Picture Description

This experiment consists of three parts, followed by a short questionnaire.

In the first part, you will listen to 25 sentences. After each sentence, you will need to press the play button on the screen to advance to the next sentence. Pay careful attention to the sentences, as you will be asked questions about them later.

In the second part, you will be presented with ten pictures, one at a time. There will be a textbox provided with each picture. Please describe what is happening in each picture using one sentence. Also, please avoid pronouns (words like he/she, him/her, etc). For example, if the picture was of a boy smiling at a girl, you could say "The boy is smiling at the girl" but not "He is smiling at her."

Part three will contain questions about the sentences in the first part.

Following the experiment, there will be a short survey (2 minutes or less). Taking this survey is optional, but please consider that your answers would be extremely helpful for the scientific interpretation of the data we will obtain from you. The survey will ask you both about some basic aspects of your daily life and about your experience doing this experiment. The data we collect with the survey will be non-identifying. We will not share your information with any third parties (the human subject review board at the University of Rochester monitors that we follow these rules). All together the experiment will take about 15-20 minutes.

Please do not take breaks in the middle of the experiment. It is important that you do the experiment in one go.

Once you press Start, these instructions will disappear, so make sure you understand them fully before you start.

Listen to each clip carefully. After the final clip the player will disappear and we'll move on to the next stage. Press the play button to listen to each successive clip.
Clip 1 of

Next, you will describe 10 pictures. Please describe each picture in one sentence. Please do not use pronouns. Once you've entered a description, press ENTER to advance to the next picture. Please start Part 2 of the experiment now by clicking START. Please continue to Part 2 of the experiment immediately after reading this.

Next up is the optional survey. Please remember that doing it will help us with our research, but it is optional.

Here are some questions about you:

How are you feeling today?
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
1=extremely poorly, 4=normal, 7=extremely well

How much do you exercise?
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
1=never, 4=a few times a month, 7=every day

How much do you care about politics?
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
1=not at all, 4=moderately, 7=very much

How often do you watch sports?
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
1=never, 4=a few times a month, 7=every day

How much has your mood changed since the beginning of the experiment?
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
1=much worse, 4=stayed the same, 7=much better

How often do you go to the movies?
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
1=never, 4=a few times a month, 7=every day

How often do you read for pleasure?
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
1=never, 4=a few times a month, 7=every day

How cheerful a person would you say you are?
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
1=not at all, 4=moderately, 7=extremely

How closely do you pay attention to current events?
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
1=not at all, 4=moderately, 7=very much

How outgoing do you consider yourself?
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
1=not at all, 4=moderately, 7=extremely

How much did you sleep last night? (In hours)

Finally, we have some questions about the speaker in Part 1 of the experiment:

How similar do you think the speaker in Part 1's personality is to your own?
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
1=extremely different, 4=somewhat similar, 7=extremely similar

How much do you think you would like the speaker in Part 1?
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
1=not at all, 4=moderately, 7=very much

How successful in life do you think the speaker in Part 1 is?
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
1=not at all, 4=moderately, 7=very much

How old do you think the speaker in Part 1 is?

Is the speaker in Part 1 male or female?
Male Female

You may have wondered why we didn't actually ask you question about the sentences you saw in part 1 of the experiment. This is because, in this study we are actually interested in looking at 1) how the syntactic structures that were comprehended in the first part of the experiment influenced the structures that were produced in the second part and 2) what effect social factors have on this relationship. Thank you for participating!

Thank you for helping us understand how humans produce and understand language. Your participation is appreciated. If you felt that any parts of this study were inappropriate or in violation of the consent form you agreed to at the beginning, please contact us at 585-273-1015 or contact the University of Rochester's Human Subject Review Board at 877-449-4441.

HLP/Jaeger Lab, Brain and Cognitive Sciences, University of Rochester.

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