Language and Thought Essentials

Question 1

What did Perfors (2004) study? What were his results?

Answer 1

Attractiveness of men and women with the same face was mediated by the name they were given
Certain sounds were more attractive for names for men or women

Question 2

What did Loftus and Palmer (1974) find?

Answer 2

Using different verbs when describing a car crash affected the speed people estimated the car to be going (9mph difference) and whether they reported seeing broken glass

Question 3

What are the limitations of the Loftus and Palmer (1974) study?

Answer 3

used uni students whose estimations of speed may not be that good, might be evidence of memory reconstruction as opposed to false perception

Question 4

What did Fausey and Boroditsky (2011) investigate?

Answer 4

The use of the passive construction in accidental events in Spanish and English speakers

Question 5

What did Fausey and Boroditsky (2011) find?

Answer 5

Passive used more in Spanish than in English for accidents (same amount for intentional events)
Spanish participants were less likely to remember
who was responsible

Question 6

Is there evidence that using more agentive constructions leads to more harsh punishment?

Answer 6

Fausey and Boroditsky (2010)
found that English participants were more likely to blame people and gave harsher punishments (53% more fines) when agentive phrases were used rather than passive ones

Question 7

What do we know about English and Hebrew writing patterns?

Answer 7

They affect thought
Hebrew speakers order events RTL while English speakers order then LTR

Question 8

What patterns can be found in how Chinese speakers order things?

Answer 8

de Sousa, 2012
they show ordering patterns that are consistent with changes in writing
writing used to be vertical but due to Westernisation, is sometimes horizontal now

Question 9

What did Levinson and Majid (2013) find about writing systems?

Answer 9

Yeli Dnye speakers who have mainly not been schooled were asked to order events
there was a strong relationship between linear order and literacy
linguistic convention influences ordering of time
BUT evidence from chickens that there is a slight predisposition for LTR order

Question 10

What did Bidelman et al. (2013) find?

Answer 10

Cantonese speakers have better pitch discrimination and melody perception than English speakers (comparable to English musicians) because they speak a tonal language

Question 11

How can Bidelman et al.’s (2013) findings be developed?

Answer 11

Test them in other tonal languages and see if the findings can be replicated
Find ways to do tests within languages/cultures as culture is a confound

Question 12

What did Berlin and Kay (1969) do?

Answer 12

studied basic colour terms in 20 languages (variety)
also devised a way of defining basic colour terms
theorised an implicational hierarchy for basic colour terms

Question 13

What were the cons of Berlin and Kay’s (1969) research?

Answer 13

not the most representative sample, many speakers were bilingual from the US and from similar BGs, tested few people per language, used speakers and dictionaries

Question 14

What were the pros of Berlin and Kay (1969)’s research?

Answer 14

groundbreaking method and standardisation of colours using the grid, and moving away from the notion that all languages view colours the same

Question 15

How was Regier, Kay and Kheterpal’s (2011) experiment an improvement of Berlin and Kay’s (1969) work?

Answer 15

studied 110 non-literate languages
found similar results to B&K

Question 16

What did Regier, Kay and Cook (2005) find?

Answer 16

That the best examples of colours cluster around the same ones as in English and closer together across languages than the centroids of each colour

Question 17

What did Davidoff et al. (1999) do?

Answer 17

Compared Berinmo (grue language) to English
found that they were able to remember colour matches more accurately when they were across boundaries then when they were within the same boundary

Question 18

What did Roberson and Davidoff (2000) do?

Answer 18

used verbal and visual interference to investigate whether language was used online in colour memory tasks in English speakers

Question 19

What did Roberson and Davidoff (2000) find?

Answer 19

when language was useful (across colour terms) verbal interference had a negative effect on identification, but when it wasn’t useful (within colour terms) there was no negative effect of language

Question 20

What did Thierry et al. (2009) do?

