Table 4.

Example of material used in norming study 1. Common ending to all texts and response options appear at the bottom.

Preferred Context: Mr. John is the president of our local association for animal rights. He is responsible for fund raising activities and promoting the contributions of members and non-members to support the activities of the association. Last year, some questions were raised about the honesty of Mr. John and how he dealt with the money collected. Many people began to talk about serious charges against him. Over Mr. John’s opposition and his suspicious resistance, an independent judicial inspector was appointed to investigate the whole issue.

Conflicted Context: Mr. John is the president of our local association for animal rights. He is responsible for fund raising activities and promoting the contributions of members and non-members to support the activities of the association. Last year, some questions were raised about the honesty of Mr. John and how he dealt with the money collected. Many people began to talk about serious charges against him. Whether he was honest or not was a serious controversial issue. In search for the truth, an independent judicial inspector was appointed to investigate the whole issue.

Unpreferred Context: Mr. John is the president of our local association for animal rights. He is responsible for fund raising activities and promoting the contributions of members and non-members to support the activities of the association. Last year, some questions were raised about the honesty of Mr. John and how he dealt with the money collected. Many people began to talk about serious charges against him. As a result of Mr. John’s confident insistence on proving his innocence, an independent judicial inspector was appointed to investigate the whole issue.

Common Ending: Finally, the independent inspector proved the charges against Mr. John

(1) and issued his final report accordingly.

(2) were false and issued his final report accordingly.