The magic spell of language: Linguistic categories and their perceptual consequences.

Year: 2007

Type: article

Abstract: Language is a tool that directs attention to different aspects of reality. Using participants from the same linguistic community, the authors demonstrate in 4 studies that metasemantic features of linguistic categories influence basic perceptual processes. More specifically, the hypothesis that abstract versus concrete language leads to a more global versus local perceptual focus was supported across 4 experiments, in which participants used (Experiment 1) or were primed either supraliminally (Experiments 2 and 3) or subliminally (Experiment 4) with abstract (adjectives) or concrete (verbs) terms. Participants were shown to display a global versus specific perceptual focus (Experiments 1 and 4), more versus less inclusiveness of categorization (Experiments 2 and 3), and incorporation of more rather than less contextual information (Experiment 3). The implications of this new perspective toward the language-perception interface are discussed in the context of the general linguistic relativity debate.

Source: Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

DOI: 10.1037/0022-3514.93.1.23

Authors: Diederik A. Stapel, Gün R. Semin

Institutions: Tilburg University, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

Language: English

Topic: Categorization, perception, and language

Subfield: Experimental and Cognitive Psychology

Field: Psychology

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: green

Funders: National Science Foundation, Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen, Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek

Award: G8494581987