Programme

The Masterclass consists of two parts that can be taken separately:

3-day Experimental Design Workshop (Thu-Sat)

1-day Statistical Multilevel Modelling Workshop (Sun)

3-day Experimental Design Workshop

Day 1

Introduction to the scientific method
`the empirical cycle, hypothesis testing `replicability and the public nature of science `is linguistics a science?

The basics of experimental design
`dependent and independent variables `confounding variables `between v. within-participants designs `control group/condition `randomizing and counterbalancing

Other experimental designs
`matched pair designs `multiple group designs `factorial designs `mixed designs `quasi-experiments `single-n designs

Some experimental tasks
`acceptability judgment `sorting tasks `similarity judgment `matching tasks `truth value judgment `act-out tasks `comprehension questions `sentence repetition `sentence correction `nonce-word and nonce construction paradigms `constructional priming `matched guise `online methods

Day 2

Designing an experiment: Part 1 - Group exercise

Discussion of participants´ own research projects

After an introduction to data manipulation in R and finding out what the correct R format is for the data you have collected you will be given the opportunity to talk to the instructor individually about your projects and receive information on the ways in which your data can be analyzed.

Day 3

Designing an experiment: Part 2

Writing up experimental research

Some practicalities
`Should I use a between or within design? `How many participants do I need? `How many items do I need per condition? `How do I construct the experimental materials? `How do I recruit participants? `How do I code my data?

On the statistical side, you will be introduced to visualization techniques and non-parametric methods that can help you gain insight into the data you have collected.

1-day Statistical Multilevel Modelling Workshop

Day 4

We'll start with a revision of the basic concepts of standard regression, and then move on to mixed regression modelling, touching upon the analysis of eye-tracking data.

For this part knowledge of basic statistics is essential and working knowledge of regression models is desirable.

The venue

The Masterclass will take place in the University of Sheffield's Information Commons, Collaboratory 2. This large inquiry collaboratory - a classroom conceived as research environment - offers access to a wide variety of technologies as an integral part of the learning and teaching experience.

For a detailed timetable of sessions follow this link.