Do trustworthiness judgements help people to recognise synthetic faces?
subject: StyleGAN, synthetic face, trustworthiness perception, facial trustworthiness
description: Recent advances in digital image generative models have allowed for artificial creation of fake imagery such as synthesising highly photorealistic human faces. Style-based Generative Adversarial Networks (StyleGAN) is one of the most state-of-the-art generative models in this field, and has been widely used on facial image generation. However, with the increasing ease of using such image generative models, the security in many domains, such as forensic, border control and mass media, is vulnerable in front of the potential threats resulted from the misuse of image generative technologies. To date there has only been limited empirical research into the facial characteristics of StyleGAN-generated faces to support the design of detection methods against such synthetic faces. This study used StyleGAN2 (an improved version of StyleGAN) to generate faces and invited people to complete two facial image evaluation tasks, 1) Discrimination task, 2) Trustworthiness rating task. The study results demonstrated that, in the discrimination task, subjects had trouble recognising synthetic faces by direct/explicit judgement; while in the trustworthiness rating task, subjects perceived the synthetic faces as significantly more trustworthy than real faces. The study further analysed gender bias and ethnicity bias on the perception of facial trustworthiness, with results showing some differences between different levels of gender and ethnicity. In conclusion, people’s ability to recognise synthetic faces is poor, but it is possible that people rely on the perception of facial trustworthiness to discriminate synthetic from real faces. The findings in this study have implications for the development of detection methods against digitally generated faces.
creator: Haisa Shan
source: Subjects and design Three hundred and fifty-seven subjects (114 males, mean age = 25.2, SD = 5.8; 227 females, mean age = 25.0, SD = 6.3; 10 non-binary, mean age = 23.6, SD = 8.93) were recruited to complete an online survey test delivered on www.qualtrics.com. The responses of subjects who started but did not complete the online survey were eliminated to avoid distorting the research results. We used computer-synthesised facial images in this research as fake faces, mixed with real faces to examine people’s ability to detect fake faces and perceptual differences of trustworthiness between real/fake faces. Subjects did not get rewards for their participation, though they could see the test score of their performances at the end of the survey. The Qualtrics survey was based on a within-subjects design in which all subjects viewed the same two sets of adult facial images and completed each of the two tasks. To eliminate the effect of between-sets difference, the use of each image sets was counterbalanced in the individual test for each subject. Before the survey started, all subjects provided informed consent and completed a demographic questionnaire about their age, gender, ethnicity. In terms of the experimental power of 0.8 and significance level of 0.05, with a small effect, the power calculation indicated that the study needed at least 198 subjects. Stimuli A total of thirty-two human facial images (1024×1024 resolution), including 16 real and 16 synthetic faces, were used as stimuli in the survey. All real faces were taken from a publicly available dataset for high-quality human facial images, Flickr-Faces-HQ (FFHQ), which is created as a benchmark for GAN (see https://github.com/NVlabs/ffhq-dataset), and all synthetic faces were gained from the dataset of the generative image modeling, StyleGAN2 (see https://github.com/NVlabs/stylegan2). To ensure a diverse dataset, in each of the two sets of faces, there were 4 Black, 4 East Asian, 4 South Asian, 4 White, and …
publisher: Haisa Shan
date: 8 September 2021
contributor: Haisa Shan
rights: Open
relation: None
format: data/Excel.csv
language: English
type: Data
coverage: None

Does Advertising Truly Represent the LGBTQ+ Community? An Analysis of Intersectionality and Consumer Responses to LGBTQ+ Advertising
subject: LGBTQ+ advertising, prosocial advertising, intersectionality, consumer attitudes
description: Depictions of sexual and gender minorities in advertising are becoming increasingly common and diverse. Yet, numerous intersections within these portrayals are still invisible. Previous research has found mixed results regarding consumer responses to LGBTQ+ identities in advertising. The current study aimed to obtain a further understanding into how a diverse range of consumers respond to heteronormative versus LGBTQ+ imagery in ads. This was assessed using semi-structured interviews to examine sexual and gender minority consumer (n = 13) and non-LGBTQ+ consumer (n = 6) reactions to three distinct IKEA ads. In addition to this, LGBTQ+ character depictions in 286 worldwide mainstream ads from 2016-2020 were analysed for measures of intersectionality across the dimensions of race, age and specific LGBTQ+ membership, extending the previous findings of Nölke (2018). Results indicated that non-LGBTQ+ participants showed similar responses and subsequent brand evaluation regardless of ad theme. Sexual and gender minority participants were found to show preference towards the ad featuring LGBTQ+ identities, though were often found to be sceptical of such portrayals. Intersectionality analysis uncovered that 47 out of a possible 96 intersections were completely invisible from 2016-2020, although representation of minorities within the community has increased substantially since the original findings. Results demonstrate the importance of character depictions in advertising, highlighting why intersectionality of such portrayals needs to increase in the future. Findings further denote how and why different consumers react to specific ad imagery, making recommendations to marketers regarding their inclusion of LGBTQ+ identities in advertising.
