Eye-tracking during reading study "Birman"

The aim of the study is to replicate the results from a previous eye-tracking study. The overarching goal was to test whether the copula's situational argument is undespecified (Underspecification Account) or whether it is specified to a stative interpretation (State Account). In some contexts, e.g. in combination with particular adjectives, the copula can have an agentive interpretation. The study had a 2x2 design with factors verb type (sein vs. sich verhalten) and conjunction type (weil vs. um zu).
60 items were combined with 315 fillers and distributed over 4 pseudorandomised lists via the Latin square design. The order of the sentences was counterballanced. The experiment was preceeded by 9 exercise trials. There were at least two fillers between any two items. The experimental session included a break in the middle of the experiment. The first 3 sentences at the start of the experiment and after the break were fillers. After a third of the sentences, a simple comprehension question appeard (Wer oder was wurde im Satz erwähnt? "Who or what was mentioned in the sentence?"). The sentences were divided into 7 IAs.
The participants were seated in a quiet lab in front of a computer screen with their heads in a headrest. They used the keyboard and a gamepad to navigate in the experiment. After the main session, a second procedure measured the participants' reading span task. The reading time data was recorded with an SR Research Eye Link 1000.1