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Higher Mental Functions of the Brain: Language

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 8, 2026

Experience is Instrumental in Tuning a Link Between Language and Cognition: Evidence from 6- to 7- Month-Old Infants' Object Categorization
05:35

Experience is Instrumental in Tuning a Link Between Language and Cognition: Evidence from 6- to 7- Month-Old Infants' Object Categorization

Published on: April 19, 2017

Language can boost otherwise unseen objects into visual awareness.

Gary Lupyan1, Emily J Ward

  • 1University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA. lupyan@wisc.edu

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
|August 14, 2013
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Hearing object names, like "chair," helps people see invisible objects faster. This language effect on perception boosts visual detection, especially when the object's shape matches the name.

Keywords:
CFSpenetrability of perceptiontop-down effectsvision

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Eye Tracking During Visually Situated Language Comprehension: Flexibility and Limitations in Uncovering Visual Context Effects
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The (Spatial) Memory Game: Testing the Relationship Between Spatial Language, Object Knowledge, and Spatial Cognition
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Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: May 8, 2026

Experience is Instrumental in Tuning a Link Between Language and Cognition: Evidence from 6- to 7- Month-Old Infants' Object Categorization
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The (Spatial) Memory Game: Testing the Relationship Between Spatial Language, Object Knowledge, and Spatial Cognition
05:15

The (Spatial) Memory Game: Testing the Relationship Between Spatial Language, Object Knowledge, and Spatial Cognition

Published on: February 19, 2018

Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Neuroscience
  • Psycholinguistics
  • Visual Perception

Background:

  • Linguistic labels are known to activate visual object properties.
  • The influence of language on the basic detection of visual stimuli remains underexplored.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate if language-based activation of visual representations impacts object detection.
  • To determine if verbal labels can facilitate the perception of otherwise invisible objects.

Main Methods:

  • Utilized continuous flash suppression (CFS) to render familiar objects invisible.
  • Participants performed simple visual detection tasks after receiving verbal cues (labels).
  • Analyzed changes in sensitivity (d") and response times based on cue validity and stimulus-shape-label-match.

Main Results:

  • Valid verbal labels significantly improved object detection performance compared to a no-label baseline.
  • Invalid labels impaired detection performance.
  • Label effectiveness correlated with the congruence between stimulus shape and the label's denoted shape.
  • Effects were observed on both sensitivity and response times.

Conclusions:

  • Language-based facilitation of detecting invisible objects occurs at a perceptual level, not a semantic one.
  • Verbal labels can enhance perception by boosting stimulus-driven neural activity when there is a match.
  • This suggests language can directly influence the threshold for visual awareness.