Answer 20

Studied preattentive change detection in Greek (2 blue terms, 1 green) and English (1 blue, 1 green)

Question 21

What was Thierry et al. (2009) examining?

Answer 21

vMMN (visual mismatch negativity) elicited by deviant visual stimuli (odd-ones-out) regardless of focus

Question 22

What did Thierry (2009) find?

Answer 22

significantly greater deviant score for blue than green in Greek participants, no significant difference in English ones
Difference in P1 latency based on colour and luminance for Greek ps, only luminance for English ps

Question 23

What did Winawer (2007) study and find?

Answer 23

Russian speakers (blue/dark blue) and English speakers’ colour discrimination
had to match target blue to 2 options (within or accross boundary)
Russian speakers were quicker across than within but verbal interference (not spatial) removed this effect
no difference in english speakers and no effect of interference

Question 24

What are the pros of Winawer (2007)?

Answer 24

Studied reaction time which is more subtle and resistant to intentional manipulation
Didn’t look at memory which is reconstructive not perceptual

Question 25

What is one limitation of both Thierry et al (2009) and Winawer (2007)’s studies?

Answer 25

It could be argued that their findings are the effect of a reverse correlation - speakers were more cognisant of the difference between the colours so they created words to describe the difference they noticed

Question 26

Describe Hasantash and Afraz’s (2020) study and findings.

Answer 26

tested colour matching (perception and memory) in Persian speakers to see whether colour vocab makes speakers more able to process colours
Found that more colour words improved colour memory but not perception
Also, less naming words for a colour correlated with more errors in memory based matching tasks

Question 27

What are the pros of Hasantash and Afraz (2020)’s study

Answer 27

They were able to show that colour perception and memory are differentially affected by language
controlled for luminance
also tested effects of matching time (didn’t find anything)

Question 28

What did Franklin et al. (2005) study and what did they find?

Answer 28

Preferential looking study for 4-month-old English babies to see if they have colour categories
Faster at detecting colours when between than within
Seem to have 5 colour categories at that age aligning with world ones but seems to shift when language is learned
colour discrimination exists before vocab to describe it

Question 29

What are some limitations of Franklin’s (2005) study?

Answer 29

babies in Western countries may have learnt to differentiate colours through toys
should be replicated and compared for children in other cultures, esp. cultures without toys etc

Question 30

What is Lindsey and Brown’s (2002) hypothesis?

Answer 30

Lens Brunescence hypothesis
correlation between grue languages and being nearer the equator
UV-B rays cause iris yellowing which makes it harder to differentiate blue and green

Question 31

What evidence calls the lens brunescence hypothesis into question?

Answer 31

Hardy et al. (2005) found that lens brunescence doesn’t affect colour perception

Question 32

Describe Johnson et al. (2005)’s study and findings.

Answer 32

Tested participants from Asia, Europe and southern Africa (17 langs) on colour grouping and naming
African countries often had loan words for certain colours
found that there was 1 factor that was relevant to grouping in all languages
did not find systematic differences based on language
all languages had more groups than BCTs - based on perception
larger number of BCTs –> larger number of secondary terms used for groupings but inconsistent
lower number of BCTs –> more random groupings/smaller groupings

Question 33

What study could be done to follow up from Johnson et al. (2005)?

Answer 33

Given that African participants were using loan words but were also aged 30-45, could compare them to older generations who would be less likely to have used these loan words
give them experimental tests to see if their discrimination was better than older ones

Question 34

What did Cain (1979) study and find?

Answer 34

asked men and women to name familiar odours
max correct was 50% even with feedback
never reached ceiling
women better than men

Question 35

What did Gilad et al. (2004) study and find?

Answer 35

Correlation between non-human primates who have colour vision and those that have a higher number of olfactory receptor pseudo-genes

Question 36

What did Burenhult & Majid (2011) find out about the Jahai?

