___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ LINGUISTIC ACCEPTABILITY JUDGMENTS ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Author: Katja Borchert, Ph.D. (katjab@millisecond.com) for Millisecond Software, LLC Date: 01-03-2014 last updated: 11-06-2023 by K. Borchert (katjab@millisecond.com) for Millisecond Software, LLC Script Copyright © 11-06-2023 Millisecond Software ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ BACKGROUND INFO ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ This Inquisit script implements a template to run Linguistic Acceptability Judgments (LAJ). LAJ take advantage of techniques used in psychophysics and provide a method to make linguistic judgments consistent and replicable. Reference: Bard, E. G., Robertson, D., & Sorace, A. (1996). Magnitude Estimation of Linguistic Acceptability. Language, 72(1), 32–68. https://doi.org/10.2307/416793 ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ TASK DESCRIPTION ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Participants are asked to evaluate linguistic target sentences either on Likert scales (conventional) or/and by Magnitude Estimations (ME) (psychophysics). The sentences are presented visually. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ DURATION ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ the default set-up of the script takes appr. 2 minutes to complete ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ DATA FILE INFORMATION ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ The default data stored in the data files are: (1) Raw data file: 'linguisticacceptabilityjudgments_raw*.iqdat' (a separate file for each participant) build: The specific Inquisit version used (the 'build') that was run computer.platform: the platform the script was run on (winmaciosandroid) date, time: date and time script was run subject, group: with the current subject/groupnumber session: with the current session id blockcode, blocknum: the name and number of the current block (built-in Inquisit variable) trialcode, trialnum: the name and number of the currently recorded trial (built-in Inquisit variable) Note: trialnum is a built-in Inquisit variable; it counts all trials run; even those that do not store data to the data file such as feedback trials. Thus, trialnum may not reflect the number of main trials run per block. judgmenttype: "Likert" vs. "Magnitude Estimation" stimulus: contains the current stimulus (for practice lines: the relative length of the target line) response: the participant's response (depends on task) log_mejudgments: log transform of the magnitude judgment (if applicable) latency: the response latency in ms (2) Summary data file: 'linguisticacceptabilityjudgments_summary*.iqdat' (a separate file for each participant) inquisit.version: Inquisit version run computer.platform: the platform the script was run on (win/mac/ios/android) startDate: date script was run startTime: time script was started subjectid: assigned subject id number groupid: assigned group id number sessionid: assigned session id number elapsedTime: time it took to run script (in ms); measured from onset to offset of script completed: 0 = script was not completed (prematurely aborted); 1 = script was completed (all conditions run) ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ EXPERIMENTAL SET-UP ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Likert Method: * each likert trial presents a randomly selected target sentence (random selection without replacement) with a 5 point Likert scale and the following anchors: "extremely unnatural" to "extremely natural" => to change number of anchors and anchors go to TRIALS -> likert.LAJ_likert and follow further instructions * the Likert Method runs as many trials as specified under parameters.nr_judgments (editable parameter) Magnitude Estimation * each magnitude estimations presents the baseline sentence and a randomly selected target sentence (random selection without replacement) as well as a textbox to collect the judgments * the Magnitude Estimation Method runs as many judgments as specified under parameters.nr_judgments (editable parameter) ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ STIMULI ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ * the baseline sentence for Magnitude Estimations can be set under section Editable Stimuli-> item.me_baselinesentence * the target sentences can be set under section Editable Stimuli -> item.target_sentences (also set parameters.nr_judgments under Editable Parameters) ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ INSTRUCTIONS ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ * instructions can be edited under section Editable Instructions => LIKERT: item.likert_instructions => MAGNITUDE ESTIMATIONS: a) item.me_instructions b) page.me_practice & page.me_test ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ EDITABLE CODE ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ check below for (relatively) easily editable parameters, stimuli, instructions etc. Keep in mind that you can use this script as a template and therefore always "mess" with the entire code to further customize your experiment. The parameters you can change are: /LikertMethod: true = Likert Acceptability Method is run (default) false = Likert Acceptability Method is NOT run /MagnitudeEstimation: true = Magnitude Estimation Acceptability Method is run (default) false = Magnitude Estimation Acceptability Method is NOT run /nr_judgments: specifies the number of judgments to be made (default: 4) /fontsize_stimulus: sets the size of the stimulus in percentage of screen height (default: 5%) /baselinelength: the baseline line length in screen height proportion for ME practice (default: 25%)