Citing and Referencing in APA Style : Preliminary Insights

Abstract

APA Style emerged as a part of the Behaviorist movement in psychology. Documentation (i.e., citations and references) distinguishes scholarly work from popular work. Although a number of citations reflect the intellectual contribution of an article to research literature, authors may have other motivations to cite. We addressed whether students have a narrow or broad understanding of APA Style to test the limits of learning about documentation via osmosis.