Answer 36

That they have a basic smell vocabulary - at least 14 words
smell words are verbs not source descriptors
psychologically salient and common in convo

Question 37

Describe the Majid and Burenhult (2014) study.

Answer 37

Tested Jahai and English speakers on colour and odour naming by asking them to freely name them
English speakers (texans) showed high agreement for colour but low for smell
jahai had the same level

Question 38

What are the limitations of the Majid and Burenhult (2014) study?

Answer 38

Many other differences apart from language: culture, lifestyle, population, environment, biology

Question 39

Which tribes did Majid and Kruspe (2018) investigate?

Answer 39

Semaq Beri (hunter gatherers) and Semelai (not HGs)
both speak languages related to the Jahai

Question 40

What did Majid and Kruspe (2018) find?

Answer 40

Semelai behaved very similarly to the English
had codable colour vocab but not smell vocab
suggests that the relationship might be more related to HG culture than to language

Question 41

Describe Valk’s (2017) study and findings?

Answer 41

Compared Dutch (source words), Maniq (basic smell vocab, HG) and Thai (smell vocab) on whether they could match odours to colours
Dutch and Thai were more consistent than Maniq

Question 42

What do Valk’s (2017) findings suggest?

Answer 42

People who have more source-based languages are more likely to associate smells with colours than those with basic smell terms
seems like how you talk about colours influences odour-colour associations
BUT THAI DID IT EVEN THOUGH THEY HAVE BASIC SMELL TERMS - western influence or post-industrial society?

Question 43

Describe Majid (2018)’s study and findings?

Answer 43

Speakers had to name odours and were recorded smelling them - verbal and emotional reaction
smells included decay, meat, faeces
Jahai named smells 6x faster than Dutch
Significant correlation between facial expressions, esp negative ones
suggested that smell-related emotions aren’t based on language

Question 44

What are the cons of Majid’s (2018) study?

Answer 44

facial expressions aren’t that consistent
a lot of the ps laughed after smelling the bad scent
difficult to pick up expressions etc

Question 45

What did Araujo et al. (2005) study and find?

Answer 45

same cheese smell considered to be more pleasant when described as cheddar cheese than when described as BO
when the same thing done with clean air, same pattern found
supported by fMRI which showed preferential activation of mOFC and ACC when smell was called cheddar/BO

Question 46

What did Herz (2004) find and how was it similar to Araujo et al. (2005)?

Answer 46

ratings of scents changed based on context
when no verbal info given, ps rather synthetic odours as more pleasant but when labelled they rated natural ones as more pleasant which correlated with overt attitudes towards natural and synthetic products

Question 47

How are Arshamian et al.’s (2022) findings a problem for the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis?

Answer 47

Studied 9 varied cultures with little interaction with civilisation and found that they gave odour rankings based on molecular identity (41%) and individual variation (54%)

Question 48

What did Cessna and Frank (2013) find?

Answer 48

tested whether accurate naming was related to memory
ps were presented with scents and asked to name them and indicate whether they were new or old
ps were better able to remember if scents were new/old if they named them previously

Question 49

What are the stats for Cessna and Frank’s (2013) study?

Answer 49

when participants named scents consistently, memory was correct 93% of the time, but when they named scents inconsistently, memory was correct 36%

Question 50

What evidence do we have that smell might be related to genetics?

Answer 50

Gisladottir et al. (2020) studied 10,000 Icelanders and found an association between TAAR5 gene and reduced intensity ratings for fish smell
found other genes associated with enhanced intensity ratings for liquorice and cinnamon

Question 51

What did Vanek et al. (2021) study and find?

Answer 51

English ps taught odour-label pairs with pseudo-words over a 4-day span
found that when odour-label pairs were consistent during learning, people were better able to learn them and identify similarities than when they were less consistent

Question 52

What do Vanek et al. (2021)’s findings suggest about the relationship between language and thought?

