Research Competition

Calling all undergraduate and graduate students in psychology! Presented by the Texas Psychological Foundation (TPF), the Research Competition is your chance to develop the valuable skill of clearly and concisely communicating the significance of your research at the 2026 TPA Annual Conference.

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Submission Guidelines

Abstracts must summarize a completed research project and should:

• Provide a brief overview of the study’s background/rationale, methods, results, and conclusions
• Be limited to 300 words
• Be submitted only by students
• Reflect completed work, including results
• Not be literature reviews or descriptions of proposed projects, which will not be considered for the Research Competition

Competition Logistics

Students whose abstracts are selected will:

• Deliver a 3-minute oral presentation summarizing their research findings and the significance of their work for a panel of judges and an audience of TPA attendees
• Create a visual aid, a virtual poster in the form of a single PowerPoint slide, to support their presentation
• Use either a traditional or simplified conference poster format. Templates are available here.
• Have their poster displayed in the conference app to increase visibility of student research

Judging Criteria

Presentations will be evaluated on:

• Clarity of the study’s rationale, methodology, analyses, results, and conclusions
• Overall effectiveness and style of the presentation

Awards

Winners will be announced via the conference app, and cash prizes will be presented at TPA’s closing ceremony:

• 1st Place – $300
• 2nd Place – $200
• 3rd Place – $100