Scott, High IQ and all that... I have done a similar exercise with functionally emerging-literate Arab students reading English and am willing to try it again, in the interests of science. I don't have IQ scores for them but I can provide recent TOEFL data. Perhaps that can be calibrated to something or other... Mark > At 03:12 PM 11/26/2008, Scott Woods wrote: >> I want to test a technique involving grammar for its effectiveness in >> improving reading comprehension. Please let me know what you think >> of my design and if you have any suggestions for related research. . . . > > DD: You called? From out of the wood work comes there now a > Psychometrician (Retired.) It sounds like a sound design, as > presented. However {Ever notice how there is always a caveat?} you are > dealing with a rather high end sample.* High IQ and all that. Do the > study. Slap it into a Chi Square contingency test and see. Make sure > the groups are selected truly randomly. Report the results. I > personally think you are doing true science here. A lot rarer than you > would think. The null hypothesis is there will not be a significant > difference. Fifty fifty. I'd go for the more risky a priori prediction > that there will be one in favor of the graphic syntax. That way I get > to use a one tail test and that allows significance at a lower level. > It is risky, though, because if it turns around and bites YOU on the > tail and the normal text group comes out ahead, the experimenter is > required to perform a ritual self immolation. We rarely do, though. > Just lie and report we did no a priori post hoc corrections. Keep me > posted. Fascinating to see a well designed experiment before it is > done. Usually the psychometrician just gets a bunch of results and is > asked to make sense out of it. {Usually by an attractive graduate > student. Blonde preferred.} I suspect that timing will indeed change > the results, but that a correlation between speed v extended time will > show a high r. Suggestion for future reading - anything by Ohmer > Milton. I remain, your faithful friend and joyous companion in > original research. > > * Ware the regression toward the mean. > > To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web > interface at: > http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html > and select "Join or leave the list" > > Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/ To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html and select "Join or leave the list" Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/