Workshop: Week 2

ImportantInstructions

  • Pick one of the following tasks and work on them in group. Feel free to work on the others as well if you have time.

  • If you are unsure about anything, please ask us for directions!

  • The tasks are designed for you to practice this week’s R skills.

  • Unless otherwise specified, the data are part of the data archive you downloaded for Read Data chapter of the textbook. Information about the data can be found on the QML Data website (which is also where you downloaded the data from).

NoteTask A: Italian Voice Onset Time

  • Read the coretta2018a/ita_egg.rda data. .rda files are read using load(). This function works without needing to assign the output to a variable (so it’s different from the other read*() functions, which do require you to assign the output to a variable).

  • Summarise relevant columns, with a particular focus on how VOT (voice onset time, column vot) differs depending on phonological features like place, vowel and so on.

NoteTask B: World Atlas of Language Structures

  • The data from WALS are available through the R package ritwals.

  • Install the package (this is done in two steps: first install devtools and then install ritwals with devtools, see linked package documentation). Then attach it and load the data with data("WALS").

  • Get the number of languages by value (value) for each feature (feature_ID and feature). The features are listed here. Focus on features you are interested in.

NoteTask C: Massive Auditory Lexical Decision

  • Read the tucker2019/mald_1_1.rds data.

  • Summarise the data with appropriate summary functions: number of participants, number of words, number of words by lexical status (real vs nonce word, IsWord), reaction times by lexical status, reaction times by lexical status and accuracy, accuracy by lexical status.

  • What can you tell about reaction times and accuracy based on lexical status? What about individual variation?

To get the number of participants and words, you first need to get the unique participant IDs and unique words. ?distinct is your friend.

TipFeedback

For feedback, ask us in class and/or send your work to Stefano and/or come to Stefano’s office hours (you can also come in groups).

We will not provide you with model answers, so make sure you make the most of us in person.