Response biases are affected by a variety of factors, such as instruction to the subject, practice, familiarity with the task, reward, etc.
Criterion® was selected for use because (a) the same scoring engine e-rater® is used for the TOEFL iBT® writing section and Criterion®, (b) the students could practice with the same task format in Criterion® that is used in the independent writing tasks in TOEFL iBT®, and (c) Criterion® offers efficient and consistent feedback.
Participants gained the most practice with the music selection task, followed by the contact-calling task, then the number dialing task.
Before the actual experimental trials, the participants were also given instructions and some practice to familiarize themselves with the task.
"It's like dealing with a precious text," says David Page of Page\Park architects, the conservation practice charged with the daunting task of reconstruction, as he stands in hard hat and high-vis, a fluorescent sliver of hope in the blackened scene.
All participants were allowed 3 practice trials to familiarize themselves with the task; no data were collected on these trials.
After a participant logged in, they were presented with a detailed page of instructions, an optional instructional video, and a mandatory set of 16 practice trials to acquaint them with the task.
Participants completed trials within a session of approximately 2 hours in duration, with practice trials to familiarize themselves with the task and rest breaks permitted as required.
Before this, participants performed a short practice block to familiarize them with the task, in which faces of female and male partners (50%) displaying a neutral expression were presented instead of the trait-words.
Prior to the experiment, participants saw the practice sentences to familiarize themselves with the task.
