final version.

Ling 132: Language Processing Summer 2019final version.final version.

Formatting: Times New Roman, 12p, 7-10 pages, double or single spaced. The page

count includes in-text figures, footnotes and bibliography. It is more important to

communicate your ideas clearly than to worry about the length of the paper (or word

count). Use APA style referencing.

(See https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/02/ for a guide).

Outline: Include the following sections in your paper.

 Introduction

Discuss previous research and theoretical proposals (e.g. models discussed in class) that

motivated the experiment.

Present one hypothesis of sentence processing (e.g. the Garden Path Model), along with

an alternative hypothesis (e.g. the Constraint-based Model, the Good-Enough Model, or

your own!). Explain how the hypotheses differ from each other.

Discuss any assumptions you would need to make to interpret the finding of the study.

 Materials and Methods

Provide information on your design (including IV, DV, control variables, and how

participants are assigned to conditions), participants (number, demographic information),

materials (providing one sample material in the body of the paper and using it to explain

your experimental conditions and manipulation) and procedure (a step-by-step

description of the experiment).

You should also discuss what predictions each of your hypotheses make.

 Results and Discussion

Copy (at least) one of the plots provided into your paper and use it to discuss the main

findings. (Any plots you show should also be described verbally, in detail).

Highlight the most important findings.

Discuss whether the results follow your predictions presented in the previous section, by

referring to each of the two hypotheses.

Ling 132: Language Processing Summer 2019

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 General Discussion

Summarize the results again, saying which hypothesis they support.

Discuss anything in the experiment that was surprising, as well as things that could be

improved if the study was run again.

How would you address any open questions? Propose a potential follow-up with different

materials or a different method.

Link the findings back to the central questions of Sentence Processing (i.e. what

properties does the language processing mechanism have?).

 References

If you discuss any previous research, or consult materials other than the slides and the

textbook (e.g. external course readings), put the references here in APA format.

Make sure that all references here also occur in the text.

You do not need to read any external literature, but it can be very helpful. Feel free to ask

Marju for additional papers to read.

Style: It is important that your paper is written clearly.

Get FREE individualized help on your writing if you need it 

UCLA Undergraduate Writing Center: http://wp.ucla.edu/wc/

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