QML – Summative Assessment 2

DEADLINE: THURSDAY 7 DECEMBER AT NOON

Overview

In this assessment, you will:

• Select a dataset and its associated research questions.
• Analyse the data using one linear model (not multiple).
• Write a report about the data, the model, and your findings.

The aim is to give you practice writing about data and statistical models: an important skill for your dissertations and publications.

Please keep your report as succinct as possible. As your academic careers continue, you'll find that many hours go into doing statistics, while disproportionately few words are actually spent on describing all that work (a sad reality!).

What datasets can I choose from?

You'll find the five datasets you can choose from in the data/ folder. The data/ folder also contains .md files that give a bit of background information about the original studies, including what each dataset's columns mean.

Each dataset has its own little quirks and decisions to be made that are representative of what you'll face when analysing real-life data.

Choose ONE dataset and use it to address its corresponding research questions, given below. The number of chilli emojis indicate the approximate difficulty of the data/questions.

1. 🌶️ Ungerer2020: How do reaction times change between caused-motion and resultative primes? How is this change influenced by caused-motion vs. resultative targets?
2. 🌶️ BowermanSmith2022: Are participants more likely to choose the correct object in the fixed associations condition or the random associations condition? How is this effect influenced by the experiment block?
3. 🌶🌶️ Grafmiller2023: How does the use of 's'-genitives change from 1960 to 1990? How is this change influenced by the length of the possessum in the genitive NP?
4. 🌶🌶 Tucker2021: How are reaction times affected by lexical status of the target (i.e., whether or not the target item is an English word)? How is this effect influenced by the number of phones in the target?
5. 🌶🌶🌶 KirbyMisnadin2020: Is F0 taken from the beginning of the vowel (time point 1) affected by the phonation (voiceless, voiced, aspirated) of the preceding consonant? Does the place of articulation of the consonant affect the effect of phonation?

What do I need to report?

The analysis.Rmd file has instructions on what to report.

Some tips

• One model is enough to answer both parts of your chosen research question. The model you should be fitting will look pretty similar to models we've worked with in the course.

• If you're having a hard time choosing the data to use, you could base your decision on which one is most similar to data you might want to work with in your own research.

Any other questions?

You can ask questions on Piazza. If you are unsure about something you can also book office hours to discuss this. Of course, we can't give away answers but we can point you to the right direction if necessary.

To submit your work

When you are satisfied, you can submit your assessment by:

1. Rendering your Rmd file to PDF,
2. Renaming the PDF to your exam number only, and
3. Uploading it to Learn under Assessment.