Contact
If there is a problem with the webpage or task, contact christine[dot]cuskley[at]ncl.ac.uk. If you reached the task via Mechanical Turk, please contact the requester directly.
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About the study
What was the study about?
This study investigates what can help or hinder executive function. Executive function is the set of mental skills that assists us with things like concentration and filtering information. Some theories suggest that this set of skills can be strengthened by language learning (in this task, the little alien language you learned). The task with the coloured words that you did before and after the language task is a way to measure executive function. We want to measure if people perform better on the second colour-word task than the first one, which could show that the language task boosted their executive function.
We suspect that a task with an alien language that is more systematic is more likely to strengthen executive function, so we gave some participants a highly rule-governed language where part of each word referred to each shape and part to it’s pattern (e.g., shape-pattern; ege-wawa, mega-wawa, mega-wawu etc.). Other participants got a more holistic language, where entire words referred to entire shapes (e.g., pihino, gakho, nemone). These shapes and words were adapted from an earlier artificial language learning study.
Where can I find out more?
The study is being conducted by researchers in Linguistics at Newcastle University. In case you missed it, the information sheet about the study can be downloaded here. If you have any further questions about the research, please email Finnoula Lynch (f.lynch [at] newcastle.ac.uk).
Thanks for your time and have a nice day!
Welcome to the Language Study
If you're viewing this on a mobile phone, it will be better in landscape.
This is a study on language learning conducted by Fionnuala Lynch and Dr Christine Cuskley at Newcastle University.
First we will ask you for some general information about yourself. Then, we will ask you to respond to some coloured words on screen, learn a miniature language, and then respond to some more coloured words. Your responses will be recorded for the research, but will not be identifiable to you personally.
Please click here to read more detailed information about the study, which you can download as a PDF and keep for your records.
Clicking the "Agree" box below indicates that:
This is only a demonstration version of the experiment, none of your data will be collected. However, you must still click agree to see the full experiment
You agree that your anonymised data may be kept permanently in the archives at Newcastle University and may be used by qualified researchers for teaching and research purposes.
You agree that your anonymised data may be made publicly available for general use, e.g., released as part of scholarly publication.
You voluntarily agree to participate and can stop or withdraw at any time without penalty.
About you
Before we get started with the task, we have a few basic questions about you. Once these are done you'll receive more specific instructions about the task.
We'll start by making sure you aren't a bot or a script.
Follow the instructions below carefully so we can make sure you aren't a robot.
- Copy the last two words of this sentence into the box below, and add an exclamation point at the end for style
- Move the slider all the way to here or there - it doesn't matter which one
Clever human! Please answer the questions below
I don't mean to be rude, but you don't seem human. Sorry, you can't do this HIT.
How old are you?
What is your gender?
Do you have normal or corrected to normal vision (e.g., using glasses or contacts)?
Do you have any kind of colourblindess?
Tell us a bit about your English
Do you know any languages other than English?
Colour task instructions
Welcome to the study and thanks for agreeing to take part! The study will take place in three parts:
- First, you'll see words shown on screen in different colours. Your task is to press the 'A' key if the written color matches the printed colour, and press the 'L' key if it doesn't.Your task is to press the 'L' key if the written color matches the printed colour, and press the 'A' key if it doesn't.
- Second, you'll learn a miniature 'alien' language. We'll give you detailed instructions.
- Finally, we'll do another task just like the first: Your task is to press the 'A' key if the written color matches the printed colour, and press the 'L' key if it doesn't.Your task is to press the 'L' key if the written color matches the printed colour, and press the 'A' key if it doesn't.
We'll explain each part in more detail as we go. We'll start by showing you a demo of the color task. The task can be tough and you won't always get it right, but just keep going! If you don't respond to each item within a few seconds, it will automatically go to the next one.
Press the 'A' key if the written color matches the printed colour, and press the 'L' key if it doesn't.Press the 'L' key if the written color matches the printed colour, and press the 'A' key if it doesn't.
Ready for the real thing?
The real list will be longer, but will otherwise be the same: focus on the cross in the centre of the screen to see each word, and press the 'A' key if the written color matches the printed colour, and press the 'L' key if it doesn't.press the 'L' key if the written color matches the printed colour, and press the 'A' key if it doesn't..
Ready to start?
Nice one!
Now we'll move onto the next part: you're going to learn a small alien language. You'll see a word on the bottom of the screen, and then an image above it. The word is the label for the image - try to remember which words go with which images.
Once you've seen each image a couple times, there will be a quick test where you'll try to remember the names. Then you'll have another study session, and a final test.
Ready to get started?
Good effort!
Now you'll train on the langage one more time. As before, you'll see a word on the bottom of the screen, and then an image above it. The word is the label for the image - try to remember which words go with which images.
Once you've seen each image a couple times, there will be one last test.
Ready?
Word here
Well done!
Now we'll test you on the language you just saw. We'll show you the shape, try to remember and type in the label.
Don't worry if you can't remember exactly - when you give your answer we'll tell you if it was right or wrong and remind you of the right label.
Ready?
Last test...
Now we'll test you on the same language one last time. We'll show you the shape, try to remember and type in the label.
Don't worry if you can't remember exactly - when you give your answer we'll tell you if it was right or wrong and remind you of the right label.
Ready?
Write your answer and click 'submit'
Good job!
Almost done! Just one more thing: we have another test about colors, just like the first one you did.
Your task is to press the 'A' key if the written color matches the printed colour, and press the 'L' key if it doesn't.Your task is to press the 'L' key if the written color matches the printed colour, and press the 'A' key if it doesn't.