Baker, D., & Chartier, C. R. (2018). Participant attentiveness to consent forms. Psi Chi Journal of Psychological Research, 23, 142-146. https://doi.org/10.24839/2325-7342.JN23.2.141

This very accessible article describes an experiment testing if research participants are more likely to notice a cue word in different positions on an informed consent form. It nicely illustrates concepts from research methods and highlights important ethical concerns regarding informed consent.

DeLoache, J., Miller, K., & Rosengren, K. (1997). The credible shrinking room: Very young children’s performance with symbolic and non-symbolic relations. Psychological Science, 8, 308-313.

Young children coming to understand that an external representation (e.g., words, maps, diorama) both stands for something else and is a thing in itself. It's easy to read with the key results in a simple bar graph. I like this article because of the very creative fun control condition.

Dweck, C.S. (2007). The secret to raising smart kids. Scientific American Mind, 18(6), 36-43. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-secret-to-raising-smart-kids/

Duckworth, A.L., & Seligman, M.E.P. (2005). Self-discipline outdoes IQ in predicting academic performance of adolescents. Psychological Science, 16(12), 939-944.

This article shows that self-discipline is better than raw IQ for academic performance. Accessible for undergrads, and teaches good College 101 skills. Plus, it partially dispels the idea that some students have that they are "just not smart enough" - good academic performance can be achieved through hard work.

Gabriel, S., & Young, A. F. (2011, July 12). Becoming a vampire without being bitten: The narrative collective-assimilation hypothesis. Psychological science. DOI: 10.1177/0956797611415541

This article explores the hypothesis that narratives are satisfying because we identify with the characters, thus fulfilling belongingness needs. It describe the implicit association test. It is an approachable introduction to reading scientific journal articles. Students find the topic interesting.

Gibson, E. J. & Walk, R. D. (1960). The "visual cliff." Scientific American, 202, 63-71.

The classic study of depth perception in human infants and non-human animals. There are no statistics, just a clustered bar graph and a line graph. There are also many cute pictures of different animals on the visual cliff.

Karpicke, J.D., & Roediger, H.L., III. (2008). The critical importance of retrieval for learning. Science, 319, 966-968.

This article shows that repeated testing yields stronger memories than repeated studying. Accessible for undergrads, and teaches good College 101 skills.

Lee, L., Frederick, S., & Ariely, D. (2006). Try it, you’ll like it: The influence of expectation, consumption, and revelation on preferences for beer.

Psychological Science, 17, 1054–1058. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2006.01829.x

The article does describe multiple experiments, but most of them are just variations on a theme. There's a single IV, and it's a simple experiment. Plus students like anything that involves beer :)

Lepp, A., Barkley, J., & Karpinski, A. C. (2015). The relationship between cell phone use and academic performance in a sample of U.S. college students. Computers in Human Behavior, 31, 343-350.

This article demonstrates the negative relationship between cell phone use and GPA, while controlling for other variables known to impact academic performance, such as demographics and self-efficacy, among others. This might make students think twice about how much they use their phones!

Lippman, J. R., Ward, L. M., & Seabrook, R. C. (2014). Isn’t it romantic? Differential associations between romantic screen media genres and romantic beliefs. Psychology of Popular Media Culture, 3(3), 128-140. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/ppm0000034

This article includes the results of a single study which looked for correlations between college students' consumption of different romantic TV and movie genres (sitcoms, marriage-themed reality shows, and romantic movies), the degree to which they think media reflect real life, and their endorsement of different romantic beliefs (such as "Love Finds a Way" and "Love at First Sight"). Students find the topic interesting, and the methods and results aren't too complicated.

Mueller, P.A., & Oppenheimer, D.M. (2014). The pen is mightier than the keyboard: Advantages of longhand over laptop note taking. Psychological Science, 25(6), 1159-1168.

This article shows that longhand note taking yields better exam performance than does laptop note taking. The article is accessible for undergrads, and teaches good College 101 skills.

O’Brien, E., & Ellsworth, P. C. (2012). Saving the last for best: A positivity bias for end experiences. Psychological Science, 23, 163-165. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797611427408

This article is very short, with only one IV and two DVs. It relates to the topics of happiness and cognition.

Ozluses, E & Celebioglu, A, (2014). Educating Fathers to Improve Breastfeeding Rates and Paternal Infant Attachment Indian Pediatrics, 51(8), 654-657.

A very easy article for intro students to identify IV/DV, experimental and control groups and discusses developmental issues such as breastfeeding and attachment that are likely to come up in the developmental section of the course.

Roberts SC, Havlicek J, Flegr J, Hruskova M, Little AC, Jones BC, Perrett DI, Petrie M. (2004) Female facial attractiveness increases during the fertile phase of the menstrual cycle. Proc Biol Sci. 271 Suppl 5(Suppl 5):S270-2.

Easy to understand example of research in the field of evolutionary psychology. Students find the topic interesting.

Sayette, M. A., Schooler, J. W., & Reichle, E. D. (2010). Out for a smoke: The impact of cigarette craving on zoning-out during reading. Psychological Science, 20, 747–752. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797609354059

This is a simple experiment with one IV and two DVs. All of the variables are ones that students can easily understand, with no prior psychological knowledge needed.

Scherer, C. R., & Sagarin, B. J. (2006). Indecent influence: The positive effects of obscenity on persuasion. Social Influence, 1, 138-146. https://doi.org/10.1080/15534510600747597

Very easy to understand (one IV, three conditions, simple experiment) and students find the topic interesting.

Sherif, M. (1956). Experiments in group conflict. Scientific American, 195(5), 54-58.

The classic study of inter-group bias when put in competition or needing to cooperate to shared goals. There are no statistics and instead two clustered bar graphs. There is also a sociogram.

Walster (Hatfield) E., Walster, G. W., Piliavin, J., & Schmidt, L. (1973). "Playing hard to get" understanding an elusive phenomenon. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 26(1), 113-121.

Empirical test of the folk psychology idea that women who play "hard to get" are more desirable. Most of the stats are simple chi square and ANOVA with tables of descriptives so it's easier to follow. The topic is fun for students. I especially like that the authors describe their scientific process genuinely with trying multiple things that failed before figuring out it what way it works.

Zarate, M., Nagayama Hall, G., & Plaut, VC (2017). Researchers of color, fame, and impact. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 12(6), 1176-1178.