If you're an American young adult, you probably already follow certain unwritten rules about about punctuating text messages. FOR EXAMPLE, EMAILS AND TEXTS WRITTEN IN ALL CAPS ARE CONSIDERED A FORM OF SHOUTING. Text messages follow their own set of norms, and the punctuation we use can lead to different interpretations of the same words. Some linguistics researchers have studied the impact of different text-message punctuation.
This brief article in Quartz summarizes the results of some of this research. The journalist introduced the research with this:
Though periods can still signal the end of a sentence in a text message, many users will omit them (especially if the message is only one sentence long). This tendency now subtly influences how we interpret them.
First example
This study is an example of a 2x2 factorial design. Here's how the journalist summarized the study:
In 2016, psychologist Danielle Gunraj tested how people perceived one-sentence text messages that used a period at the end of the sentence. Participants thought these text messages were more insincere than those that didn’t have a period. But when the researchers then tested the same messages in handwritten notes, they found that the use of a period didn’t influence how the messages were perceived.
a) What are the two independent variables (IVs) in this design? What are their levels?
b) What was the dependent variable?
c) Do you think the IVs were manipulated as independent groups or within groups?
d) Sketch a graph of the results of the study. Remember to put the DV on the y-axis. Put one IV on the x-axis and represent the other IV with two different lines or bar colors.
Second example
For practice with a simple experiment (not a factorial), compare these two text messages. Which one do you think participants found to be more sincere?
JACKIE I AM SO SO SO SORRY! I thought you were behind us in the cab and then I saw you weren’t!!!!! I feel soooooooo bad! Catch another cab and ill pay for it for youuuuu
Jackie, I am so sorry. I thought you were behind us in the cab and then I saw you weren’t. I feel so bad! Catch another cab and I’ll pay for it for you.
e) These two messages were studied by linguist Deborah Tannen. What would have been the independent and dependent variables in the study that compared these two messages? How might you design the study--would a posttest only design be better, or a concurrent-measures design, and why?
f) How might the results of this study change if they were conducted on an older sample compared to a younger one?