creator: Layton Edgington
source: Participants The sample consisted of 19 participants aged between 18-53 at their time of interview; Mage = 23.5 years, SDage = 7.6. Of this sample, 13 participants stated that they identified as LGBTQ+ (2 White lesbian females, 1 Mixed-Race lesbian female, 2 White gay males, 1 Asian gay male, 2 White bisexual females, 1 Black bisexual female, 1 Asian bisexual male, 1 White transgender female, 1 White transgender male and 1 White transgender non-binary individual). A further 6 participants stated that they did not identify as LGBTQ+ (3 White males and 3 White females). Participants were recruited in a purposive manner through social media sites such as Instagram and WhatsApp and comprised mainly of acquaintances of the researcher. A high proportion of LGBTQ+ participants were utilised in an effort to ensure intersectionality of responses, which has been shown to provide a strong methodological framework within which to investigate underrepresented groups (Rodriguez, 2018). Design The study consisted of two distinct elements; semi-structured interviews and a content analysis of existing global advertisements that feature LGBTQ+ characters from 2016-2020. Semi-structured interviews were the chosen method of qualitative data gathering, as the style allows for analysis according to the basis of grounded theory (Glaser & Strauss, 1967) and gives scope for probing questions to supplement the richness of answers given. The combination of quantitative (quantified content analysis) and qualitative research employed in the study through separate investigations was undertaken in attempt to provide a rigorous understanding of LGBTQ+ diversity in advertising and its effects upon observers. Interviews All participants individually took part in an in-depth semi-structured interview with the researcher over Microsoft Teams. Due to the inductive nature of the exploration, no independent and dependent variables were implemented. The research broadly assessed the following measures acr…
publisher: Lancaster University
date: September 2021
contributor: Layton Edgington
rights: Open
relation: Qualitative analysis has no relation. Content analysis extends the work of Nölke (2018). Nölke, A. I. (2018). Making diversity conform? An intersectional, longitudinal analysis of LGBT-specific mainstream media advertisements. Journal of Homosexuality, 65(2), 224-255.
format: Data/Excel.csv Text/Nvivo
language: English
type: Data and text
coverage: LA1 4YF

Does Advertising Truly Represent the LGBTQ+ Community? An Analysis of Intersectionality and Consumer Responses to LGBTQ+ Advertising
subject: LGBTQ+ advertising, prosocial advertising, intersectionality, consumer attitudes
description: Depictions of sexual and gender minorities in advertising are becoming increasingly common and diverse. Yet, numerous intersections within these portrayals are still invisible. Previous research has found mixed results regarding consumer responses to LGBTQ+ identities in advertising. The current study aimed to obtain a further understanding into how a diverse range of consumers respond to heteronormative versus LGBTQ+ imagery in ads. This was assessed using semi-structured interviews to examine sexual and gender minority consumer (n = 13) and non-LGBTQ+ consumer (n = 6) reactions to three distinct IKEA ads. In addition to this, LGBTQ+ character depictions in 286 worldwide mainstream ads from 2016-2020 were analysed for measures of intersectionality across the dimensions of race, age and specific LGBTQ+ membership, extending the previous findings of Nölke (2018). Results indicated that non-LGBTQ+ participants showed similar responses and subsequent brand evaluation regardless of ad theme. Sexual and gender minority participants were found to show preference towards the ad featuring LGBTQ+ identities, though were often found to be sceptical of such portrayals. Intersectionality analysis uncovered that 47 out of a possible 96 intersections were completely invisible from 2016-2020, although representation of minorities within the community has increased substantially since the original findings. Results demonstrate the importance of character depictions in advertising, highlighting why intersectionality of such portrayals needs to increase in the future. Findings further denote how and why different consumers react to specific ad imagery, making recommendations to marketers regarding their inclusion of LGBTQ+ identities in advertising.
