Evidence for Increased Discriminability in Judging the Acceptability of Machine Translations: The Case for Magnitude Estimation

摘要

An earlier experiment, in which magnitude estimation (ME) was used as the method for judging the acceptability of machine translations, was replicated with one exception. The current study used a four-point Likert scale as the measurement methodology. In the earlier work, using ME, judges easily discriminated between two sets of machine translations, one containing 25% more correctly translated names than the other. In this study, using a Likert scale, judges were not able to make the same discrimination. These results support the theory that ME may be a superior measurement methodology for assessing the acceptability of machine translations.