Dana S. Dunn & Randolph A. Smith
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Learning from Exemplars
How can students be taught to discern logical, evidence-based psychological research from
poorly designed or flawed efforts? The best course is to have them read high quality
exemplars from the literature. We will expose psychology majors, of course, to a variety of
high quality examples through class work, library research, and the discipline-based
textbooks they read. Teachers can supplement these examples by intentionally presenting
the details of high quality studies to students. Presenting inconclusive, questionable, or
hard-to-interpret studies or descriptive (i.e., noncausal) findings is also a good idea so that
students can learn to distinguish the reliable, scientific wheat from the chaff. Fine books
that promote this sort of approach to critical thinking are available (e.g., Marton, 2006;
Meltzoff, 1998; Stanovich, 2007).
Alternatively, students can learn from one another by reading and critiquing work pro-
duced by other students. Various undergraduate journals exist, and the material published
in them is readily understood by undergraduate students (Ware, Badura, & Davis, 2002).
More to the point, evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of such work can be a more
gentle entry into critical reading than immediately tackling the work of professional psy-
chologists, especially famous ones.
Evaluating Reading Through Writing
For students, a typical part of evaluating what they read involves taking notes about it,
whether on index cards or in a notebook (paper or computer). This general activity can
be improved upon by having students create a “reader’s guide” concerning whatever
topic they are researching (Henderson, 2000). This guide is a topical précis containing
a content outline (e.g., history of topic, major topics, theories and methods), a list of
Table 14.1. Claims Categorized: Some Typical Types of Arguments Offered in Psychology
Theory advancement or modification – claims made to extend or revise what is known (e.g., “Our
findings qualify the role of some automatic processes in working memory.”).
New ideas or improvements – claims that share novel approaches (e.g., “We developed a new paper
and pencil measure for assessing implicit attitudes.”).
Challenges to prevailing assumptions – claims aimed at overturning existing theories explanations
of results (e.g., “The results from our studies confirm that positive emotions elicit distinct and
different behavioral responses compared to negative emotions.”).
Utility and application of results – claims indicating that results can be used to address some
problem constructively (e.g., “We found that academic intrinsic motivation can be encouraged
among elementary schoolchildren who are at risk for learning delays.”).
Contesting established judgment – claims offered to counter expectations or assumptions with
supporting evidence (e.g., “Despite the ubiquity of media advertising, our series of stud-
ies reveals that the connection between persuasive messages and actual purchase is extremely
limited.”).
Source: Adapted from Spellman et al. (2007).