[R-sig-ME] how to specify the response (dependent) variable in a logistic regression model

[John Kingston]

Dear Thierry,
Thanks for your question. Here's the reason why I think the responses
aren't multinomial (or ordinal).

The listeners were presented with spoken strings of the form CVC, where C =
consonant and V = vowel. The rate at which the acoustics changed at the
beginning of the syllable was varied orthogonally with the duration of the
vowel. The rate of acoustic change conveyed the identity of the initial
consonant, which was expected to sound like "b" when the rate of change was
faster and like "w" when it was slower. The duration of the vowel conveyed
how many syllables the string consisted of, which was expected to be "1"
when the vowel was shorter and "2" when the vowel was longer. The listeners
were instructed to respond with "b" or "w" and "1" or "2" on every trial.
So, unlike a truly multinomial dependent variable, such as professions or
majors, the responses here are not unordered. They also cannot be arranged
into a single order sensibly, because even if "b1" and "w2" responses are
first and last in the order, there's no way of deciding *a priori* the
order of "b2" and "w1" responses.

Again, thanks for your reply.
Best,
John
John Kingston
Professor
Linguistics Department
University of Massachusetts
N434 Integrative Learning Center
650 N. Pleasant Street
Amherst, MA 01003
1-413-545-6833, fax -2792
jkingstn using umass.edu
https://blogs.umass.edu/jkingstn
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