Pitfalls of production data analysis for investigating L2 cognitive mechanism

What is it about?

This article points out the errors that researchers tend to make when interpreting the results of performance analyses when investigating cognitive processing during second language learning. In particular, we argue that the latent variables assumed by observing L2 performance do not exist in reality and emphasize the difficulty of interpreting cognitive mechanisms through performance analysis.

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Why is it important?

We can make any construct we want. Hence, it is a difficult question what criteria we should use to create psychological constructs, and what kind of constructs can be used for explanatory theory. This paper discusses this issue from an ontological perspective.