What does the literature say about your question or problem? Here you are giving the
reader a context for your experiment. You should describe previous research that examined the
behavior or behavior change procedures that you will study. This serves to provide the rationale
for your study. What did the researchers do? What did they find? What did they conclude? Do
this for each study you cite. Typically, one or more paragraphs are necessary to explain each
study. Try to make the transition smooth from one paragraph to the next. Use transition words
for example, similarly, Jones et al. found that…or, in contrast, Smith reported that…Describe
studies that used similar experimental procedures to the ones that you are using and mention
SHORTENED VERSION OF TITLE 4
their findings. Use the research summary template to collect information on your articles before
writing this section.
What gaps exist in the literature? The purpose of doing an experiment is to answer a
question or fill in a gap. First tell me what the gap is so that I am interested in how you plan to
fill it. For example, “researchers have used various punishment methods for decreasing smoking
behavior however, to date there is no published research on the effectiveness of using a
combination of reinforcement for alternative behaviors as well as increasing response effort for
smoking
Sample Solution