creator: Layton Edgington
source: Participants The sample consisted of 19 participants aged between 18-53 at their time of interview; Mage = 23.5 years, SDage = 7.6. Of this sample, 13 participants stated that they identified as LGBTQ+ (2 White lesbian females, 1 Mixed-Race lesbian female, 2 White gay males, 1 Asian gay male, 2 White bisexual females, 1 Black bisexual female, 1 Asian bisexual male, 1 White transgender female, 1 White transgender male and 1 White transgender non-binary individual). A further 6 participants stated that they did not identify as LGBTQ+ (3 White males and 3 White females). Participants were recruited in a purposive manner through social media sites such as Instagram and WhatsApp and comprised mainly of acquaintances of the researcher. A high proportion of LGBTQ+ participants were utilised in an effort to ensure intersectionality of responses, which has been shown to provide a strong methodological framework within which to investigate underrepresented groups (Rodriguez, 2018). Design The study consisted of two distinct elements; semi-structured interviews and a content analysis of existing global advertisements that feature LGBTQ+ characters from 2016-2020. Semi-structured interviews were the chosen method of qualitative data gathering, as the style allows for analysis according to the basis of grounded theory (Glaser & Strauss, 1967) and gives scope for probing questions to supplement the richness of answers given. The combination of quantitative (quantified content analysis) and qualitative research employed in the study through separate investigations was undertaken in attempt to provide a rigorous understanding of LGBTQ+ diversity in advertising and its effects upon observers. Interviews All participants individually took part in an in-depth semi-structured interview with the researcher over Microsoft Teams. Due to the inductive nature of the exploration, no independent and dependent variables were implemented. The research broadly assessed the following measures acr…
publisher: Lancaster University
date: September 2021
contributor: Laura Meek
rights: Open (Unless stated otherwise)
relation: None (Unless stated otherwise)
format: Data/Excel.csv Text/Nvivo
language: English
type: Data
coverage: LA1 4YF

Does Advertising Truly Represent the LGBTQ+ Community? An Analysis of Intersectionality and Consumer Responses to LGBTQ+ Advertising
subject: LGBTQ+ advertising, prosocial advertising, intersectionality, consumer attitudes
description: Depictions of sexual and gender minorities in advertising are becoming increasingly common and diverse. Yet, numerous intersections within these portrayals are still invisible. Previous research has found mixed results regarding consumer responses to LGBTQ+ identities in advertising. The current study aimed to obtain a further understanding into how a diverse range of consumers respond to heteronormative versus LGBTQ+ imagery in ads. This was assessed using semi-structured interviews to examine sexual and gender minority consumer (n = 13) and non-LGBTQ+ consumer (n = 6) reactions to three distinct IKEA ads. In addition to this, LGBTQ+ character depictions in 286 worldwide mainstream ads from 2016-2020 were analysed for measures of intersectionality across the dimensions of race, age and specific LGBTQ+ membership, extending the previous findings of Nölke (2018). Results indicated that non-LGBTQ+ participants showed similar responses and subsequent brand evaluation regardless of ad theme. Sexual and gender minority participants were found to show preference towards the ad featuring LGBTQ+ identities, though were often found to be sceptical of such portrayals. Intersectionality analysis uncovered that 47 out of a possible 96 intersections were completely invisible from 2016-2020, although representation of minorities within the community has increased substantially since the original findings. Results demonstrate the importance of character depictions in advertising, highlighting why intersectionality of such portrayals needs to increase in the future. Findings further denote how and why different consumers react to specific ad imagery, making recommendations to marketers regarding their inclusion of LGBTQ+ identities in advertising.
