Creating a Search Strategy

A Topic

What effect does watching violent cartoons have on children?

Key Terms

What effect does watching violent cartoons have on children?

– Cartoons

– Violent

– Children

Synonyms/Related Terms

Child children childhood preschool preschoolers

Violence violent aggression aggressive

Cartoons cartoon animated animation

Truncation

Child* preschool*

Violen* aggressi*

Cartoon* animat*

Search Construction: OR

Join related terms with, “or,” (also known as a Boolean operator). “or” expands your search results by retrieving records in which at least one of your search terms appears.

Child* or preschool*

Violen* or aggress*

Cartoon* or animat*

Join Concept Groups: AND

Join the concept groups together using, “and.” (also a Boolean operator) “And” narrows your search results by requiring that at least one term from each concept group be present in any retrieved records.

Child* AND Violen* AND cartoon*

Combine AND and OR For Best Results

(child* or preschool*) AND (violen* or aggress*) AND (cartoon* or animat*)

Results from PsycINFO (6/5/06)

children AND violent AND cartoons14 hits

child* AND violen* AND cartoon* 42 hits

(child* OR preschool*) AND (violen* OR aggressi*) AND (cartoon* OR animat*)103 Hits

Question for Class Example

What are the causes of eating disorders in college students?

What are the key ideas? What other terms might be related? Can any terms be truncated for more

effectiveness?