missderatus

Checklist for submitting your papers to your mentors and to journals

Overall (the bullet points are a substitute for the check mark)

__ I checked the manuscript guidelines in the journal in which I plan to send my study

__ I read a 2-3 papers published in the journal in which plan to submit my manuscript. This process gave me a sense of formatting and structure

Editing

• __ I removed all unnecessary words and phrases in my manuscript/thesis

__Once I finished writing my paper, I put it away for 1-2 days before rereading it for errors. I also read it for clarity and before sending it to my collaborators/mentor.

• __ I carefully re-read the manuscript 2-3 times, looking for typos and errors
• __ I played “Devil’s Advocate” looking for any errors, possible confounds and gaps in my manuscript. I tried to explain any issues and back my decisions up.
• __ I looked for transitions in the manuscript
• __ I checked that all sentences were no longer than two lines (especially for non-native speakers)
• __ I kept terms in my paper as consistent as possible (I avoided writing that babies saw an object, babies saw the puppet, babies saw the stimulus, babies saw it)
• __I avoided acronyms when possible. This helped the paper flow.

__ I read the paper aloud 2-3 times. This helped me to hear how the paper flowed (especially for non-native speakers)!

• __ I had a couple of non-experts read the paper and they understood it
• ___ I had at least two native speakers of the language I’m writing in read the paper
• __ I removed all unnecessary clauses and words in my manuscript.
• __ I checked my manuscript for unnecessary phrases such as “in other words”
• __ I used an active tense and parallel sentence structure
• __ I did not use the word “prove” or “believe” “feel that” in my manuscript

__ I had 2-3 colleagues/peers in the lab review my paper. I integrated many of their comments

Title Page

• __ I made sure that the title of my paper reflected the question and findings of the study
• __ I made the title as interesting sounding as possible

__ I checked with all co-authors about their correct affiliations

__I acknowledged funding for the study according to grant guidelines (if a grant supported the study)

• __ I checked that all sentences in my manuscript are direct and concise

Introduction

• __ I addressed, “What’s the question, why is the study important what’s new, and what’s important?
• __Someone could find/circle “what’s the question” section of my paper
• __Someone could find/circle “why is it important” section of my paper
• __Someone could find/circle “what is new” section of my paper

Discussion

• __ I highlighted limitations in the discussion of the paper

References

• __ I checked that references in the manuscript listed are in the reference section
• __ I checked that all references in the reference section are listed in the manuscript

__ I checked that numbers of references corresponded to the correct reference number (if journal you are submitting to uses that structure)

Figures

__ I included clear figure captions

__ I included on my figures and graphs

__ I properly labeled the X and Y axis on my graph

___The labels for the X and Y axis correspond to the figure captions

__ I included standard error bars (if required)

__ I checked that my graphs and figures corresponded with the data that I presented in the result section of the manuscript

__ I made graphs that were clear and easy to read and the formatting of my graphs is consistent through the paper
__ I used figures and images to help the reader through the manuscript

My Topic:Social Support Affect on Intrinsic Motivation in Children

How does social support affect children’s intrinsic motivation to do an activity?

What’s the question? My study investigates the effects of social support on intrinsic motivation in children.

Why is the question important? This study is important because it shows what role the parents play when a child discovers their hobby and personal interest. It allows the parent to direct the child to choose a hobby that won’t negatively affect their community and society as a whole.

What is new about the research? The new thing about my study is that I studied two different age groups. Compared to other studies, the researchers either conducted a longitudinal or studied one age group in particular.

What are the limitations and possible future studies? One limitation of my study would be the perceived social support that the parents said they have towards the child. A possible future study is seeing the difference between the age groups but using a different task or seeing the difference in different cultures and styles of social support on motivation.

 

Research Talks

https://bbrfoundation.org/meet-the-scientist-december-2015

http://events.cuny.edu/eventDetail.asp?EventId=68217

http://www.gc.cuny.edu/Public-Programming/Calendar/Detail?id=32572

http://www.worldbank.org/en/events/2015/11/10/measuring-global-poverty

http://calendar.med.nyu.edu/index.cfm?fuseaction=somcalendar.ShowEvent&UsePopUpWindowForShowEvent=TRUE&CurrentDate=11/18/2015&fusecalendar_ID=83493

Graphs

My partners and I found the Anna Belen store as an attractive place to recruit female children for a study.

The second picture shows the white puppies in the store window of a puppy shop. This puppy shop could also be another good place to get children to participate in a study because children tend to love puppies.

I worked with Sabira and Stephanie.

The assignment was to go to the park and observe the amount of times a child would smile based on the definition of smile that we have. We were also supposed to record the amount of times they smiled in a given time.

My definition of smile: The curving of the lips upwards and may or may not show teeth.

I observed a little girl interacting with her nanny or caregiver at the time playing on the swings. I observed the child for three minutes and in that time frame I recorded that she smiled 14 times according to my definition of a smile.

There could be some error in my recording because while she playing on the swing, her nanny was playing a game which consisted of her throwing gold-fish cracker in the child’s mouth. During that time I probably might have mistaken a smile for simply her trying to catch a gold-fish by opening her mouth. Sometimes she opened it widely, which was obvious that it was not a smile and other times she was just showing her teeth in anticipation of catching the cracker.