creator: Layton Edgington
source: Participants The sample consisted of 19 participants aged between 18-53 at their time of interview; Mage = 23.5 years, SDage = 7.6. Of this sample, 13 participants stated that they identified as LGBTQ+ (2 White lesbian females, 1 Mixed-Race lesbian female, 2 White gay males, 1 Asian gay male, 2 White bisexual females, 1 Black bisexual female, 1 Asian bisexual male, 1 White transgender female, 1 White transgender male and 1 White transgender non-binary individual). A further 6 participants stated that they did not identify as LGBTQ+ (3 White males and 3 White females). Participants were recruited in a purposive manner through social media sites such as Instagram and WhatsApp and comprised mainly of acquaintances of the researcher. A high proportion of LGBTQ+ participants were utilised in an effort to ensure intersectionality of responses, which has been shown to provide a strong methodological framework within which to investigate underrepresented groups (Rodriguez, 2018). Design The study consisted of two distinct elements; semi-structured interviews and a content analysis of existing global advertisements that feature LGBTQ+ characters from 2016-2020. Semi-structured interviews were the chosen method of qualitative data gathering, as the style allows for analysis according to the basis of grounded theory (Glaser & Strauss, 1967) and gives scope for probing questions to supplement the richness of answers given. The combination of quantitative (quantified content analysis) and qualitative research employed in the study through separate investigations was undertaken in attempt to provide a rigorous understanding of LGBTQ+ diversity in advertising and its effects upon observers. Interviews All participants individually took part in an in-depth semi-structured interview with the researcher over Microsoft Teams. Due to the inductive nature of the exploration, no independent and dependent variables were implemented. The research broadly assessed the following measures acr…
publisher: Lancaster University
date: September 2021
contributor: Yuxin Zhang
rights: Open
relation: Qualitative analysis has no relation. Content analysis extends the work of Nölke (2018)
format: Data/Excel.csv Text/Nvivo
language: English
type: Data and Text
coverage: LA1 4YF

Does implicit mentalising involve the representation of others’ mental state content?
subject: implicit mentalising, co-representation, joint action, domain specificity
description: Implicit mentalising involves the automatic awareness of the perspectives of those around oneself. Its development is crucial to successful social functioning and joint action. However, the domain specificity of implicit mentalising is debated. The individual/joint Simon task is often used to demonstrate implicit mentalising in the form of a Joint Simon Effect (JSE), in which a spatial compatibility effect is elicited more strongly in a joint versus an individual condition. Some have proposed that the JSE stems from the automatic action co-representation of a social partner’s frame-of-reference, which creates a spatial overlap between stimulus-response location in the joint (but not individual) condition. However, others have argued that any sufficiently salient entity (not necessarily a social partner) can induce the JSE. To provide a fresh perspective, the present study attempted to investigate the content of co-representation (n = 65). We employed a novel variant of the individual/joint Simon task where typical geometric stimuli were replaced with a unique set of animal silhouettes. Half of the set were each surreptitiously assigned to either the participant themselves or their partner. Critically, to examine the content of co-representation, participants were presented with a surprise image recognition task afterwards. Image memory accuracy was analysed to identify any partner-driven effects exclusive to the joint condition. However, the current experiment failed to replicate the key JSE in the Simon task, as only a cross-condition spatial compatibility effect was found. This severely limited our ability to interpret the results of the recognition memory task and its implications on the contents of co-representation. Potential design-related reasons for these inconclusive results were discussed. Possible methodological remedies for future studies were suggested.
creator: Malcolm Wong
source: Pre-test: Selection of Suitable Stimuli Participants Twenty-five undergraduate students at Lancaster University were recruited via SONA systems (a University-managed research participation system) and gave informed consent to participate in an online pre-test that aided in the selection of suitable experimental stimuli for the main experiment. Ethical considerations were reviewed and approved by a member of the University Psychology department. Stimuli and Materials Pavlovia, the online counterpart to the experiment building software package PsychoPy (version 2022.2.0; Peirce et al., 2019), was used to remotely run the stimuli selection pre-test. One hundred images of common black-and-white animal silhouettes were initially selected and downloaded from PhyloPic (Palomo-Munoz, n.d.), an online database of taxonomic organism images, freely reusable under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license . All images were resized and standardised to fit within an 854 x 480-pixel rectangle. Design and Procedure An online pre-test was conducted to identify the recognisability of possible animal stimuli and to select the most recognisable set of 32 animal silhouettes to use in the main experiment. Recognisability was an important consideration because participants would only briefly glimpse at the animals; therefore, the ability to recognise the silhouettes quickly and subconsciously was paramount. The 100 chosen animal silhouettes (as outlined in the Stimuli and Materials section) were randomised and sequentially presented. Each image was displayed for 1000ms to match the duration of stimuli exposure in the final experimental design. The participant then rated each animal’s recognisability on a 7-point Likert scale (1 = Extremely Unrecognisable to 7 = Extremely Recognisable). Additionally, they were asked to guess each animal’s name by typing it in a text box, and to provide a confidence rating corresponding to each naming attempt (again, on a 7-point Likert scale, fro…
publisher: Lancaster University
date: 07/09/2022
contributor: Malcolm Wong Aubrey Covill Elisha Moreton
rights: Open
relation: N/A
format: Data/Excel.csv Analysis/r_file.R
language: English
type: Data
coverage: LA1 4YF

Does implicit mentalising involve the representation of others’ mental state content?
