Cultural Influence On the Perceived Preference for Feminine Faces.

Assignment Instructions
Your assignment is to write an Introduction section for the face averaging experiment you conducted as a class. The purpose of an introduction is to establish the foundations of your experiment and provide a roadmap for how the research paper will flow. From the background that you provide the reader should recognize the value of the problem and it should be clear to them, (Salkind, 2009)
After reading the Abstract, the Introduction will be the first interaction the reader has with your actual paper. The Introduction conveys a lot of important information to your readers: it tells them what your topic is, why it is important and how your experiment will build on existing evidence to advance scientific knowledge in the field. As with previous assignments, you will write the Introduction section as if you are the author of the study.It is important to be able to write an introduction and show that you can synthesize new material. You'll have to read a few papers and conduct a literature search so completing this assignment will demonstrate both writing and fundamental literature research skills.
Recap of Your Class Experiment
You all completed an experiment in which you were asked to rate the degree to which you found a series of facial photographs “interesting.” These faces were “composites” or averages of multiple faces. Past research on facial composites indicates that people tend to rate these composite faces as more physically attractive than individual faces, however less research has been done investigating other properties of composite faces that may be of interest. For this study, we sought to extend the literature on facial averaging by investigating whether participants (you!) considered composites made from more faces to be more interesting than composites made from fewer. Additionally, we made composites of female and male faces separately because faces made merging both haven't been well explored in the literature and we couldn’t discuss our findings in light of prior research if we combined them.
We have included a few papers here to give you a head start on your literature search for the introduction. While you are encouraged to incorporate these articles that we are providing into your introduction, you must also use at least two peer-reviewed, academic articles not listed here that you find on your own (e.g. through Google Scholar and/or the Dal Library search engine).
 First, seeing as the study of facial composites has its origin in attractiveness research, we recommend that you introduce the topic of facial composites through this literature. Langlois and Roggman (1990) conducted one of the first studies on facial composites and attractiveness. The researchers made 2 key findings that are directly relevant to our experiment: 1) their participants rated both male and female composite faces as more attractive than almost all of the individual faces that made up the composites, and 2) the researchers found that attractiveness ratings increased as more faces were included into the composite. The outcomes we are interested in for our own experiment are quite similar to these (you may have noticed this based on the Results section you’ve completed).
Link to the Langlois and Roggman (1990) paper is here: https://journals-sagepub- com.ezproxy.library.dal.ca/doi/10.1111/j.1467-9280.1990.tb00079.x
Further, the Oxford English Dictionary defines interesting as “arousing curiosity or interest; holding or catching the attention.” A study from Raymond, Fenske, and Tavassoli (2003) found that participants tended to prefer visual patterns that they had been actively attending to more than patterns which they had been instructed to ignore. This finding suggests that we may “like” things that we attend to more - that is, things we find more interesting. There is a possible connection that could be drawn between things that are attention-grabbing and attractiveness literature that may be valuable in an introduction to our class experiment.
Link to the Raymond et al. (2003) paper is here: https://journals-sagepub- com.ezproxy.library.dal.ca/doi/10.1046/j.0956-7976.2003.psci_1462.x
Finally, a study by Valuch et al. (2015) used an eye tracking technique to look at differences in visual attention to faces in relation to their attractiveness. They found that participants displayed an attentional bias toward more attractive faces. Based on the definition of interesting we provided above, these findings suggest that attractive faces might also be more interesting. This study also found sex differences in participants’ ratings of attractiveness for the male and female faces used in their experiment. This could help you to justify why the sex of faces was included as a predictor variable in our class face averaging experiment.
Link to the Valuch et al. (2015) paper is here: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00042/full
Findings from each of these papers will be useful to help you set up the rationale for our class experiment (that is, the background information and knowledge gap that lead us to ask our research question). Use these as a starting point for your literature search. Remember, you will need to find at least two relevant sources on your own. We have given you some tips for conducting a literature search at the end of this handout.
 Introduction Content
Introduction sections include information on the following, in paragraph form, not in outline form like below (Trochim & Donnelly, 2008; added information in brackets):
• The problem [or topic] being addressed
• The [relationship] being studied
• Description of the major constructs involved
o Define any terms or abbreviations you will use in your paper
• A brief review of relevant literature (including citations)
• [Identify knowledge gaps in existing literature]
• A statement of study objectives and hypotheses
The content of the Introduction should be centered around the research question/hypotheses. For instance, if you’re asking if construct X will predict construct Y (a research question), the Introduction should contain one or more paragraphs on why you believe X will predict Y, using evidence from previous research to back you up.Additionally, if you’re asking if construct A will predict construct B, the Introduction should contain one or more paragraphs (with citations of previous research) on why you believe A will predict B.
The research question for the current study is the following: are composite faces made up of a greater number of individual faces more interesting than composites made up of fewer individual faces?Remember: a composite face is one that is created by averaging multiple individual faces together.
Structure of an Introduction SectionThe Introduction section should be organized from broad to specific. That is, your goal is to (1) start with a broad introduction to the research topic, (2) identify a specific gap in our knowledge of this topic and explain why it is important to fill and (3) say how your study intends to fill this gap (purpose) and what you expect to find (hypothesis). 
 