In the end, I realized that defining variables in your study is very important because people can have different ideas of what a smile is if it is not clearly stated as an operational definition in your study.

What question are the researchers asking?

The question that they investigated was whether young children would react to violation of ownership rights in reference to new objects.

Why is it an important question?

This question is important because it addresses the concept of ownership and how it affects people’s thoughts and behaviors.

What is new about the question or study?

The new thing about this study is that they were interested in observing whether children would show ownership respect for newly created objects. Another thing that is new about this study is that they used a (spontaneous) protest paradigm that is usually used for assessing awareness of norms and used it for assessing awareness of ownership rights.

What are the limitations and possible future studies from this paper?

One limitation to this study was that the participants of this study were all female children, therefore the results of this study cannot be directed to all children between the ages of 2-3 years old. A possible future study can be to test differences between collectivist and individualist cultures on the understanding of ownership rights in young children.

http://ac.els-cdn.com/S0885201415300022/1-s2.0-S0885201415300022-main.pdf?_tid=20096d56-79bc-11e5-84e5-00000aacb360&acdnat=1445628640_7e478689dd2bd13c69cd6465897ba7e8

What question are the researchers asking?

This study investigated the age group differences of how young adults and adolescents, when faces with complex, multi-outcome economic gambles, sought to resolve the issue.

Why is it an important question?

This is an important question because the researchers show how young people go about to handle difficult economic issues. In the end we would be able to know if there is a need for helping young people develop good economic or financial decisions.

What is new about the question or study?

The new thing about this study is that they combine choice response and behaviors (eye-tracking) to be able to see the patterns of information processing that leads to making decisions.

What are the limitations and possible future studies from this paper?

One limitation to this study is that the participants were all males, their results are based on male performance and cannot be used to correspond with the general population of young adults or adolescents. A possible future study could be done to test gender differences in making economic decision in both age groups (young adults and adolescents).

http://ac.els-cdn.com/S0885201415300022/1-s2.0-S0885201415300022-main.pdf?_tid=20096d56-79bc-11e5-84e5-00000aacb360&acdnat=1445628640_7e478689dd2bd13c69cd6465897ba7e8

1.What question are the researchers asking?

This study is researching the developmental differences of children and adolescents in the effectiveness of parent support to reduce the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis stress responses.

2. Why is it an important question?

This question is important because it determines the importance the role of the parent during times when their children are feeling depressed or stressed. It allows them to then come up with ways that could help their child during times of feeling overly stressed about situations in their life depending on the stage of development their child is experiencing at the time.

3. What is new about the question or study?

The new thing about this study is that they are examining the developmental changes that are capable of reducing or increasing different stress responses. The article mentions social support as one of the main mechanisms that play a role in stress regulation in children and adolescents. The researcher is trying to investigate how parental support during early childhood affects the stress response compared to those who are in their adolescence.

4. What are the limitations and possible future studies from this paper?

One limitation found in this study was that the researcher studied two different age groups and there were different individuals. It would have been better to do a longitudinal study of a specific group of children and testing their stress response during childhood and then later during their adolescence. Future possible studies could include how the stress response is different in children and adolescents with different socioeconomic backgrounds or even different cultural backgrounds.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/desc.12195/epdf

This research paper was based on the development of children during their transition from toddlerhood to kindergarten. The paper addressed the question of how attachment security to the parent during toddlerhood affects executive functioning in school. Executive functioning is “a set of higher-order cognitive processes that are predominantly subsumed by frontal brain areas.” To the effects of the executive functioning on children in school, the researcher assigned them different tasks that would test their cognitive processes. They measured the attachment security by observing the relationship at home and the children were assessed at 15 months and 2 years old. They measured the variables in that way so that they were able to determine if there were any associations between the child’s performance and the rate of the attachment security. The study found that the toddlers that were more attached to the parent had better performance on the executive functioning task compared to others in the study.
The question that they were addressing is important because it allows us to know how significant the role the parent has in their child’s behavior and cognitive skills. The correlations made in this study are important so that teachers are aware of how effective their role is in the learning process of children. By knowing the results and final conclusions of this study, both teachers and parents would be able to know how they could impact the child’s academic performance in school.
The limitation to this study is that it is a correlation and not a causation; we are only seeing a pattern that does not result in a cause and effect conclusion. A future study that could be done is on executive functioning and the attachment security of children in collectivist and individualistic societies. it would be interesting to see if the attachment security are different for these two distinct societies and how it correlates to a child’s performance.

http://proxy.wexler.hunter.cuny.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=pdh&AN=2015-32546-001&site=ehost-live

My name is Saralina. My favorite color is purple. The personality traits I believe to acquire are kindness, respectfulness, friendliness, and other things that I can’t think of at this moment. I enjoy having a good time with friends, watching a good movie, and trying out new things that I’ve never done before. My favorite ice cream flavor is cookies and cream…it taste so good. I’m Haitian American, so that means I speak creole and that I enjoy eating the famous black rice that my country is known for. I’m also a senior in college that will be graduating this Spring 2016.

My hope is that I can be able to inspire others to strive for their goals through any work that I am doing.