description of the data. Once the data are described, the nature and output of the analysis are described. This was a 2x3 experimental design, hence there were 6 experimental condition means. Look at the graph: notice the absence of grid lines, the absence of a title, but the presence of a descriptive caption this is not an SPSS output graph. The representation of the data is plain, unadorned, in simple easy-do-discriminate black and grey tones, uncluttered of irrelevant features that draw attention away from the pattern in the data what I sometimes refer to as a Amish way of plotting data, plain, simple, unpretentious, clearly showcasing the data. It doesnt get much better than this.

Structure 1.Describe data supported by table or graph (or neither). 2.Then introduce output from statistical analyses.

Guidance for PhD students

2. Lets plot four data points, four means. They come from an actual perception lab carried out by senior undergraduates. This was a 2x2 experimental design that manipulated a spatial scale independent variable and a saliency independent variable, each with two levels, yielding four experimental conditions. The dependent measure was response latency to identify a figure (in milliseconds). The four means are presented below, along with the standard error for these means (remember, the standard error is simply the standard deviation divided by the square root of N for that condition).
Mean Saliency Equally Globally Spatial Scale Global (Diamond) 540.072 498.362 Local (F) 444.798 463.304 SEMs Global Local Saliency Equally Globally 12.880 11.659 13.171 12.253

First array the data in your Excel spreadsheet such as to create a 2x2 matrix of means. I also arrayed the standard errors of the means next to them to use as error bars (although for now lets not worry about error bars the goal is to plot the four means as a bar graph). Once arrayed, highlight the matrix including the row and column labels (A). This tells Excels what data to plot. Next, from the Insert tab, select Column and then the first option on the left from the array of 2-D Columns option (B). A B

Guidance for PhD students

3. The default graph generated by Excel looks alright (A), but there are a few things missing (like axis labels!) and I would argue that a few inelegant features need to be modified and edited to make it look like something that could be appear in a professional journal (something like in B). Transforming the graph requires a bit of patience and a fearless exploration of the available options when right clicking on an aspect of the graph you want to change. Ill illustrate a few of the steps along the way. A B

Guidance for PhD students

4. Im not a big fan of gridlines I like the Amish, not Gangnam, style portraying the data without any frills or unnecessary lines that add irrelevant perceptual feedback. To get rid of the gridlines, simply right click on them, and from the pop up menu, select Delete (A). Its also important to code the legend such that it could be interpreted unambiguously in a black-and-white medium so I change the colour of the bar to be more monochromatic. To do so I place the cursor on one of the bars, right click on it and chose Format Data Series (B); from the resulting menu select Fill and then the Solid Fill option, and then from the Color palette chose your colour(C). Ive chosen white for the Global means. If you chose white, though, best set the Border Color a dark colour to outline the bar! (D). A B

Guidance for PhD students

5. You can adjust the plot area within the chart area. The chart area is the whole frame of the chart or figure, whereas the plot area is the area configured by the axes. By clicking on the plot, you can drag it within the chart frame (A). You can move it or shrink it to give you the space to add axis labels. Note that the legend is a text box and once clicked on you can move it, stretch it (B). I prefer it when the legend doesnt squeeze out the plot, so I tend to move it within the plot area. To add axis labels, select the Layout tab, and then Axis Titles; I illustrate below how to add an x-axis label (and in the resulting text box, I typed Saliency) D. A B

Guidance for PhD students

6. You can edit the y-axis. For one, you can change its minimum value, so as to magnify the differences between means (at times good to better illustrate the pattern in the data). The two-decimal precision makes it look a little too rocket sciencey so I will edit them out. First right click on the y-axis (A) when in doubt always right click on something! Under Axis Options I select Fixed for the Minimum field, and type in 300 this will be the y-axis new minimum value (B). Next click on Number from the other choice on the left. Within Number, select Number again, and in the Decimal places box enter 0 (C) click Close. We now got something that looks much more professional than what Excel first generated by default (D). A B

Guidance for PhD students

7. Ive skipped a few steps in altering the look of my chart (e.g., making the background transparent, changing the font type I have an aversion to Calibri and increasing the font size of the legend); but these steps are down to personal preference and style. Right click away to modify your chart as you see fit, but remember, keep it Amish! Ill describe one more thing in detail though: To place a caption under the chart. I place a text box under my chart and write the caption (dont forget a chart sports a caption, not a title or a header). From the Insert tab select Text Box (A) and draw it under the chart (B). The caption should clearly describe the data (C) the reader must not be left guessing. Of course by default the text is Calibri (argh!) so I simply right click on the text box and chose Arial (D) A B

Guidance for PhD students

8. To paste your excellent Excel chart into a Word document, hold the shift key and click on both the chart and the text caption box so that both are highlighted simultaneously (A) and Copy (B). Open your Word document, and select Paste Special (C); from the resulting menu, select Picture (Enhanced Metafile) D. What were telling Excel is to treat the copied material not as an Excel chart as such, but rather as a pictured object composed of both the chart and the text box. Once you copied that picture in your Word document, you can move it, shrink it, place it wherever you like. A B

Guidance for PhD students

Results The mean latencies in the four experimental conditions are illustrated in Figure 1. The slowest reaction times were recorded for the global figure in both saliency conditions...

600

Global (Diamond)

Local (F)

Mean Reaction Time (ms)

550 500
450

400 350 300

Equally Saliency

Globally

Figure 1. Mean reaction time to the global figure (open bars) and the local letter (shaded bars) in the equally and globally salient conditions. Error bars are standard error of the means.

Frdric Valle-Tourangeau November 2012