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»Language can have a powerful effect on how people experience events. Here, we examine how the languages people speak guide attention and influence what they re

by wmlive 3y ago

»Language can have a powerful effect on how people experience events. Here, we examine how the languages people speak guide attention and influence what they remember from a visual scene. When hearing a word, listeners activate other similar-sounding words before settling on the correct target. We tested whether this linguistic coactivation during a visual search task changes memory for objects. Bilinguals and monolinguals remembered English competitor words that overlapped phonologically with a spoken English target better than control objects without name overlap. High Spanish proficiency also enhanced memory for Spanish competitors that overlapped across languages. We conclude that linguistic diversity partly accounts for differences in higher cognitive functions such as memory, with multilinguals providing a fertile ground for studying the interaction between language and cognition.«

hackernewds 3y ago
They say often that French are bad at quick math and Chinese are better due to the nature of their numeric system
- mahatofu 3y ago
  There’s definitely valid research on higher perfect pitch apprehension in Chinese speakers ( relative to linguistic tonalities ).
- plaguuuuuu 3y ago
  Linguistic differences. About understanding fractions: In English it's "2 out of 5". In Chinese, Korean and possibly some other languages, it's "from 5, 2". Apparently just a quirk of language but results in a difference in ability to compute fractions, so there you go. Also in Chinese, reciting the times tables are shorter and (unproven) probably easier to memorise, "3 1 3, 3 2 6, 3 3 9". Although I'm not sure why that can't be done in English either.
  - ralferoo 3y ago
    > "3 1 3, 3 2 6, 3 3 9". Although I'm not sure why that can't be done in English It was a long time ago for me now, but I learned the times tables (using your example) as "three ones'r three, three twos'r six, three three's'r nine" etc. Seems like it's just the addition of a single "zrr" syllable after both numbers to me, and to me that seems easier to say than e.g. "3 2 6", maybe just because it's an automatic reflex to add the extra sound and not adding it makes it seem just a stream of numbers out of context.
- makeitdouble 3y ago
  French is one of those languages where primary school will have tests on how to write/pronounce straight numbers. Like 71, 82, 93. And some will fail, because it's bonkers. Quickness is definitely not prioritized.
  - bee_rider 3y ago
    On the other hand, if you practically have to do a little algebra in your head to figure out how to pronounce a number, I guess you’ll be good at algebra.
- MrVandemar 3y ago
  It might educational systems at play here. I've never been to China, and have no idea if this is wide-spread — I saw a documentary on children in China being taught mathematics at an early age using an abacus. Eventually, they remove the abacus but the child still mimes using it. And then gradually this disappears too. Essentially they're training their muscle-memory to do their maths for them. It was quite extraordinary to see, especially since I, while I flatter myself I'm reasonably intelligent in some areas, and worked in programming and related areas for many years, my ability to do any maths without a pencil and paper is abysmal. OTOH, it's not impossible I have un-diagnosed dyscalculia.
  - tgv 3y ago
    Or a ton of other factors. I don't think there's a convincing study that shows an effect of language on e.g. arithmetic. There is a whole bunch of studies where culture, environment, status, income, education, discrimination, age, etc. are confounds.
tgv 3y ago
Unsurprisingly, that's not what the headline suggests. And, as it turns out, they measured something else indeed. They measured recall of a visual scene after guiding subjects in different ways. English speakers were guided with e.g. clock and clown or clock and mirror. The first pair have some overlap, so (as theory suggests) subjects start looking at both. The second pair has no overlap, so the word clock doesn't make the subject scan for the mirror. Then they tested recall on these pictures. There are differences between people with different language proficiency, but they are small. So it doesn't show that speakers of different languages remember visual scenes differently, but rather that people only recognize objects from partially heard words quickly in the language(s) they're proficient in. I wish they'd stop clickbaiting for this kind of technical studies.

by wmlive 3y ago

hackernewds 3y ago

They say often that French are bad at quick math and Chinese are better due to the nature of their numeric system

mahatofu 3y ago
There’s definitely valid research on higher perfect pitch apprehension in Chinese speakers ( relative to linguistic tonalities ).
plaguuuuuu 3y ago
Linguistic differences. About understanding fractions: In English it's "2 out of 5". In Chinese, Korean and possibly some other languages, it's "from 5, 2". Apparently just a quirk of language but results in a difference in ability to compute fractions, so there you go. Also in Chinese, reciting the times tables are shorter and (unproven) probably easier to memorise, "3 1 3, 3 2 6, 3 3 9". Although I'm not sure why that can't be done in English either.
- ralferoo 3y ago
  > "3 1 3, 3 2 6, 3 3 9". Although I'm not sure why that can't be done in English It was a long time ago for me now, but I learned the times tables (using your example) as "three ones'r three, three twos'r six, three three's'r nine" etc. Seems like it's just the addition of a single "zrr" syllable after both numbers to me, and to me that seems easier to say than e.g. "3 2 6", maybe just because it's an automatic reflex to add the extra sound and not adding it makes it seem just a stream of numbers out of context.
makeitdouble 3y ago
French is one of those languages where primary school will have tests on how to write/pronounce straight numbers. Like 71, 82, 93. And some will fail, because it's bonkers. Quickness is definitely not prioritized.
- bee_rider 3y ago
  On the other hand, if you practically have to do a little algebra in your head to figure out how to pronounce a number, I guess you’ll be good at algebra.
MrVandemar 3y ago
It might educational systems at play here. I've never been to China, and have no idea if this is wide-spread — I saw a documentary on children in China being taught mathematics at an early age using an abacus. Eventually, they remove the abacus but the child still mimes using it. And then gradually this disappears too. Essentially they're training their muscle-memory to do their maths for them. It was quite extraordinary to see, especially since I, while I flatter myself I'm reasonably intelligent in some areas, and worked in programming and related areas for many years, my ability to do any maths without a pencil and paper is abysmal. OTOH, it's not impossible I have un-diagnosed dyscalculia.
- tgv 3y ago
  Or a ton of other factors. I don't think there's a convincing study that shows an effect of language on e.g. arithmetic. There is a whole bunch of studies where culture, environment, status, income, education, discrimination, age, etc. are confounds.

tgv 3y ago

Unsurprisingly, that's not what the headline suggests. And, as it turns out, they measured something else indeed. They measured recall of a visual scene after guiding subjects in different ways. English speakers were guided with e.g. clock and clown or clock and mirror. The first pair have some overlap, so (as theory suggests) subjects start looking at both. The second pair has no overlap, so the word clock doesn't make the subject scan for the mirror. Then they tested recall on these pictures. There are differences between people with different language proficiency, but they are small. So it doesn't show that speakers of different languages remember visual scenes differently, but rather that people only recognize objects from partially heard words quickly in the language(s) they're proficient in. I wish they'd stop clickbaiting for this kind of technical studies.