Collaborative Research: Every participant counts: Investigating the impact of experimental language research on participants

社会科学和行为科学的实验研究人员经常以两种传统上截然不同的身份与公众互动。在从事科学研究的过程中，他们在实验研究中引出参与者的反应，以创造知识和检验假设。与此同时，许多研究人员利用他们自己的知识和专业知识，就公众关注的与他们的科学相关的话题，吸引和教育公众。在这个项目中，研究人员通过将实验研究中的每个参与者视为公众参与的机会，检查参与者已经从常见实验范式中推断出的信息（积极或消极），以及探索改进的科学传播方法在参与和教育参与者方面的作用，探索将这两个角色更紧密地结合在一起的方式。这项工作有可能大大增加社会和行为研究的一种更广泛的影响-公众宣传和参与。研究小组在语言学领域集中研究了常用的说话人感知任务。在项目的第一阶段，该团队开发了一个语言学和语言意识形态（LLI）调查工具，旨在测试公众对语言和语言学领域的看法。在第二阶段，参与者完成一系列的说话人感知实验，测试对这项调查的反应如何受到实验不同方法方面的影响。整个研究的参与者使用创新和引人入胜的技术进行汇报。这个项目的结果不仅强调了具体的方法选择如何影响参与者对语言和语言学的理解，而且还强调了与参与者的科学交流是否以及如何减轻任何负面影响，并积极产生积极的结果。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Experimental researchers in the social and behavioral sciences often interact with the public in two traditionally distinct capacities. In the act of doing science, they elicit participant responses in experimental studies to create knowledge and test hypotheses. At the same time, many researchers use their own knowledge and expertise to engage and educate the public about topics of public concern related to their science. In this project researchers explore the ways in which these two roles may be brought closer together, by treating each participant in an experimental study as an opportunity for public engagement, examining the messages (positive or negative) that participants already deduce from common experimental paradigms, and exploring the role that improved science communication methods can have on engaging and educating participants. The work has the potential to substantially increase one type of broader impact of social and behavioral research – public outreach and engagement.The researcher team centers this investigation in the field of linguistics and focuses on commonly used speaker perception tasks. In the first phase of the project, the team develops a Linguistics and Language Ideology (LLI) survey instrument designed to test the public’s standing ideas around language and the field of linguistics. In the second phase, participants complete a series of speaker perception experiments testing how responses to this survey are impacted by different methodological aspects of the experiment. Participants across the studies are debriefed using innovative and engaging techniques. The results of this project not only highlight how specific methodological choices impact participants’ understanding of language and linguistics, but also whether and how science communication with participants can mitigate any negative effects, and actively produce positive outcomes.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.