PSYC 221, Introduction to Cognitive Psychology (Andrea Hughes): Finding Research Articles

The following strategies can be useful in helping you identify an empirical research article:

1. Analyse your topic statement for search terms
   • Change a question into a statement.
   • How reliable are eye-witness accounts? to Eye-witness accounts are not reliable.
   • Identify the important ideas or concepts within your topic statement - these are usually nouns (or short phrases containing a noun)
   • Nouns make the best search words, so turn any important verbs into nouns first
2. My search terms will be eye-witness (the main concept) and the word reliable is referring to whether the memory of the witness is reliable. So instead of using "reliable" I am going to use the word "memory".
3. Connect different concepts with "and"; connect similar (or synonymous) concepts with "or"
   
   
4. Use the database limiters to help you focus in on empirical articles. In PsycINFO, for example, you can limit by age group, methodology, and subject; also try limiting to "peer-reviewed articles"
5. Be sure to read the abstracts - they will often reveal enough "clues" to tell you if the article is research study or not.
6. If you do not find articles that interest you, look at your results. See if there are new words or new search terms that you can use that will help you improve your search. For example if you are looking for pets and mental health you will notice that the word pets does not search exactly the way you would expect. (It looks for PET scans, medical terminology) But you will notice that "human animal bond" is used and this actually describes more effectively what you are looking for.
7. Remember that PsycINFO has a SUBJECT TERMS list that can give you other search terms and correct spellings. E.G.
8. 
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When doing a literature review it is important to look in as many places as possible. Though PsycINFO is very comprehensive you will also find other articles in other databases so remember to try your searches in the all databases listed here.

For example, search "Mozart effect" in both PsycINFO and ScienceDirect. You will find that some articles are the same but ScienceDirect actually finds more results.