Emotion and Cognition: Introduction to Research Topic and Literature Search

Exercise 1: Idea Bubbles

The first step to design your own research is to know what you already know or don’t know about the research topic. You are given a general field of Emotion and Cognition as your research topic, and you will narrow it down to a more specific area within this topic. Once you have narrowed it down, you will conduct a focused literature search to select three research articles that interest you most. Finally, you will reflect on what you learn from the articles by summarising for each article; (1) what research questions are being asked, (2) what hypotheses are tested, and (3) what methods are used to test the hypotheses. Through these exercises, you will deepen your understanding of the research topic and learn how researchers have designed their studies. 

Find out what you already know about the research topic, write down the first five words or short phrases that come to your mind when you think of ‘Emotion & Cognition.’ Starting with the centre bubble, fill out the five surrounding bubbles with these keywords. You can discuss with your friends, but don’t ask Google or Siri (whatever you have in your computer/phone)!

The first step to design your own research is to know what you already know or don’t know about the research topic. You are given a general field of Emotion and Cognition as your research topic, and you will narrow it down to a more specific area within this topic. Once you have narrowed it down, you will conduct a focused literature search to select three research articles that interest you most. Finally, you will reflect on what you learn from the articles by summarising for each article; (1) what research questions are being asked, (2) what hypotheses are tested, and (3) what methods are used to test the hypotheses. Through these exercises, you will deepen your understanding of the research topic and learn how researchers have designed their studies.

For each of the three articles you have chosen in Exercise 2, fill out the summary form below. Your objective is to learn key aspects of research design that you will need to consider for your proposal. These key aspects include:

Research topic: This should be a phrase that expresses the main contents of the article. You may find this in the title or the beginning of the abstract.

Research question: This should be a single sentence that summarises the main question being addressed in the article. You may find it in the title, abstract, and/or the Introduction.

Hypotheses: These are predictions about the outcomes of research that researchers tested in their study. You may find them in the abstract or the later part of the Introduction.

Method: This should include a brief summary of the research design used to test the hypotheses. You may find it in the abstract, at the end of the Introduction, and/or in the Method section.

Exercise 1 – Extending the scope of the existing literature

In the last lab session, you have learnt what has been done to investigate topics of your interest. Select two of the three articles you found in the last session, and summarise what have been discovered in the studies. Also, consider what questions have not been answered in these studies yet and remain to be addressed. These outstanding questions could be the research question for your own research.

Exercise 2 – Finding your own research question.

In the previous exercise, you have already found out possible research questions that remain to be asked in your own research. Pick one of these research questions that you are interested most and state it below. Note that a research question should be a single, concise statement. Start it with the subject “My research investigates…” 

Exercise 3 – Addressing your research question. 

If you have found your research question, the next step is to design a research method to address the question. Write down in the box below as many details of a possible research method as you can think of. Consider the following key aspects: 

Who will be your participants and how many of them do you need? 

What do you measure (dependent variable)?

What do you manipulate or compare (independent variable)?

What equipment and materials do you need to carry out the study?