Example of a Good Methods Section for Study 2
This is a Methods section from one of the students in the class. It is a good example of what a good Methods section for this study looks like. I have taken the liberty of making a few minor modifications.
Methods
Subjects
The subject was a male, Sprague-Dawley rat, approximately 100 days old, and weighing 445g. The subject had completed one week of one-hour-daily feedings in order to reduce his body weight to 85 per cent of his free feeding weight. This was to induce and maintain motivation for food rewards in future experiments. Water was continuously available in the cage.
Apparatus
The experiment took place in a 1.2 x 3 m room with overhead fluorescent lighting in the Psychology wing at the University of Alberta campus. A small, clear plastic activity chamber approximately 0.2 x 0.25 m was placed on a horizontal movement detector. The detector consisted of a rectangular base with a triangular metal plate on top of it. The metal plate had a central pivot point around which it rotated and a small hole towards one corner through which a small metal post projected. When the metal of the triangular plate contacted the metal post a circuit was closed which moved the mechanical counter forward one number. When the rat moved horizontally it shook the metal plate, which caused the circuit to close, so a vibration was recorded. The counter gave a relative measure of the degree of movement the rat made during a startle response.
A timepiece with a second hand was required to measure the time intervals, and a plastic drinking straw was used to deliver the air puff stimuli to the rat.
Procedure
The rat was placed in the activity chamber. One minute after the start of the session a moderate, but sharp puff of air was administered by one of the experimenters blowing through the straw at the rat's shoulder. The amount of activity was recorded by noting the number on the counter two seconds after the puff. A total of 16 puffs were administered with a 2 minute interval between each trial. After the 16 habituation trials, the rat was put back in his home cage for approximately 2 minutes. He was then placed back in the activity chamber for two more trials, termed the dishabituation trials. The rat was weighted and fed following the session.
Psych 482 Main Page