Devise a study to test the hypothesis Step 5 . Results Step 6 . Communicate the Results Step 1. The starting place of all research studies is a single idea. Ideas come to us through our observations of the world, from conversations with other people, from sources such as books or television, or from reading other journal articles.
Ideas represent the interests of a person.
The idea does not have to be a full fledge research project. All that is needed at this point is a thought, curiosity about the topic, and interest in pursuing the topic further. Let's take an example that we will use for all of the steps. You notice that you are able to memorize items such as phone numbers better when you eat candy and wonder if there is a connection between candy and memory. After you have your idea, it is now appropriate to examine the literature on the topic in order to ascertain what other researchers have done and how they have conceptualized and tested the topic.