W9 - REFERENCE Flashcards
(42 cards)
What is the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis and how does it relate to cognitive development?
The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis proposes that the structure of language influences how individuals perceive and think about the world, suggesting language shapes cognitive processes such as categorisation, memory, and perception. (Sapir, 1929; Whorf, 1956)
How does research on colour perception support linguistic relativity?
Winawer et al. (2007) found that Russian speakers, who have distinct terms for light and dark blue, were faster at distinguishing these shades than English speakers, suggesting language influences perceptual discrimination.
What evidence suggests that language influences categorisation in infancy?
Studies by Waxman & Markow (1995), Waxman & Balaban (1997), and Fulkerson & Waxman (2007) found that 9–12-month-old infants categorised objects better when exposed to labels (e.g., “Look at the moxi!”) than to tones.
What did Ferry et al. (2010) find about the role of language in categorisation for 3–4-month-old infants?
They found preverbal infants formed categories more effectively when exposed to words rather than tones, indicating links between language and categorisation emerge early.
What is the mechanism by which language supports categorisation in infancy?
Althaus & Plunkett (2016) suggest hearing words directs infants’ attention to commonalities among objects, facilitating conceptual category formation.
How does language contribute to spatial cognition in toddlers?
Hermer & Spelke (1994) showed toddlers could not integrate geometric and landmark cues in spatial tasks until spatial language was introduced, indicating language helps combine multiple reference frames.
How do cross-linguistic differences affect spatial cognition in adults?
Levinson (1997) found Dutch speakers (relative encoding) and Tzeltal speakers (absolute encoding) remembered spatial arrays differently based on their language’s spatial framework.
What does Haun et al. (2011) reveal about language and spatial cognition in children?
By age 8, children from different language backgrounds adopted spatial strategies consistent with their native language (absolute vs. relative encoding), indicating developmental influence of language.
How does language affect numerical cognition according to Miller et al. (1995)?
Miller et al. found Mandarin-speaking children, whose language uses a regular number naming system, learned counting more easily and performed better on abstract counting tasks than English speakers.
What aspects of numerical cognition are language-independent?
The analog magnitude system and object individuation system allow estimation and small-set tracking without symbolic language. (Dehaene, 1997; Spelke & Xu, 2000)
What is categorisation and how does it relate to language?
Categorisation is grouping objects by shared features or functions; language plays a key role in expressing, communicating, and facilitating category learning. (Waxman & Markow, 1995)
Can categorisation occur without language?
Yes, but language supports it by encouraging comparisons and reinforcing shared labels. (Althaus & Plunkett, 2016)
What was found in Waxman & Markow (1995) and Waxman & Balaban (1997)?
Infants formed categories more readily when shown objects with linguistic labels than with non-linguistic sounds; words facilitated category formation.
How did Fulkerson & Waxman (2007) test infants’ categorisation?
Infants saw objects with words, non-specific language, or tones—only those hearing words grouped items into categories.
What age group did Ferry et al. (2010) study, and what did they find?
Studied 3–4-month-olds; 3-month-olds preferred familiar categories and 4-month-olds novel ones, showing categories guided by language.
What conclusion can be drawn from Ferry et al. (2010)?
Even preverbal infants use linguistic labels to support categorisation; labels scaffold early concept formation.
What is the mechanism by which words support categorisation?
Listening to words prompts infants to seek commonalities among objects, acting as “invitations to categorize.” (Althaus & Plunkett, 2016)
Do non-linguistic sounds have the same effect as words?
No—tones and other non-linguistic sounds do not facilitate categorisation like words do.
What do these findings suggest about language and cognition?
Language influences cognition from early life by helping infants organise their perceptual world into categories; this effect is specific to linguistic input.
Why is the link between words and categories developmentally important?
It lays the foundation for later conceptual learning and language acquisition, structuring infant cognition before speech production begins.
What is the main way language supports spatial cognition?
Language helps integrate different spatial reference frames (landmark and geometric), enabling coherent spatial representations. (Hermer & Spelke, 1994)
What did Hermer & Spelke (1994) find in their spatial disorientation task?
Toddlers relied only on geometric cues to reorient and ignored landmarks unless language highlighted them, showing language enables spatial information integration.
How does language help toddlers combine geometric and landmark information?
Providing spatial language (e.g., “Look by the red wall”) allows integration of multiple cues into one spatial representation, improving navigation performance.
What are the two key types of spatial reference frames?
Egocentric (“on my right”) and allocentric (“north of the car”).
