Work

Individual differences in online research: Comparing lab-based and online administration of a psycholinguistic battery of linguistic and domain-general skills

Year: 2024

Type: article

Abstract: Experimental psychologists and psycholinguists increasingly turn to online research for data collection due to the ease of sampling many diverse participants in parallel. Online research has shown promising validity and consistency, but is it suitable for all paradigms? Specifically, is it reliable enough for individual differences research? The current paper reports performance on 15 tasks from a psycholinguistic individual differences battery, including timed and untimed assessments of linguistic abilities, as well as domain-general skills. From a demographically homogenous sample of young Dutch people, 149 participants participated in the lab study, and 515 participated online. Our results indicate that there is no reason to assume that participants tested online will underperform compared to lab-based testing, though they highlight the importance of motivation and the potential for external help (e.g., through looking up answers) online. Overall, we conclude that there is reason for optimism in the future of online research into individual differences.

Source: Behavior Research Methods

DOI: 10.3758/s13428-024-02533-x

Authors: Kyla McConnell, Florian Hintz, antje meyer

Institutions: Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Philipps University of Marburg, Radboud University Nijmegen

Language: English

Topic: Mobile Crowdsensing and Crowdsourcing

Subfield: Computer Science Applications

Field: Computer Science

Domain: Physical Sciences

SDG: Quality education

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $3,790