APA style exercise – Reference list
The purpose of this exercise is to help students understand how to format a reference list in
APA style. This exercise can be used as an in-class exercise, a group exercise or even as
an assessment. It is best used after some instruction about APA style references or while
using the APA manual to look up each type of citation.
General Instructions:
1. Students need to read each look over the list of references on the first page, as if it
were a references page from a research article.
2. You have to make corrections to the citation, including spacing, punctuation,
eliminating unnecessary information, or re-ordering the references. You can assume
that all spellings are accurate; all the information needed to correct the references is
provided.
3. No outside materials are necessary to complete this exercise.
Exercise 1
Works cited
1. Balagura, Steve. (1968). “Influence of Osmotic and Caloric Loads Upon Lateral
Hypothalamic Self-Stimulation” Journal of Comparative and Physiological
Psychology, 66, 325-328.
Answer:
2. Abel, S. E., Fox, P. T., Potley, J. R. (1997). Insights from recent positron emission
tomographic studies of drug abuse and dependence. Current Opinion in Psychiatry,
19(3), 246-252.
Answer:
3. Abel, S.E., Fox, P.T., Posner, J.P. (1998). Positron emission tomographic studies of the
cortical anatomy of single word processing. Nature, 331, pp. 585-589.
Answer:
4. Codon, D. E. (1994, January 10). Kids growing up scared. Newsweek, volume 73, issue
3, pp. 43-49.
Answer:
5. Klatzky, R. L. (1980). Human Memory: Structures and Processes (Second Edition).
Friedman: San Francisco, CA.
Answer:
6. Swaminathan, N. (2007). Eating Disorders. Psychology today website
Psychologytoday.com. Found on 11/13/07.
Answer:
Exercise 2
APA Compile the references activity
Write the elements of the reference in the order in which they should appear to give a correct
complete reference in the APA style.
1) Book
Cambridge, MA: MIT Press
Kunda, Z. (1999).
Social cognition: Making sense of people.
2) Book Chapter
In M. Hewstone & W. Stroebe (Eds.),
(3rd ed.) (pp. 115-149). Oxford: Blackwell.
Introduction to social psychology: A European perspective
Fiedler, K. & Bless, H. (2001). Social cognition.
3) Journal article
Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 73,
59-67.
Hardy, G. E., Cahill, J., Stiles, W. B., Ispan, C., Macaskill, N., & Barkham, M.
(2005).
Sudden gains in cognitive therapy for depression: A replication and extension.
4) Web document
What’s it like to have ADD?
from Attention Deficit Disorder Association Web site:
http://www.add.org/articles/whats_it_like.html
Retrieved September 20, 2005,
Hallowell, E. M. (1992).
5) Electronic journal article
E-Journal of Applied Psychology, 1,
Culbertson, H. & Bruck, D. (2005).
Narcolepsy and disruption to social functioning.
from http://ojs.lib.swin.edu.au/index.php/ejap/article/view/3/12
14-22. Retrieved September 20, 2005,