subject: implicit mentalising, co-representation, joint action, domain specificity
description: Implicit mentalising involves the automatic awareness of the perspectives of those around oneself. Its development is crucial to successful social functioning and joint action. However, the domain specificity of implicit mentalising is debated. The individual/joint Simon task is often used to demonstrate implicit mentalising in the form of a Joint Simon Effect (JSE), in which a spatial compatibility effect is elicited more strongly in a joint versus an individual condition. Some have proposed that the JSE stems from the automatic action co-representation of a social partner’s frame-of-reference, which creates a spatial overlap between stimulus-response location in the joint (but not individual) condition. However, others have argued that any sufficiently salient entity (not necessarily a social partner) can induce the JSE. To provide a fresh perspective, the present study attempted to investigate the content of co-representation (n = 65). We employed a novel variant of the individual/joint Simon task where typical geometric stimuli were replaced with a unique set of animal silhouettes. Half of the set were each surreptitiously assigned to either the participant themselves or their partner. Critically, to examine the content of co-representation, participants were presented with a surprise image recognition task afterwards. Image memory accuracy was analysed to identify any partner-driven effects exclusive to the joint condition. However, the current experiment failed to replicate the key JSE in the Simon task, as only a cross-condition spatial compatibility effect was found. This severely limited our ability to interpret the results of the recognition memory task and its implications on the contents of co-representation. Potential design-related reasons for these inconclusive results were discussed. Possible methodological remedies for future studies were suggested.
creator: Malcolm Wong
source: Pre-test: Selection of Suitable Stimuli Participants Twenty-five undergraduate students at Lancaster University were recruited via SONA systems (a University-managed research participation system) and gave informed consent to participate in an online pre-test that aided in the selection of suitable experimental stimuli for the main experiment. Ethical considerations were reviewed and approved by a member of the University Psychology department. Stimuli and Materials Pavlovia, the online counterpart to the experiment building software package PsychoPy (version 2022.2.0; Peirce et al., 2019), was used to remotely run the stimuli selection pre-test. One hundred images of common black-and-white animal silhouettes were initially selected and downloaded from PhyloPic (Palomo-Munoz, n.d.), an online database of taxonomic organism images, freely reusable under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license . All images were resized and standardised to fit within an 854 x 480-pixel rectangle. Design and Procedure An online pre-test was conducted to identify the recognisability of possible animal stimuli and to select the most recognisable set of 32 animal silhouettes to use in the main experiment. Recognisability was an important consideration because participants would only briefly glimpse at the animals; therefore, the ability to recognise the silhouettes quickly and subconsciously was paramount. The 100 chosen animal silhouettes (as outlined in the Stimuli and Materials section) were randomised and sequentially presented. Each image was displayed for 1000ms to match the duration of stimuli exposure in the final experimental design. The participant then rated each animal’s recognisability on a 7-point Likert scale (1 = Extremely Unrecognisable to 7 = Extremely Recognisable). Additionally, they were asked to guess each animal’s name by typing it in a text box, and to provide a confidence rating corresponding to each naming attempt (again, on a 7-point Likert scale, fro…
publisher: Lancaster University
date: 07/09/2022
contributor: Elisha Moreton Aubrey Covill
rights: Open
relation: N/A
format: Data/Excel.csv Analysis/r_file.R
language: English
type: Data
coverage: LA1 4YF

Does implicit mentalising involve the representation of others’ mental state content?
