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Abstract

Abstract

The time it takes an individual to respond to a probe (e.g., a word, picture, or question) or to read a word or phrase provides useful insights into cognitive processes. Consequently, timed measures are a staple in bilingualism research. However, timed measures usually violate assumptions of linear models, one being normal distribution of the residuals. Power transformations are a common solution but which of the many possible transformations to apply is often guesswork. Box and Cox (1964) developed a procedure to estimate the best-fitting normalizing transformation, coefficient lambda (λ), that is easy to run using standard R packages. This practical primer demonstrates how to perform the Box-Cox transformation in R using as a testbed the distractor items from a recent eye-tracking study on sentence reading in speakers of Spanish as a majority and a heritage language. The analyses show (a) that the exponents selected via the Box-Cox procedure reduce positive skewness as well as or better than the natural log; (b) that the best-fitting value of λ varies based on factors such as group and, in the case of eye-movement data, the measure of interest; and (c) that the choice of transformation sometimes impacts values for model estimates.

© John Benjamins Publishing Company
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/content/journals/10.1075/lab.24017.kea
2024-09-25
2024-10-13

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/content/journals/10.1075/lab.24017.kea
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Normalization of timed measures in bilingualism research
John Benjamins ; https://doi.org/10.1075/lab.24017.kea
/content/journals/10.1075/lab.24017.kea
/content/journals/10.1075/lab.24017.kea
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  • Article Type: Research Article
Keywords: skewness ; outliers ; response times ; Box-Cox transformation ; reading times

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