The (Statistical) Power of Mechanical Turk

In this paper, I argue for the use of Amazon Mechanical Turk (AMT) in language research. AMT is an online marketplace of paid workers who may be used as subjects, which can greatly increase the statistical power of studies quickly and with minimal funding. I will show that—despite some obvious limitations of using distant subjects—properly designed experiments completed on AMT are trustworthy, cheap, and much faster than traditional face-to-face data collection. Not only this, but AMT workers may help with data analysis, which can greatly increase the scope of research that one researcher may carry out. This paper will first argue several reasons for using online subjects, then quickly outline how to build a survey-type experiment using AMT, and finally review several best practices for ensuring reliable data.