subject: implicit mentalising, co-representation, joint action, domain specificity
description: Implicit mentalising involves the automatic awareness of the perspectives of those around oneself. Its development is crucial to successful social functioning and joint action. However, the domain specificity of implicit mentalising is debated. The individual/joint Simon task is often used to demonstrate implicit mentalising in the form of a Joint Simon Effect (JSE), in which a spatial compatibility effect is elicited more strongly in a joint versus an individual condition. Some have proposed that the JSE stems from the automatic action co-representation of a social partner’s frame-of-reference, which creates a spatial overlap between stimulus-response location in the joint (but not individual) condition. However, others have argued that any sufficiently salient entity (not necessarily a social partner) can induce the JSE. To provide a fresh perspective, the present study attempted to investigate the content of co-representation (n = 65). We employed a novel variant of the individual/joint Simon task where typical geometric stimuli were replaced with a unique set of animal silhouettes. Half of the set were each surreptitiously assigned to either the participant themselves or their partner. Critically, to examine the content of co-representation, participants were presented with a surprise image recognition task afterwards. Image memory accuracy was analysed to identify any partner-driven effects exclusive to the joint condition. However, the current experiment failed to replicate the key JSE in the Simon task, as only a cross-condition spatial compatibility effect was found. This severely limited our ability to interpret the results of the recognition memory task and its implications on the contents of co-representation. Potential design-related reasons for these inconclusive results were discussed. Possible methodological remedies for future studies were suggested.
creator: Malcolm Wong
source: Pre-test: Selection of Suitable Stimuli Participants Twenty-five undergraduate students at Lancaster University were recruited via SONA systems (a University-managed research participation system) and gave informed consent to participate in an online pre-test that aided in the selection of suitable experimental stimuli for the main experiment. Ethical considerations were reviewed and approved by a member of the University Psychology department. Stimuli and Materials Pavlovia, the online counterpart to the experiment building software package PsychoPy (version 2022.2.0; Peirce et al., 2019), was used to remotely run the stimuli selection pre-test. One hundred images of common black-and-white animal silhouettes were initially selected and downloaded from PhyloPic (Palomo-Munoz, n.d.), an online database of taxonomic organism images, freely reusable under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license . All images were resized and standardised to fit within an 854 x 480-pixel rectangle. Design and Procedure An online pre-test was conducted to identify the recognisability of possible animal stimuli and to select the most recognisable set of 32 animal silhouettes to use in the main experiment. Recognisability was an important consideration because participants would only briefly glimpse at the animals; therefore, the ability to recognise the silhouettes quickly and subconsciously was paramount. The 100 chosen animal silhouettes (as outlined in the Stimuli and Materials section) were randomised and sequentially presented. Each image was displayed for 1000ms to match the duration of stimuli exposure in the final experimental design. The participant then rated each animal’s recognisability on a 7-point Likert scale (1 = Extremely Unrecognisable to 7 = Extremely Recognisable). Additionally, they were asked to guess each animal’s name by typing it in a text box, and to provide a confidence rating corresponding to each naming attempt (again, on a 7-point Likert scale, fro…
publisher: Lancaster University
date: 07/09/2022
contributor: Aubrey Covill Elisha Moreton
rights: Open
relation: N/A
format: Data/Excel.csv Analysis/r_file.R
language: English
type: Data
coverage: LA1 4YF

Does Noise Affect How Children Learn Grammar in the Classroom?
subject: Developmental, regression
description: In a classroom environment noise can be a significant impediment, obstructing and distorting essential information being taught. Extensive prior research consistently indicates that noise has a detrimental impact on learning, those who learn in noise retain and comprehend far less information than their counterparts who learn in quiet. To date there are no studies that investigate the effect of noise on learning grammar specifically -the primary aim of the current study is the address this research gap. This paper details our recruitment of 16 children aged 7– 12 through the Babylab database at Lancaster university. This study employed a between participants design, where children completed a three-part audio evaluation, engaged in an artificial grammar paradigm, and a undertook a working memory task. The artificial grammar paradigm was employed as our primary assessment tool, participants were exposed to the grammar either in noise or in quiet. Results were analysed using a multiple regression with total grammar score as the dependent variable and age, gender, condition, and working memory as the independent variables. In contrast the prior research, our results revealed that the effect of the independent variables on the dependent variable was statistically nonsignificant, proving our null hypotheses to be true. These findings suggest that background noise does not affect how children learn grammar in the classroom challenging the existing understanding that noise negatively impacts learning.
