1. Come up with and execute an analysis plan of your own, with help from tutors (during consultation times) and the stats resources available on Moodle. You will be responsible for interpreting the findings and producing figures/graphs of your data.
2. Come up with your own research question and rationale based on the basic analyses which have been provided to you. You will be responsible for interpreting the findings and producing figures/graphs of the findings.
Your poster will need to include the analysis of a minimum of three variables from the data provided to you. You are free to select any variables you like, as long as your analysis is based on a logical rationale, formulated from existing literature. At least one of the variables must be sleep related. You may include more than 3 variables if you wish, however, try not to include too many as this will likely result in a research question which is too complex to address within the scope of this assignment. You will not strictly be penalized for doing so – you may just lose marks for not adequately covering all sections.
Your poster must accurately reflect the data collection which took place – and should only describe the components of the study (the variables) which are directly relevant to your research question. You mark will be affected if you include unnecessary detail. i.e., If you only analysed data from two questionnaires (e.g., the MEQ and the ISI), you should just describe those questionnaires in your methods, not all that were administered. You should include the following sections in your poster:
Title
A concise descriiption of your study including the main variables presented, and your findings (even if this means a lack of relationship).
Background/Introduction
A brief overview of the main studies which have led directly to your research question. This can be in dot points, and may only include a few statements. This should lead rationally to your research question/aims. You should make reference to key studies using either APA in text citations or a numbered formatting style such as Chicago.
Aims & Hypotheses
Outline the aim of the study, and your hypothesis/es clearly. Hypotheses should be operationalized, and your aim should be specific to your analyses.
Methods
Including the subheadings of participants, materials and procedure. This section should be brief, only covering the specific component of the study which are relevant to your research question. Some additional notes are below;
Age:
Age is not provided as a variable, as these is very little variation in age within these individuals. Additionally, it may compromise the anonymity of some individuals. To report age in your poster, you can use the figures below:
Whole sample: M = 21.17, SD = 2.31, Range: 18-42
Women: M = 21.07, SD = 2.08, Range: 18-42
Men: M = 21.60, SD = 3.15, Range: 19-38
If you split your sample into groups other than men and women (e.g., evening types and other, short sleepers and long sleepers), just report the overall mean.
Questionnaires:
You should describe the questionnaires selected concisely, but with adequate detail for your reader to understand it, and provide a reference. This might be only 2-3 sentences per questionnaire.
Sleep Diaries:
An example of the sleep diary used will be uploaded onto Moodle. Everyone was invited to complete this for up to two weeks, and the number of days each person completed is included in the dataset.
Results
This section should take up the largest portion of your poster. It will include a brief text descriiption of the analyses which were conducted & how, and then have graphical representations of your data which appropriately show your findings. This should be done in the most efficient way possible, making it easy for your viewer to interpret the graphs. Ensure you do have text to accompany your figures, which explains what they show, and the analyses conducted.
Discussion & Conclusions
You should provide an interpretation of your results in the context of the literature which led to the development of your research question. Identify conceptual and methodological limitations – and implications, and provide some direction for future studies to explore. Do not only list limitations, and make sure to provide an interpretation of your findings, not simply restate the results.
