Linguistic relativity Flashcards
Watson 1913
“Thoughts are a product of motor habits of the laynrx”– determinism.
Slobin 96
Cognition only affected when using language; works by directing attention
Carroll and cassagrande 1958
Assessed cognitive differences between eng and navaho ○ Nav grouped more by form than other things, english grouped on colour
○ Bilinguals, grouped by dominant language- problem as both are influencing
BUT When english mono – grouped more by form so not really relevant…
Bloom et al:
○ Subjunctive mood: if I HAD gone to the park I WOULD have seen tiffin– if then thing
○ Chinese doesn’t have; SO found counter-factual reasoning hard
HOWEVER nameless critic said sentences bloom used were not accurate! It is possible but more complex in chinese
studies relating to gender
vigliocco 05, cubelli 11, consta, sera 02
Vigliocco 2005
○ Italian vs german
○ Similarity judgements and semantic substitution errors
○ Differed on their generalisation principles for gender entities
Cubelli 11:
○ Words of same gram gender activate each other speeding access
Consta
Bilingual italian-english speakers show the effect of gender respectively in both languages
Sera 2002
Spanish and french assign masculine voice to inanimate objects because of gender
Memory/problem solving studies:
Morris and mok 11, donca (candle box), hoffman 86
Morris and Mok 11
- Asian and westerns have different preferences for categorisation
- Categorisation schemas were different due to culture: describe other people in different ways
- When bilingual dependent on priming to their schema
Candle box task- donca
- Task to make thing that burns a candle to a wall
- Easiest to use box as support – take ages to do this because of association of box as a container not a supporter
Hoffman 86
- Read descriptions of people and later describe in own words
○ Original descriptions read in chinese or english
○ Describe either stereotypical english or chinese personalities
number studies
Gordon 04 (frank 08), Naveh-benjamin 86
Gordon 04
- “one two many” in piraha tribe bad at maths problems compared English
BUT Frank 2008; good at judging quantities - Pica: Different tribe- numbers up to 5 can do more approximate so maybe do it differently
- Use spatial system rather than counting one?
Naveh-Benjamin 96
- Welsh numbers have longer vowel sounds so take longer to say so bilingual do better in english than welsh
○ Phonological loop space= Physical properties language rather than the way its making you think.
Colour studies:
winawer 07, thierry 09, brown and lenneberg 54, lantz 64,
argument for innateness of colours
Prelinguistic children prefer colours that are mid-spectrum than at boundaries (bornstein)
Oztek- eye tracking: pre-ling, able to do categorical perception before labels; argue that colours are innate
problems with colour evidence
- Berlin and kay 69- when formulating, tested on 19 bilinguals despite shown systematic differences
○ Michael: And findings of basic colours might be an artifact– naming criteria not good
○ Hickerson: inconsistently applied.
SO any effect on colour for or against is specific to test design - hard to test.
Winawer 07
Russian has more verbal distinctions for blue than english - Psycho-physical test – clear boundary for this where english didn’t as just have light/dark
- When used verbal interference to block language influence on cognition, it was less distinct for russians
Brown and Lenneberg 54
Codable colours (simple names) are remembered better than less codable colours
Lantz 64
Remember colours better if easier to describe (so if have label)
Space and time encoding
Levenson, majil 04, boroditzky, chen 13, choi 99, pafagou
Levenson
Dutch uses relative system; infront/behind/next to
Whereas Tzeltal uses absolute system (cardinal)
- Shown left or right facing arrow
- Which was rotated 180*
- Shown list of arrows and asked to pick original
○ Dutch: relatively same way
○ Tzeltal: absolutely same way
Majil 04
absolute vs relative: oriented spoon/fork differently
boroditzky
- English is horizontal time line
- Mandarin is vertical-
mandarin quicker to confirm order of months of year if vertical not horizontal
- Mandarin is vertical-
chen 2013
- Strong or weak time references
- Strong do more long term behaviours eg saving money
Choi 99
Language specific categories learnt by 18 months with koreans
carruthers
Complex relationship but important- mental time is conducted in language and impact is unclear
problems with ling rel studies?
Measuring problems, interpreting, bias, understanding, cross cultural, cultural norms
Brown, thomas and goodman 1947:
can lose speech but not cognitive processes (eg from stroke)– fordor 83; language is modular
