Language and spatial reasoning apparently linked

[jducoeur]

The cognitive-science geeks here should have fun speculating about the implications of this study about the relationship between language and spatial reasoning. It's an interesting article, and cites previous work that I hadn't known (being merely an armchair speculator in this field) that had indicated such a link -- that people *think* differently about space depending on how their language *describes* it.

In this particular case, a group of researchers found an unusual opportunity for Real Science: a group of deaf people in Nicaragua who had created a new artificial language, which was evolving at human speeds, and examining how its practitioners reasoned about space. They found that people who learned this artificial language at different points in its evolution do seem to think somewhat differently.

It's intriguing stuff. I can't say I'm totally astonished -- my long-standing observation is that cognition is more or less entirely about feedback loops, so it's not surprising that language on a topic would feed into how one thinks about it. It does raise some interesting questions: in particular, since animals clearly have some spatial-reasoning capability, it can't entirely depend on language. But I can believe that it is *affected* by language, and it's at least somewhat plausible that humans have experienced a sort of evolutionary atrophy of more instinctive mechanisms since language became available -- that we don't think about space quite the same way, since we don't need to.

I look forward to further studies here -- it's a neat, very practical illustration of the larger questions of human thought...

Comments

[etherial.livejournal.com]

Someone posted to the EK list that they always describe to their husband where things are in Blazon. He can never remember his left from his right, but he intuitively knows his sinister from his dexter.

[dlevey.livejournal.com]

This hearkens back to the (partially discredited, but still useful) Sapir-Whorf hypothesis regarding language and thought. Indeed, this relates more directly to my (proposed doctoral) research into language and categorization - not only how language affects thought but how native vs non-native speakers think *differently*.

My original inspiration for that was from watching Dick Cavett interview Gore Vidal. Vidal lived in Italy at the time and spoke several languages; Cavett asked which language was his favorite. Vidal responded with English, and was asked why. He said that English was the only language which has a word for "wit". Others may come close; French seems to have something which represents "a black, sardonic humor" but nothing except English (according to him) properly captured the concept.

As I understand it, there are two phases - one where the language develops based upon the concepts important to the speakers, and the second where the fully developed (and slowly evolving) language limits the thoughts of the speakers.

[jducoeur]

Interesting. Offhand, that seems plausible, and fits reasonably well with my general observations about how this stuff works. In particular, it fits the notion that cognition is mainly pattern-matching, and that people *like* to think in ways that fit within their established patterns. Stuff that fails to fit patterns causes cognitive dissonance, which can produce mental growth but is typically painful.

So this essentially winds up with language as an external representation of that process: language evolves if needed to fit changes to the input data (as peoples' internal patterns of that data changes), but once things settle into a steady state the language helps solidify and reinforce the mental patterns of the speakers.

(Note that I'm using "patterns" in a deliberately vague and fluffy way: the high-level concept seems to generally work, but I don't claim to have a good handle on the details...)

[ladymacgregor.livejournal.com]

When I started work at my present company, my job was to have developers explain what they had just built in the software, generally esoteric technical concepts. I was simultaneously listening, thinking/mentally translating what the developer SAID into something I could fit with all my other knowledge, and taking notes. I found that sometimes, if I had understood the concept correctly, I would have a question about how some part of it worked, and I would have to stop to translate the question into English.

Given that English is my native language, that got me wondering about what language I was *thinking* in. The best I (and friends) can come up with is: symbols. So in my case, if English is limiting (the *developers* certainly don't use what I would consider understandable English), I don't use *language* at all.

[baron-steffan.livejournal.com]

dlevey largely beat me to it, but yes, my first reaction was "Take that, you infidel anti-Sapir-Whorfians!".