1. The first thing you should do is provide background information to introduce your topic to readers. Show the reader what is already known about your topic (i.e. what has been established from previous research).
o Provide a clear and concise statement that describes your research topic and frames the question your study will explore
o Use evidence from previous research to set up the context for your experiment
 Make sure to cite all of the sources used
o Avoid including background information and facts that are too broad, obvious or that are unrelated to your research question
o However, you also want to avoid describing specific findings in too much detail, unless your research question is addressing those details (i.e., you do not need to provide a description of the previous study’s methodology, unless it is directly relevant to the point you are trying to make).
2. Then you’ll move on to identifying gaps in current knowledge of the topic (i.e., tell readers what is unknown or unclear about your research topic)
o Highlight areas where there is too little information available
o Explain how and why it is important to fill in those gaps (i.e., how does the missing information hinder our understanding of the topic/process/mechanisms being studied?)
3. Finally, you’ll summarize how your study intends to address the gap you identified by stating your study’s objectives and providing a clear research question or hypothesis
o Your hypothesis should be a brief sentence or two explaining what you expect to find in your experiment
o Attempt to answer this question: if we fill this gap, what useful knowledge will be gained?
 Tips for Writing a Good Introduction
• Organize your thoughts from broad to specific.
o You might find it helpful to create an outline for your introduction, the way you did for your discussion.
• Follow a logical order when reviewing prior literature. For instance, start a paragraph by providing a claim (the topic sentence) and then provide premises to support your claim (supporting evidence).
• Do not merely state the findings of other authors (a travel log). Rather, use other authors' works to support the claims you make (a cohesive argument).
• Do not cite every piece of literature on your topic; rather, cite the most relevant works
o You don’t want to bury your readers with irrelevant details
o Avoid providing too many citations for one point
o You can use the same citation more than once
• Make transitions between paragraphs smooth (i.e., the end and beginning of paragraphs should not be abrupt and feel like you are riding in a stick-shift car with a first-time driver).
• The Introduction section should be written in present tense using active voice and an objective tone. However, past tense should be used if you state what other scholars have found.
• You should be using in-text citations and providing references for any paraphrasing of other relevant literature. Remember that plagiarism is a major academic offense.
• All citations must have an entry in the reference page (i.e., all references in the reference page must refer to a citation in the paper)
• Your Introduction will be graded both on the quality of your writing (smooth writing, clear logic not filled with gaps, proper length, APA formatting, use of five or more citations, spelling and grammar) and including appropriate elements (sufficient background information on the topic, making strong and clear claims about hypotheses supported by literature, specifying the objectives and hypotheses).
 An Example Introduction
You have now read at least three Introductions when completing the lab assignments so far this semester. Another example introduction is provided below (beyond the Introduction examples provided throughout the course). Notice how the author(s) have written the Introduction following the general structure/flow mentioned above. Specifically, they start off with a broad overview of the topic and it progressively gets narrower in focus as authors lead up to the research question. You will also notice that authors did not simply list the specific findings from previous studies, but rather, they cited previous research as supporting evidence for the claims they made (a cohesive argument).
 
 
Reference: Plötner, M., Over, H., Carpenter, M., & Tomasello, M. (2015). Young children show the bystander effect in helping situations. Psychological Science, 26(4), 499-506. Tips for Conducting an Effective Literature SearchFor this assignment, you will be required to cite at least five sources (i.e., previous studies) as part of your background information and rationale for conducting this experiment. They must be from peer reviewed articles. We have provided you with three sources that you can use in your Introduction, but you will be required to find at least two additional sources on your own. Below are some tips to help you conduct an effective literature search for your Introduction.1. Remember how you included keywords in your abstracts? This was to help researchers find your paper when conducting a literature search related to your research topic. Now it’s your turn! One way to start your literature search is by looking up keywords related to your experiment in a research database. Below is a link to some widely used psychology and neuroscience databases that you can use to look for papers to include in your introduction.Think of some keywords related to your face averaging experiment and look them up in one of these databases: https://dal.ca.libguides.com/psych/databases. For examples of keywords in this area, see the terms used in the articles we reviewed in the “Recap of Your Class Experiment” section of this assignment document.2. Another strategy for conducting a literature search is to look for relevant work that is cited in a paper related to your topic. For example, if you find a good paper related to your topic, you can look for other relevant sources in the reference list of that paper.3. When conducting your literature search, we recommend you start by skimming the abstract of papers that look like they might be relevant rather than reading the whole paper – this will allow you to survey far more articles to determine whether or not they would be useful in your introduction. If an abstract looks promising, you can then dive into the full paper for more information.
Assignment Requirements• Font size 12; Times New Roman or Arial.• Minimum of 1 page, maximum of 2 pages double-spaced (not including the reference page). No pages beyond the first 2 will count.• A minimum of five references - at least two references must be found on your own (i.e., you need 2+ references in addition to those key papers we provided to you earlier). You may need more references to do well on the assignment. You do not have to cite the ones provided if you do not want to (but then you will have to find 4 references on your own).• Must include APA 7 formatted in-text citations and reference section. See Purdue OWL and the APA template on Brightspace.• A header for the references section (but not the content part of the introduction) and page numbers are required for this assignment, again APA formatted.• No quoting of the cited source, or any source, is permitted. Citation ResourcesPurdue Owl Link – APA 7 in-text citations:• https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/apa_style/apa_formatting_and_style_g uide/in_text_citations_the_basics.html• https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/apa_style/apa_formatting_and_style_g uide/in_text_citations_author_authors.htmlPurdue Owl Link – APA 7 bibliography:• https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/apa_style/apa_formatting_and_style_g uide/reference_list_basic_rules.html• https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/apa_style/apa_formatting_and_style_g uide/reference_list_author_authors.html
ReferencesSalkind, N. J. (2009). Exploring research (7th ed.). Pearson Prentice Hall.Plötner, M., Over, H., Carpenter, M., & Tomasello, M. (2015). Young children show the bystander effect in helping situations. Psychological Science, 26(4), 499-506.Trochim, W. M. K., & Donnelly, J. P. (2008). Research methods knowledge base (3rd ed.).Cengage Learning.