Response bias and judgments of the location of clicks in sentences

This study examines the view that response bias is the basis of the “click effect,” i.e., the influence of grammatical structure on subjects’ location of clicks sounded during the presentation of a sentence. It is argued that, since response bias is more likely to operate when one is unsure of one’s perception, if response bias generates the “click effect,” the effect should be weaker for certain than for uncertain responses. Subjects were asked to identify the location of the click and allowed to make more than one response if they were uncertain of their first choice. Using the number of locations selected as an index of uncertainty, it was found that when a subject was less certain, the click was less likely to be judged as having occurred in the major grammatical break. Further, performance was superior when the click had been in the break, and this effect, which was more pronounced for “certain” responses, was not eliminated by correcting for possible response bias. It is concluded that the "click effect" is not attributable solely to response bias.