AfriSyCo: Measuring Assertive Framing, Verification, and Wording Sensitivity Around African-Language Content

Abstract

AfriSyCo studies answer switching around African-language factual content with two complementary layers: native-language follow-ups and a controlled cross-language factorial whose question, options, and target remain in the African language while the follow-up framing is English. We analyze 1,415 turn-1-correct model-language-item observations derived from 100 source questions across seven open-weight checkpoints and six languages; turn-1-correct denotes observed first-response accuracy, not demonstrated knowledge. Under native prompts, assertive endorsement produces 29.3 percentage points more any-turn false-target selection than mention-plus-verification (M+V), with a 19.0-point immediate T2 contrast. In the precommitted 2 x 2 factorial, averaged over three tested prompt families, assertive framing increases target selection by 30.4 points (95% CI [28.4, 32.3]); verification decreases it by 17.4 points, while the assertive effect rises from 20.5 points without verification to 40.2 with it (interaction +19.7). The effect remains 34.8 points among 611 observations correct after option reordering. Magnitude varies sharply by wording and checkpoint: prompt-family effects span 20.1-42.5 points, a Twi/Qwen3 paraphrase shifts target selection from 70.8% to 4.2%, and checkpoint effects span 9.2-47.0 points. Prompt realization is therefore part of the measurement problem.