Flashcards
Language and Thought
Cards in this deck (19)
- 1Sophists of Ancient GreeceTruth cannot be experienced except through language
- 2PlatoThe world consists of pre-given eternal forms and language should reflect these
- 3KantLanguage is one of many tools used to understand the world
- 419th C Europe- Language is the fabric of thought-grammatic equivalence
- English and German believed to be best- complexity reflects superiority of their thought
- Woven into views on ethnic nationalism- Weltanschauug (world outlook)
- Believed it was impossible to express or develop complex thought through limited language (one word for colour)
-Used as a weapon: stamp out culture by repressing language first (aboriginals) - 5Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis- Language portrays different truths
- Langauge constrains our thinking
Linguistic relativity: structure of language affects the way its speakers conceptualise the world
Strong: language determines thought
Weak: language shapes thought - 6PolysemyEskimos have multiple words for snow which enables to make distinctions we are unable to make (false hypothesis)
- 7Hopi CultureDo not partial time into units e.g. days/hours - no such words
The claim was that they would not be able to comprehend Western physics - 8Loftus (1974)7 traffic accidents: 5-30secs each
Describe event after watching video
Changed wording of leading questions 'how fast were they when they hit/collided/mashed into each other?
Nature of verb influenced speed and whether they said there was glass or not
Language we use shapes our memory - 9Guiora et al. (1982)Language influencing gender identity development
Hebrew: highly gendered- all nouns have gender (mountain-masculine, hill-feminine)
English: moderately gendered- 3rd person singular 'his' or 'hers'
Finnish: little gender emphasis - just man + woman
Michigan Gender Identity test: acquired notion of gender earlier when language was gendered
Hebrew, English, Finnish - 10What is the relativist view of colour perception?- Physiology of our eyes is essentially the same
- Spectrum of white light is continuous, no sharp boundaries
- Particular distinctions coded into language are arbitrary and unique to language- boundaries may differ in other languages
- Same interval of hue: English speakers say blue, Italian speakers say blu + azure (different words for different types of blue) - 11Berlin & Kay (1969)Universalist view: colour cognition is innate, physiological process
25 languages - 11 possible colour categories
All languages: B+W
3 terms- red; 4 terms- YorG; 5 terms-Y+G; 6 terms-blue; 7 terms-brown
If 8+-purple, pink, orange, grey
- Languages tended to select same focal hues as 'best example' of that colour using Munsell Colour space
- Colour physiology is universal, language allows us to describe it - 12Heider et al. (1972)Dani people of Papua New Guinea
Two colour terms: light/warm and dark/cool
Look at colour patches followed by memory test
Memory for colour was better when the patch corresponded to a better 'red' in English standards
Evidence for universality
Though performance extremely poor on the tasks - 13Roberson et al. (2005)Himba people: Namibia, semi-nomadic, 5 terms (B/W/Blu/R/Y)
Berinmo: Papua New Guinea, forest, 5 terms (Y+O same, no purple)
Recognition memory test: which colour patch did you see?
Phenomenon of categorical perception: more difficult when foils are in same category than across category (despite same distance on spectrum)
English: easiest when in different categories (B+G)
Berinmo: easiest when foils crossed categories
Himba: only matters when foils cross category in Himba
Perception influenced by language we are speaking - 14What was the issue with this study?Tasks rely on memory- could have used verbal codes
Not true perception - 15Winawer et al. (2007)Russian colour perception
Light blue = goluboy, dark blue=siniy
20 blues that spanned the goluboy, siniy border
Distractor where same category as had to match
Speeded colour discrimination task (RT) which square is identical to top?
Russian speakers: category advantage- lower RT when crossing boundaries as have a colour that distinguishes 2 blues over English speakers
Included spatial or verbal interference task
Category advantage eliminated by verbal task - stop encoding = result of language - 16Gilbert et al. (2006)Colour wheel- which one is odd one out?
Same difference on spectrum
Most difficult if does not cross colour boundary
Present on left or right visual field
When on right visual it was faster (encoded by LH- evidence for linguistic)
Added verbal interference task = category advantage on RVF no longer apparent
Language constrains our perception of colour - 17Boroditsky et al. (2001)English: front-back metaphor
Mandarin: F-B + up-down metaphor describing time
2 primes (vertical/horizontal): black ball is above white ball (V) or black ball is next to white (H)
Confim is sentence is correct- RT
Mandarin: faster to say June earlier than August if seen V prime than H prime
Opposite for English speakers
Mandarin speakers used mandarin time metaphors even for English sentences
The way language expresses time has impact on temporal perception - 18Boroditsky & Gaby (2010)Not left and right but cardinal direction
Pormpuraaw (14 P, 14 Americans): card sorting task with temporal progression (ageing man)
Lay cards in correct order
American = Left to Right
P = random, E-W progression of the sun
American tested on carinal = 28% consistent
Language shapes sense of space - 19Miller & James (2009)Participants read generic He sentences or sex-specific pronoun sentences
Does this sentence refer to a female?
GM less accurately interpreted
Typically male, typically female or neural: not interpreted to include females in all conditions
Writing in this manner influences our thinking
Language shapes our thought
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- Language, Communication and Thought (PS3022) Flashcards on Language and Thought, created by Eleni Blakemore on 19/05/2017.
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- Eleni Blakemore
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