TalkBank Database for Researchers

TalkBank is a researcher focused website containing a large library of transcribed videos for the very broad purpose of studying human communication. 

On the TalkBank site, researchers can access the APT video database and the three coding instruments used by the APT project. Users can view codes assigned by the APT team, as well as code the videos for their own purposes. The site provides functionality for teams to collaborate virtually. To access the APT database, follow these steps: 

STEP 1: go to https://class.talkbank.org/access/APT.html

STEP 2: Click on ‘Browsable Transcripts’ on the left-hand side of the screen, below the images of APT participants.

STEP 3: To view how videos were coded using the three instruments:

Select one of the videos on the left panel. Below, we have chosen the video 05-Decomposers as an example. Underneath the table of participants, we click the check box for “View dependent tiers.” This will show coding from the three instruments, uncheck this box if you do not want to see the APT team’s coding.

STEP 4: If you scroll down, you will see a transcript of the video. You can also play the video in the video player in the left hand column, the running transcript will display what is being said in the video with yellow highlights. 

STEP 5: Let’s take a look at some examples of expert coding. The codes will make sense only if you reference the instrument descriptions. Between lines 1-10, you will see coding using the LIDO and QT instruments. 

Above line 1, you will see @Bg: event, this indicates the beginning of a question event for the QT instrument, @Eg: event indicates the end of this question event. After line 5, you will see a line of code for the QT instrument %xqti: $TQ:event. This code indicates that this question event has been coded as TQ or Test Question, defined as: an inauthentic question in that it presupposes a particular answer.

You will also see codes from the LIDO instrument in this section. After line 1 where the teacher asks “what were the decomposers we looked at below, with the cards on them?" The expert coders have coded this teacher question as%xlid: $T6. For the LIDO instrument a T6 is defined as: Closed, “test” content question or prompt—not contestable.

To view coding with the SDI instrument, scroll down to the bottom of the transcript. Because SDI codes the entire episode, and not just question events, the cumulative score is found at the bottom. Here is the SDI coding for this same video: 

%xsdi: $ASK:4:PR $PRS:3:PR $LNK:3:PR; $EXP:3:PR $CON:2:EM $CRI:2:EM

Collaborative Commentary Feature

TalkBank includes a Collaborative Commentary feature that could be helpful for classroom teaching (allowing students to respond to each other, or the instructor to comment on student coding) or research (multiple members of a research team viewing, coding and commenting on coded video). Detailed videos with instructions for the various features of Collaborative Commentary can be found here https://talkbank.org/screencasts/