creator: Ashlynn Mayo
source: Participants 16 children aged 7-12 years old participated in this study, unfortunately due to technical issues 5 participants’ data were excluded leaving 11 children’s data to be included in the analysis (M=8.64, SD=1.63, female=7, male=4). Children were recruited through the Lancaster University Babylab database and by flyers posted on social media and local community. A requirement of the current study was that children be English speaking monolinguals, this is because an abundance of research has indicated that those who can speak two or more languages are at a far greater advantage when it comes to new language acquisition (Antoniou et al., 2015). Therefore, in order to control the likelihood of extraneous variables such as this we ensured all participants were English speaking monolinguals only. Furthermore, children were also required to have normal vision or corrected to normal vision. To rule out hearing loss all children had to pass an otoscope inspection, a tympanometry test, and a pure tone hearing screening at 20dB in the standard frequencies (250Hz-8kHZ). The current study employed a between participant design whereby subjects were allocated to a condition based on their age and gender -age was categorised into 7-9 and 10-12- in order to ensure that there were as equal an amount of males and females in each condition over all ages. It is crucial for the validity of the study that children are only exposed to the artificial grammar paradigm once or data will be rendered unreliable as they will have an unfair advantage over the other participants. Ethics for the current study have been obtained from the Departmental Ethics Committee (DEC), Psychology Department at Lancaster University. Materials This study was conducted within a double walled soundproof chamber at Lancaster University’s PELiCAN lab where the participant sat at a desk with a monitor placed in front of them. A secondary researcher was present in the lab for health and safety purposes. Conse…
publisher: Lancaster University
date: Academic year: 22-23
contributor: Chloe Massey, Molly Pugh, Chloe Kitis
rights: Open
relation: None
format: Data/Excel.xls
language: English
type: Data
coverage: LA1 4YF

Does Noise Affect How Children Learn Grammar in the Classroom?
subject: Grammar, Noise, Working Memory
description: In a classroom environment noise can be a significant impediment, obstructing and distorting essential information being taught. Extensive prior research consistently indicates that noise has a detrimental impact on learning, those who learn in noise retain and comprehend far less information than their counterparts who learn in quiet. To date there are no studies that investigate the effect of noise on learning grammar specifically -the primary aim of the current study is the address this research gap. This paper details our recruitment of 16 children aged 7– 12 through the Babylab database at Lancaster university. This study employed a between participants design, where children completed a three-part audio evaluation, engaged in an artificial grammar paradigm, and a undertook a working memory task. The artificial grammar paradigm was employed as our primary assessment tool, participants were exposed to the grammar either in noise or in quiet. Results were analysed using a multiple regression with total grammar score as the dependent variable and age, gender, condition, and working memory as the independent variables. In contrast the prior research, our results revealed that the effect of the independent variables on the dependent variable was statistically nonsignificant, proving our null hypotheses to be true. These findings suggest that background noise does not affect how children learn grammar in the classroom challenging the existing understanding that noise negatively impacts learning. Analysis In order to answer our research questions we will carry out a multiple linear regression using IBM SPSS Statistics (version 28). We will be employing a between participants design where we will examine the effect of background noise (noisy and quiet) on total grammar score. Our additional independent variables will be working memory, gender and age. If we find a statistically significant result with regard to grammar score then we will be conducting a post hoc test o…
creator: Ashlynn Mayo
source: Participants 16 children aged 7-12 years old participated in this study, unfortunately due to technical issues 5 participants’ data were excluded leaving 11 children’s data to be included in the analysis (M=8.64, SD=1.63, female=7, male=4). Children were recruited through the Lancaster University Babylab database and by flyers posted on social media and local community. A requirement of the current study was that children be English speaking monolinguals, this is because an abundance of research has indicated that those who can speak two or more languages are at a far greater advantage when it comes to new language acquisition (Antoniou et al., 2015). Therefore, in order to control the likelihood of extraneous variables such as this we ensured all participants were English speaking monolinguals only. Furthermore, children were also required to have normal vision or corrected to normal vision. To rule out hearing loss all children had to pass an otoscope inspection, a tympanometry test, and a pure tone hearing screening at 20dB in the standard frequencies (250Hz-8kHZ). The current study employed a between participant design whereby subjects were allocated to a condition based on their age and gender -age was categorised into 7-9 and 10-12 in order to ensure that there were as equal an amount of males and females in each condition over all ages. It is crucial for the validity of the study that children are only exposed to the artificial grammar paradigm once or data will be rendered unreliable as they will have an unfair advantage over the other participants. Ethics for the current study have been obtained from the Departmental Ethics Committee (DEC), Psychology Department at Lancaster University. Materials This study was conducted within a double walled soundproof chamber at Lancaster University’s PELiCAN lab where the participant sat at a desk with a monitor placed in front of them. A secondary researcher was present in the lab for health and safety purposes. Consen…
publisher: Lancaster University
date: 2023
contributor: Tejasvita Rajawat Audred Visaya
rights: Open
relation: None
format: Text/Word.doc Data/Excel.csv
language: English
type: Data
coverage: LA1 4YF

Does the use of prompts in shared reading facilitate the quantity and quality of language in Down Syndrome children?
