Attached is a table that you might find useful when gathering information about a study.  It mirrors the categories that Tien (2008) used in his research synthesis on the effect of Picture Exchange Systems (PECS) on the functional communication of students with autism.  That article is available below as a link or you can view it on the succeeding page of this module.

Tien uses 3 tables to organize his information from his research synthesis, as it helps answer his questions and allows for his results to be better read.  For your final Research Synthesis assignment, you don’t need to duplicate the number of categories or the exact categories that Tien uses.  It is only an example.

A good use for the attached table is to start organizing the information within a given primary experimental research article (either single subject or group design). 

So –

1. Open the attached table and save it to your desktop or file

2. Using the HF Research Database (Links to an external site.), Locate an experimental research study of interest via one of the database search tools.  Terms like “intervention” “strategy” “instruction,” will help you narrow in on interventions – which by their nature will usually be primary experimental research articles.

3. Analyze a study and fill in the information as you locate it from your article.  Feel free to change the table by either adding or deleting columns.