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devpsych-tables-figures
GitHub专为发展心理学APA第7版手稿设计图表与表格的规范指南。强调以年龄为横轴展示个体轨迹及模型均值曲线，突出变化趋势、效应量与不确定性。涵盖主图设计、补充材料筛选及测量不变性表格呈现，确保可视化清晰且符合期刊要求。
Trigger Scenarios
设计发展轨迹或结果主图
决定正文与补充材料的图表分配
审稿人指出图表不清晰或未体现发展模式
可视化增长曲线、个体变异及年龄交互作用
Install
npx skills add brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills --skill devpsych-tables-figures -g -y
SKILL.md
Frontmatter
{
"name": "devpsych-tables-figures",
"description": "Use when building tables and figures for a Developmental Psychology (APA) manuscript. The journal uses APA 7th-edition style and rewards exhibits that make developmental change visible — trajectory plots, age-on-the-x-axis figures, model-implied growth curves — with effect sizes and uncertainty. Designs exhibits; it does not run the analysis."
}
Tables & Figures (devpsych-tables-figures)
In Developmental Psychology, the best exhibits show change. APA 7th-edition formatting is required, but the venue-specific move is to make the developmental claim visible: age or time on the x-axis, individual trajectories plus the model-implied mean curve, and uncertainty that a reader can see. A bar chart of age-group means that hides within-person change is a missed opportunity here.
When to trigger
- Designing the main trajectory/results figure or a key table
- Deciding what goes in the article vs. online supplemental material
- A reviewer found an exhibit unclear, non-APA, or "doesn't show the developmental pattern"
- Visualizing growth curves, individual variation, and interactions with age
Principles
- Make change visible. Prefer figures with age/time on the x-axis and the outcome on the y-axis: spaghetti plots (individual trajectories) behind the model-implied mean curve, or growth curves by moderator group. Show the developmental pattern, not just endpoint means.
- Show uncertainty and effect size. Confidence bands/intervals on curves and estimates; report the slope/interaction magnitude so the figure carries the claim, not just a p-value.
- APA 7th + self-contained. Titles, notes, axis labels (with age units), Ns per age/wave, and what the bands represent make each exhibit intelligible alone.
- A measurement-invariance / model table earns its place. A compact table reporting invariance steps (configural/metric/scalar fit, ΔCFI) reassures reviewers the change claim is sound.
- Reproducible + accessible. Generated by the deposited analysis script so values match; colorblind- safe and grayscale-legible.
Worked micro-example — the main trajectory figure (illustrative)
For the three-wave effortful-control package, the primary figure must show the growth, not bars.
Figure 1. Effortful-control trajectories, ages 4-8, by maternal scaffolding.
Geometry: thin per-child spaghetti lines + bold model-implied mean curves
for high vs. low scaffolding; 95% CI bands on the mean curves.
Axes: x = child age in years (4-8); y = effortful-control score.
Annotation: latent slope b = 0.42/yr [0.31, 0.53]; scaffolding × time
b = 0.18 [0.07, 0.29].
Note: Ns per wave, attrition count, what the bands are (95% CIs),
and that growth is interpreted under scalar invariance.
Source: rendered by the deposited R (lavaan/ggplot) script so values match.
Exhibit triage — article vs. online supplemental material
| Exhibit | Home | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| Main trajectory / growth figure with CIs | main text | this is the contribution |
| Measurement-invariance summary table | main text (compact) | underwrites the change claim |
| Full SEM path table / fit indices | supplement or appendix | secondary to the headline estimate |
| Attrition / completers-vs-dropouts table | supplement | credibility detail, not the headline |
| Robustness / alternative-model grid | supplement | summarized in one main-text sentence |
Exhibit-stage reviewer pushback and the venue fix
- "Bar chart of age groups hides the change" → switch to a trajectory/growth-curve figure with age on x.
- "I can't tell the developmental pattern" → overlay individual lines and the model-implied mean; label the slope.
- "No uncertainty shown" → add CI bands and report the effect size in the note.
- "Figure values don't match the SEM table" → regenerate both from the single deposited script.
Exhibit calibration anchors
- The figure is where a hurried editor sees the developmental claim; design the main exhibit to stand alone and to show change over age, not a pair of group means.
- Individual variation is part of the developmental story — show the spread of trajectories, not only the average, especially when heterogeneity in change is theoretically interesting.
- A small invariance table is cheap insurance: it tells reviewers the construct is the same thing across the ages you compare, pre-empting the most common developmental objection.
- Accessibility is part of credibility: colorblind-safe palettes and grayscale-legible encodings.
Anti-patterns
- Bar plots of age-group means that hide within-person change and variability
- Exhibits that need the prose to be intelligible (not self-contained)
- Trajectory figures with no confidence bands or effect sizes
- Omitting Ns per age/wave or the attrition count from notes
- Exhibit values that don't match the shared analysis script
Output format
【Main exhibit】what it shows + why a figure/table
【Shows change over age + uncertainty?】(trajectory/growth + CIs) [Y/N]
【Invariance table present?】[Y/N/NA]
【APA 7th + self-contained?】[Y/N]
【Article vs supplement】split decided
【Reproducible + accessible?】matches script, grayscale/colorblind-safe? [Y/N]
【Next】devpsych-writing-style
Supplementary resources
../../resources/external_tools.md—ggplot2,tidySEM,papajafor APA exhibits, trajectory-plot tooling../../resources/official-source-map.md— APA 7th style and exhibit requirements
Version History
- 1839142 Current 2026-07-05 12:51
