Discuss general strategies for generating research ideas

For this discussion, you may find it useful to distribute handouts 2.1, 2.2, and 2.3.

If students are really stuck, you could do any of the following:

• Refer them to the Creativity Web page
• Let them play with the Stroop effect (the site also provides scientific articles related to the Stroop effect and suggests some studies that could be done)
• Let them explore interesting psychological phenomena.
• Give them experience with an experimental paradigm, such as the Prisoner's Dilemma game, which is now available on-line as either the "gold coin" version or the classic version.
  
• Eyewitness testimony research is interesting and easy to do. Here's a great source of eyewitness stimuli and articles.
• Psychological experiments are available on-line from several sources. One very teacher and student friendly source is psychexperiments.
  Macintosh users who like cognitive research might download a free computer program geared to help students run their own studies from Robert Goldstone at Indiana University.
• Assign one of these readings:

  Campbell, J. P., Daft, R. L., & Hulin, C. L. (1982).

  What to study: Generating and developing research questions.

  Beverly Hills, CA.: Sage Publications.

  DeBono, E. (1970). Lateral thinking: Creativity

  step-by step. New York: Harper & Row.

  Dillon, K. (1990). Generating research ideas; or,

  that's salada tea .... High School Psychology Teacher, 21, 6-7.