Answer 52

causal link between language and olfactory processing and supports a linguistic theory for improved olfactory abilities
supports the argument that languages with more dedicated basic vocab for odour are more likely to have consistent smell identification

Question 53

What did Gordon (2004) assert about the Piraha? What tests did he use to find this?

Answer 53

tested non-linguistic numerical cognition in different tasks e.g. line matching, nuts in a can
That they have no consistent counting system
only words for 1-3: a small number whose prototype is 1
linguistic determinism

Question 54

What are other explanations for Gordon’s (2004) findings?

Answer 54

cultural/environmental differences, task difficulty, population (lots of incest)

Question 55

What did Spaepen et al. (2011) find?

Answer 55

tested home signers and compared numerical cognition to unschooled hearing Spanish
home signers had jobs, money etc
held up signs with numbers and they had to report back
home signers don’t communicate exact numbers, more approximations

Question 56

What were the stats for Spaepen et al. (2011)?

Answer 56

linguistic
1-3 = 100%
3+ = 44% time unlimited

non-linguistic
1-3 = 93%
3+ = 33%

lowest score was 91% for Unschooled

Question 57

Describe Flaherty and Senghas (2011)’s study and findings.

Answer 57

Found that not all first gen Nicaraguan’s had learned to count consistently
younger gen knew how to count and had conventionalised signs
gave them a range of counting tests from 1-13
non-counters were worst, followed by late counters
adolescents were second after hearing
within culture there counting is essential to number manipulation

Question 58

Describe Miller et al. (1995)’s study and findings.

Answer 58

Chinese more simple counting system than English
Chinese children learn to count faster than American ones
Both similar at 3 but by 4, Chinese children’s proficiency has doubled

Question 59

What are the limitations of Miller et al. (1995)’s findings?

Answer 59

cultural differences, attitudes to education, multilingualism

Question 60

What did Dowker et al. (2008) find?

Answer 60

Compared Welsh and English speaking children from the same cultural BG
Welsh counting system is more regular than the English one but Welsh numbers are longer
Welsh children were better than English at reading and comparing numbers, less stutters and non-starts

Question 61

Compare Lefevre et al.’s (2010) and Dowker et al.’s (2008) studies?

Answer 61

Both comparing counting proficiency in languages with easier and more difficult counting systems
this one was French and English in the same culture - Canadian
and also studying preschoolers

Question 62

What did Bem and Bem (1973) find?

Answer 62

women and men are more likely to apply for jobs when gender neutral language is used
20% increase in women applying when a gender neutral term is used
further 20% increase when a pro-female term used

Question 63

What did Prewitt-Freilino et al. (2012) find?

Answer 63

categorised 11 languages into genderless, natural gender, and grammatical gender
controlled for geography, location, religion, gov and human development
found that natural gender languages showed more gender equality than both other types

Question 64

What did Guiora et al. (1982) find?

Answer 64

gave (no gender) Finnish, English and Hebrew (grammatical) images of children and other objects
found that Finnish children learnt their gender slower than the other two languages
gender marking can draw attention to gender and development

Question 65

What was Angorro & Gentner (2003)’s method?

Answer 65

comapred indonesian (age distinction in sibling relationships) and English (gender distinction) speakers
created stimuli that differentiated in age and gender
tested in linguistic and non-linguistic experiments on their conception of gender

Question 66

What did Angorro and Gentner (2003) find in their first experiment?

Answer 66

Found that Indonesian ps were more likely to extend a novel term to a context where the gender was different than English speakers

Question 67

What did Angorro and Gentner (2003) find in their second experiment?

Answer 67

non-linguistic study
indonesian ps were more likely to claim that a seniority variant (gender different, age consistent) matched than English participants
(gap was smaller)

Question 68

What did Angorro and Gentner (2003) find in their third experiment?

Answer 68

test of memory
English speakers had more false alarms related to gender variant whereas Indonesian speakers had more related to seniority variant (bigger difference for gender)

Question 69

What other considerations are there for the Angorro and Gentner (2003) study?

