Reviewing the literature: Preparing a summary table

1. Print out (or save on your computer) the relevant abstracts from PubMed & PsychInfo (after performing literature searches in these databases).
2. Read the abstracts and decide which ones would be useful to include in the summary table
3. Create your own EndNote file (see ALL_C-LAB_REFS.enl in the shared drive “Endnote” for an example).
4. Enter the new references in EndNote
   1. by connecting to PubMed from within EndNote (or by entering the reference information by hand)
   2. insert the relevant word/phrase in the “research note” field for each new EndNote reference (e.g. “levels of abstraction” if this is the project you’re working on)
5. Find the PDF file from online (if available) and link it to Endnote (if unavailable, make paper copy from the library)
   1. Save the files in a folder somewhere on your diskspace
   2. Link each PDF to the corresponding EndNote reference for easy finding later on
6. Print out and read PDF files
7. Summarize the findings from each paper in summary table, such as the example below
   1. First column, past the reference from EndNote; write if the study is fMRI or PET; how many subjects (e.g., N=12), and if fMRI, whether it was event-related or blocked
   2. Second column, describe the experimental task(s), and the comparison (control) task(s)
   3. Third column, describe the results (from each comparison or analysis). Pay specific attention to these comparisons/analyses that activation or deactivated your regions of interest (e.g., BA10).
   4. In any of the columns, include any problems you might see, while reading the paper

With these steps, you’ve done at least half (if not even more) of the work necessary for your review.

Example summary table for 3 references only (yours is likely to be much longer). You might also want to create different sub-with different headings, so that each of them fits on one page only (it’s easier for review).

{Fossati, 2003 #2321}fMRI, blocked (N=8)	Self-referential processing of emotional (negative and positive) personality trait words (“Encoding” paper)Subjects judged whether they thought each trait described them.	Self- vs. letter-recognitionMedial PFC (BA10/9) (? during Self-judgment)
{Fossati, 2004 #2319}fMRI, blocked (N=12)	Recognition of positive and negative emotional personality traits adjectives encoded in self-referential or other-referential, or letter-counting conditions.	RetrievalSelf+ Other > Letter BA10 RLPFC + VLPFC BA 47 (among others) Self-referential positive > Self-referential negative Medial PFC BA10 (? d. positive Self-judgment) Anterior cingulate, BA32
{Craik, 1999 #1036}PET	Judgments: relevance to self; relevance to well-known public figure; social desirability; number of syllablesAltogether strange study, results inconclusive, and nothing specific about the self	Self vs other — n s. Other vs. syllables (Medial BA10, others) Social desirability vs syllable (Medial BA10, others)