LG533-7-AU: EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN AND ANALYSIS
Year: 2013/14
Department: Language and Linguistics
Essex credit: 15
ECTS credit: 7.5
Available to Study Abroad / Exchange Students: No Comments: None
| Module is taught during the following terms |
| Autumn |  | Spring |  | Summer | |
Module Description
Students will replicate an existing experimental study on a small scale. The study will be planned and carried out in groups, but students write individual reports for assessment. This study will be chosen from a pre-determined list of psycholinguistic and language acquisition studies.
Outline:
* project planning (topic, variables, hypotheses, finding literature, legal and ethical issues)
* experiment design and data entry
* methodological issues, stimulus construction, data collection and data handling
* descriptive statistics
* introduction to test statistics
* bi-variate statistics
* multi-variate statistics I
* multi-variate statistics II
* report writing
Learning outcomes:
On successful completion of the module, the student will be able to:
(i) locate relevant recent studies and summarise them in terms of hypotheses, design, variables and data collection methods,
(ii) identify variables and set up hypotheses for an experiment,
(iii) design an experiment and prepare stimuli (together with other members of a research group),
(iv) collect and organise experimental data (together with other members of a research group),
(v) use basic descriptive and inferential statistics to analyse experimental data,
(vi) report and discuss their results and their theoretical and methodological implications.
Learning & Teaching Methods
The module consists of 10x2hr lectures, which students have to attend. In addition, 10x2hrs supervised group work sessions will be offered, which students are encouraged to attend to coordinate their work with others and to gain further practice in using the statistics package SPSS.
Assessment
100 per cent Coursework Mark
Other details:
100 percent Course Work Mark.
Assessment for the module will be based on an experiment that students will carry out as part of group projects. Assessment components: 10% project plan (group work or individual work), 10% experimental materials (group work or individual work), 10% presentation of results (group work or individual work), 70% report, 3,000 words +/-500 words (individual work).
Exam Duration and Period
Other information
Additional materials will be provided in the modules myLife space: https://mylife.essex.ac.uk/lg/LG533/default.aspx
Bibliography
- CORE TEXTS -
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Brace, N., Kemp, R., Snelgar, R. 2006. SPSS for Psychologists: A Guide to Data Analysis using SPSS for Windows. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. (This book tells you which results you need from your SPSS outputs and how to write them up.)
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Breakwell, G.M., Hammond, S., Fife-Schaw, C. (eds.) 2003. Research Methods in Psychology. London: Sage Publications. (chapters 2, 3, 4, 25, 26).
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Larson-Hall, J. 2009. A Guide to Doing Statistics in Second Language Research Using SPSS. London: Routledge.
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Field, A., Hole, G. 2003. How to Design and Report Experiments. Sage Publications. (This book provides the theoretical background for the module).
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Wray, A., Bloomer, A. 2006. Projects in Linguistics. A Practical Guide to Researching Language. London: Arnold.
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ADDITIONAL TEXTS -
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METHODOLOGY:
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McDaniel, D., McKee, C., Smith Cairns, H. (eds.) 1996. Methods for Assessing Children's Syntax. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 3-22.
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Menn, L., Bernstein Ratner, N. (eds.) 2000. Methods for studying language production. Mahwah, N.J. : Lawrence Erlbaum Associates
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Scholfield, P. 1995. Quantifying Language. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
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Sekerina, I.A., Fernandez, E.M., Clahsen, H. (eds.) 2008. Developmental Psycholinguistics: on-line methods in children's language processing. Amsterdam: Benjamins
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INTRODUCTION TO STATISTICS:
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Greene, J., D'Oliveira, M. (1999). Learning to use statistical tests in psychology. Buckingham: Open University Press. (my personal favourite in this domain; comparatively easy and non-technical)
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Hatch, E., Farhady, H. 1982. Research Design and Statistics for Applied Linguists. Rowley: Newbury House Publishers. (also comparatively easy and non-technical)
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Hatch, E., lazaraton, A. 1991. The Research Manual. Boston: Heinle and Heinle. (more advanced, technical, but great coverage of most tests relevant for linguists; hard to find in stores and libraries)
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Howel, D.C. 1999. Fundamental Statistics. Pacific Grove: Duxbury Press.
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Rowntree, D. 1981. Statistics without Tears. London: Penguin. (very basic)
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Wright, D.B. 1997. Understanding Statistics. London: Sage Publications.
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Woods, A., Fletcher, P., Hughes, A. 1996. Statistics in Language Studies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
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INTRODUCTION TO STATISTICS WITH SPSS:
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George, D., Mallery, P. 2003. SPSS for Windows Step by Step. A Simple Guide and Reference. 11.0 Update. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
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Bryman, A., Cramer, D. 2008: Quantitative Data Analysis with SPSS 14, 15 and 16: a Guide for Social Scientists. Hove: Routledge.
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Internet resources in psychology and related disciplines
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http://psychlib.princeton.edu/links.htm
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Phil Scholfields webpage (SPSS and statistics pointers)
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http://privatewww.essex.ac.uk/~scholp/
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Vassar Statistics webpage
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http://faculty.vassar.edu/lowry/VassarStats.html
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DMDX reaction time software:
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http://dionysus.psych.wisc.edu/methods/DMDX/DMDXHelp.htm
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http://www.u.arizona.edu/~kforster/dmdx/dmdx.htm