Answer 69

collectivist cultures tend to put more emphasis on seniority so may not be a language thing
should try it with languages that are more similar culturally

Question 70

Describe Sera et al (1994)’s methods and findings.

Answer 70

Asked Spanish and English children whether objects were masculine or feminine
Spanish speakers more likely to classify based on gender than English (71% vs 52%)
Follow up: asked adults and children whether certain characters should have male/female voices
Spanish children assigned voices based on grammatical gender (after 2nd grade)

Question 71

What was Boroditsky et al’s (2003) method?

Answer 71

taught Spanish and German speakers obj-name associations in English
apple > Patrick
apple > Patricia

Question 72

What did Boroditsky et al. (2003) find in their first study?

Answer 72

learned the association more easily when the names were consistent with grammatical gender
suggests that even in a second language, gender associations from the first were relevant

Question 73

What did Boroditsky et al. (2003) find in their second study?

Answer 73

Gave object names to participants in English and asked them to describe
English ps rated them on masc/femininity
adjectives were consistent with gender category of the words in the respective language

Question 74

What was Philips and Boroditsky’s (2003) method? (first)

Answer 74

non-linguistic
Spanish/German speakers had to say how similar a person-object pair was (1-9)

Question 75

What did Philips and Boroditsky (2003) find in their first study?

Answer 75

Greater similarity ratings between people and objects of matching grammatical gender than mis-matching

Question 76

Given some examples of word associations in Boroditsky’s (2003) second experiment?

Answer 76

key > hard, jagged
key > golden, intricate
bridge > beautiful, elegant
bridge > dangerous, strong

Question 77

What did Philips and Boroditsky (2003) find in their second study?

Answer 77

Tested Spanish and German bilinguals on the same task
Found that their ratings correlated with their level of fluency in the target language

Question 78

What did Philips and Boroditsky (2003) find in their third study?

Answer 78

used verbal interference for the same task
found that object-gender similarity judgements persisted under interference (so language not online)

Question 79

How could Philips and Boroditsky’s third study have been developed to tease the relationship between language and thought?

Answer 79

Could have also looked at reaction time/speed with and without interference to see if it had an effect

Question 80

What did Philips and Boroditsky (2003) find in their fourth study?

Answer 80

ps were taught a fictional language called Gumbuzi and essentially it was described as having a gender distinction (without the word gender used)
ps showed signs of grammatical gender on object representation through language training even under verbal interference and in a different language

Question 81

What evidence calls into question Boroditsky et al’s (2003) findings?

Answer 81

Mickan et al. (2014) failed to replicate the findings in the adjective generation task

Question 82

Describe Boutonnet et al’s study and findings (2012)

Answer 82

Tested Spanish and English speakers
ps were given 3 pictures that were the same or different grammatical gender
asked to judge whether they were semantically related and EEG responses were measured
found no effect of grammatical gender on behaviour
There was an N400 for grammatically incongruent sentences in both English and Spanish speakers
also a LAN for Spanish speakers for grammatical gender but not English speakers

Question 83

What did Kollmayer et al. (2018) find?

Answer 83

Priming German ps with gender fair language made them more likely to identify a gender neutral specialist as a woman (33 v 44%)

Question 84

What are the limitations of Kollmayer et al’s (2018) method?

Answer 84

the gender fair language that they used is also associated with the gender equality movement so it may have made that more salient rather than gender neutrality and this may have been the cause of the effect

Question 85

What did Vervecken et al (2013) find?

Answer 85

Tested Dutch and German children from 7-12
Found that when professions were presented in male and female pairs, the perception of women as successful increased (more in the eyes of the girls) and girls’ interested in these roles also increased

Question 86

What did Horvath et al. (2015) find?

Answer 86

When gender inclusive language was used, it worsened people’s perceptions of the profession and salaries were assumed to be worse as well