subject: Down syndrome, linguistic abilities, dialogic reading, prompted reading.
description: Children with Down syndrome typically present with specific linguistic and communicative difficulties. The present study aims to explore how dialogic prompted reading facilitates better quality and quantity of language production in pre-school aged Down syndrome children. Research has demonstrated how reading interventions enhance typically developing children’s linguistic qualities, yet few studies have investigated the beneficial effects of dialogic prompted reading among Down syndrome children. Eight Down syndrome and 8 typically developing children completed two shared reading tasks with their mothers. One task involved reading a book containing a series of prompted questions, the other book contained no prompts. As predicted, prompted reading resulted in the development of more complex syntax, better vocabulary production and facilitated better responses accuracy to literal and inferential concepts, in Down syndrome children. In addition, the inclusion of prompts also increased parental scaffolding techniques for both diagnostic groups. The results from this study indicate that dialogic prompted reading does improve Down syndrome children’s qualitative and quantitative linguistic abilities and promotes better communication with parents during shared reading tasks. These findings highlight the educational significance of prompted dialogic reading as a highly beneficial intervention for developing an array of linguistic qualities in children with Down syndrome.
creator: Laura J. Durrans
source: Participants A total of 16 children and their mothers took part in this study. Eight children with Down syndrome (DS: 4 female, 4 male, age range = 4.58 years to 6.75 years, Mage = 5.3 years) and 8 typically developing children (TD: 2 female, 6 male, age range = 3.9 years to 6.66 years, Mage = 5.1 years). This is a secondary data analysis study and all participants were previously recruited by the principle investigator and supervisor, Kate Cain. Video recordings of all child-parent reading dyads were made and were transcribed into written from. The Departmental Ethics Committee approved this study prior to the author receiving any video or transcribed data. Stimuli In this study, mothers were given two books to read with their children, ‘Mooncake’ and ‘Skyfire’ (Asch, 2014; 2014). Parents were asked to read both books as they normally would read at home with their child. One version of each book contained a series of 12 prompts which were inserted at specific points and parents where asked read them aloud as they went through the book (based on Van Kleek et al, 2006). Between both books there were a total of 24 prompts. For each book, prompts were evenly split between 4 sub-categories: picture labelling prompts “What is that? (pointing to Bear)”, vocabulary prompts “What does ‘hollow’ mean?”, inference prompts “ Why did Bear fall asleep?”, and general knowledge prompts “What else could Bear have used to stick the spoon to the arrow?”. The aim of the prompts was to encourage communication and scaffolding interactions between mothers and children when reading together. These books where specifically selected for multiple reasons: first, they have been successfully used in previous studies investigating linguistic impairments in pre-school aged children with language difficulties (Van Kleek et al 1997; 2006; Hammet, Van Kleek & Huberty, 2003). Second, the classic story-line of each book provides opportunities for children to follow a written and pictorial narrative, e…
publisher: Lancaster University
date: 2017
contributor: Rebecca James
rights: Open
relation: None
format: Data/SPSS.sav
language: English
type: Data
coverage: LA1 4YF