Language and Thought

Weaker linguistic relativism

Language affects thinking for speaking, and different languages make different aspects of reality most salient

Berlin and Kay study

Mapped the way that people name different colors across a spectrum and came up with a particular partition. Did this across the world; individuals' color naming is different in different languages

Li and Gleitman

Unsure whether this is due to language or because of different experiment conditions, living style etc.: e.g. when a third group was added that had egocentric and allocentric terms, they aligned more with allocentric group. (Tsotsil) When tested for indoor vs outdoor, people used more allocentric outdoors (for English speakers).

Color naming in Hadzane

55 Hadzane named 23 color samples. Good study of human ancestral cultures (similar characteristics)

What is the circular problem inherent in investigating category effects? How do the authors get around it?

A pair of colors may be in different because they look very different, rather than looking different because one learns to put them in different categories. If the stimulus pairs are chosen such that they are equally spaced, then they are not guaranteed to be equally similar? Or conversely, if one pair is shown to be more discriminable than another, does this mean that the color space which placed them at equal distances from one another was flawed? Option 1: MacLeod Boyton space. Compare results to a null model, which does not use color categories as part of its machinery; eliminates the problem of space between colors (MacLeod Boynton space: represents color stimuli as a linear transform of cone excitations) Option 2: Cross-linguistic study. Test identical sets of color stimuli with speakers of languages with differing color terms, so that their categories are different.

What is the question that Winawer and Witthoft aim to investigate and answer in their paper?

Does color appearance depend only on the visual system, or is it affected by color terms in the language?

True or False: Color metamers differ across languages.

False, because the information lost at the level of cone absorptions cannot be regained.

What effect does restricting the availability of language during color tasks have on the usefulness of color terms?

Same set of stimuli under different conditions, Reduces the effect of color terms on the task: e.g. Kay and Kempton, who found that when they only allowed subjects to compare 2 colors at a time rather than exaggerate difference between all 3 chips available.

Brown and Levinson experiment

Setup: items are on a table, subject memorizes them then is rotated to face a table opposite. After that the subject has to create the "same" table: object array will be different depending on spatial reference system. Dutch (egocentric) vs. Tsetal (allocentric)

What is categorical perception?

The theory based on phoneme learning, assuming that learning is primarily a loss rather than a gain: as Japanese speakers grow up they start to hear /r/ and /l/ as more similar than distinct. Psychologists want to see if this applies to color perception. W&W test "whether colors that are named alike show any degree at all of increased perceptual similarity (or decrease discriminability) compared to colors that are named differently."

Study of color naming

- Data suggest a process of color term evolution whereby distributed lexical representations of color become shared representations. - Difficult to reconcile this with linguistic relativity, because there is no evidence that a language's color terms affects the ability to discriminate between colors. - Languages/cultures differ in number of basic color categories. - Universal constraints on where category boundaries emerge with addition of color terms: linguistic diversity of color naming subject to constraints from perception, leading to systemtic categorization.

Russian Blues Experiment

- Russians are faster at distinguishes 2 blues that they have different words for compared to English speakers - distinction generally vanishes with verbal interference - Similar accuracy - not a language-based task, so does not show that language affects the way color looks but the implicit categorization may help or hinder the time it takes to do the perceptual categorization

Summarize the two theories of the relationship between naming and color perception.

1. Color appearance is determined entirely for the visual system and not at all by the language that one speaks. 2. The very act of naming a color, either in a single instance or habitually over a lifetime, can change one's perceptual experience with the result that colors assigned the same label are perceived as more similar than colors assigned different labels.

Linguistic Relativity (Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis)

1. Language systems can vary without constraint. 2. The language I speak affects the way I perceive/categorize/think. 3. There are essentially no limits to such effects. view that characteristics of language shape our thought processes; e.g.: Inuit have 50 words for snow -> very good at distinguishing snow, because of language

Berlin and Kay Conclusions

1. Languages/cultures draw from a limited universal set of English-like categories 2. Cross-language/cultural differences are due to different stages on a fixed evolutionary path 3. Languages CAN divide up the world in arbitrary ways (contrary to idea 2 of linguistic relativity)

What kinds of tests do the authors suggest for testing the effects of color terms?

1. Subjective judgments: Ask subjects to make direct, overt judgments about color stimuli, i.e. present them with a variety of samples and ask to put into groups that are most similar. Limit: may group based on name rather than perception. 1a. Perceptual grouping: Given 5 color dots, participants asked to indicate whether the discs grouped into a line sloping up to the right or to the left. They were then asked whether the decision to group the dots into color categories was based on names; compared to a null model based on a linear transform. 1b. Hue scaling: A subject views a color sample and rates the perceived amount of red, blue, and yellow in a stimulus; compared to a null model, colors that fell on the blue side of the b/g border were effectively rated. 2. Memory: Subject remembers the color over a delay, then chooses between the same stimulus and a second one, where on some trials the second stimulus comes from the same category and sometimes a different one. Results are consistent with the idea that color terms are used as a dual code in memory. 3. Reaction time on suprathreshold discrimination: Subject judges which color patch matches a test color (only one right answer). Measurement is reaction time to choose the correct match. Mixed results, sometimes caused by verbal dual task. 4. Discrimination threshold: Test if subject can distinguish between 2 stimuli: experiments found no evidence of a color terms between speakers of different languages.

Briefly describe the lateralized Whorf effect.

Equating stimuli but varying side of visual space: same set of color stimuli shown on either left or right side of a fixation point. Hypothesis: if effects of color terms on color tasks were to be found, they would be larger for stimuli presented to the right of fixation than the left of fixation.

What do the authors conclude about how color appearance is affected by color terms?

No firm evidence that color appearance or color threshold discrimination is affected by color terms. Color terms can serve as a dual code with sensory representations for certain kinds of judgments (e.g. color of a red car) When one makes a decision about color appearance, the knowledge that a color belongs to a particular category might affect the speed of a response or the content of the response without affecting the appearance of the color.

Linguistic Universalism

Noam Chomsky Language is a mirror of the mind, and simply reflects thought and perception rather than playing a causal role in how we think e.g.: Inuit have 50 words for snow -> because of language, they are very good at distinguishing snow

What do the authors conclude about verbal interference effects in relation to the role of color terms?

Verbal labels may be used to help keep track of various stimuli in an experiment; if in a trial all stimuli come from the same verbal category (i.e. all blue) then labels are unlikely to help accomplish the task. Verbal interference are more likely to reflect a role of color terms on decisions, strategy, and memory, rather than perception.

Motion case study

motion has a path and manner in English (e.g. enter/carry, enter/drag, enter/ascend); path is optional in English but not manner, different in Greek for e.g. Eye tracking showsffects order in which you look at the objects (path enpoint region and manner region): English speakers look at MANNER then PATH; Greek speakers look at PATH then MANNER

Allocentric

object-to-object spatial reference system north, south, starboard, port

Egocentric

self-to-object spatial reference system left, right e.g. doesn't exist in Tseltal, a Mayan language Prediction: If a language doesn't have egocentric references, speakers won't remember arrays of objects in the same way that we would