Search research articles

ABOUT JoVE

Overview Leadership Blog JoVE Help Center

AUTHORS

Publishing Process Editorial Board Scope & Policies Peer Review FAQ Submit

LIBRARIANS

Testimonials Subscriptions Access Resources Library Advisory Board FAQ

RESEARCH

JoVE Journal Methods Collections JoVE Encyclopedia of Experiments Archive

EDUCATION

JoVE Core JoVE Business JoVE Science Education JoVE Lab Manual Faculty Resource Center Faculty Site

Terms & Conditions of Use

Related Concept Videos

Language and Cognition

Language and Cognition

Language serves as a bridge between ideas and communication, influencing how individuals perceive and interact with the world. Psychologists have long debated whether language shapes thought or vice versa. This discussion gained grip with Edward Sapir and Benjamin Lee Whorf in the 1940s, who proposed that language determines thought, a concept known as linguistic determinism. They suggested that the vocabulary and structure of a language influence how its speakers think and perceive reality.

Lateralization

Lateralization

Brain lateralization refers to the division of mental processes and functions between the two hemispheres of the brain, a phenomenon that optimizes neural efficiency and underpins complex abilities in humans. This specialization allows each hemisphere to perform tasks where it has a comparative advantage, facilitating more refined cognitive capabilities across different domains.

Causes of Similarity-Dissimilarity Effect

Causes of Similarity-Dissimilarity Effect

The similarity-dissimilarity effect, a fundamental concept in social psychology, explains how interpersonal similarities and differences influence attraction and social interactions. This effect is supported by three key psychological perspectives: balance theory, social comparison theory, and consensual validation.Balance Theory and Cognitive ConsistencyBalance theory, developed by Fritz Heider, posits that individuals seek cognitive consistency in their relationships. When two people share...

Higher Mental Functions of the Brain: Language

Higher Mental Functions of the Brain: Language

Language is a system of communication that allows the expression of thoughts, ideas, and feelings. The brain processes language in both hemispheres.
Language formation and comprehension take place in the dominant hemisphere. The dominant hemisphere is responsible for understanding the meaning of spoken, written, or sign language, as well as the ability to communicate. For most people, the left hemisphere is the dominant one. The right hemisphere, then, gives tone and emotional context to the...

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by

Same author

Identifying the boundary between dialects and languages: The role of similarity and usage.

Cognition·2025

Same author

Concurrent semantic priming and lexical interference for close semantic relations in blocked-cyclic picture naming: Electrophysiological signatures.

Psychophysiology·2021

Same author

Do elevators compete with lifts?: Selecting dialect alternatives.

Cognition·2020

Same author

To re-tune or not to re-tune: Comments on the flexible criterion.

Cognitive neuropsychology·2019

Same author

The closer they are, the more they interfere: Semantic similarity of word distractors increases competition in language production.

Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition·2018

Same author

Bilingual advantage, bidialectal advantage or neither? Comparing performance across three tests of executive function in middle childhood.

Developmental science·2016

Search research articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Feb 17, 2026

Interaction between Phonological and Semantic Processes in Visual Word Recognition using Electrophysiology

Interaction between Phonological and Semantic Processes in Visual Word Recognition using Electrophysiology

Published on: June 29, 2021

Distinguishing languages from dialects: A litmus test using the picture-word interference task.

Alissa Melinger¹

¹Psychology, School of Social Sciences, University of Dundee, Dundee DD1 4HN, Scotland, UK.

|December 13, 2017

Summary

Distinguishing languages from dialects remains challenging. This study found that language processing reveals distinct effects for bilinguals versus bidialectals, suggesting a new objective test.

Keywords:

Bidialectalism Bilingualism Lexical organization Lexical selection Picture-word interference

More Related Videos

Examining Bilingual Language Control Using the Stroop Task

Examining Bilingual Language Control Using the Stroop Task

Published on: February 26, 2020

A Cognitive Paradigm to Investigate Interference in Working Memory by Distractions and Interruptions

A Cognitive Paradigm to Investigate Interference in Working Memory by Distractions and Interruptions

Published on: July 16, 2015

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Feb 17, 2026

Interaction between Phonological and Semantic Processes in Visual Word Recognition using Electrophysiology

Interaction between Phonological and Semantic Processes in Visual Word Recognition using Electrophysiology

Published on: June 29, 2021

Examining Bilingual Language Control Using the Stroop Task

Examining Bilingual Language Control Using the Stroop Task

Published on: February 26, 2020

A Cognitive Paradigm to Investigate Interference in Working Memory by Distractions and Interruptions

A Cognitive Paradigm to Investigate Interference in Working Memory by Distractions and Interruptions

Published on: July 16, 2015

Area of Science:

Psycholinguistics
Sociolinguistics
Computational Linguistics

Background:

The distinction between languages and dialects lacks objective criteria.
Sociolinguists widely agree that objective criteria are currently unattainable.
Language processing may offer novel insights into this linguistic classification problem.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate if language processing can differentiate between languages and dialects.
To compare bidialectal processing effects with established bilingual processing effects.
To determine if psycholinguistic methods can provide an objective test for language vs. dialect boundaries.

Main Methods:

Utilized a picture-naming task with distractor words.
Compared facilitation effects in bilinguals (using translation equivalents) with bidialectals (using dialectal/register variants).
Employed a methodology adapted from Costa, Miozzo, & Caramazza (1999) across five experiments.

Main Results:

No translation equivalent facilitation was observed in bidialectal processing.
Consistent interference effects were found between dialects and registers.
A behavioral divergence was noted between bilingual (facilitation) and bidialectal (interference) processing.

Conclusions:

The observed divergence in processing effects provides a potential objective measure.
This psycholinguistic paradigm may serve as a litmus test for distinguishing languages from dialects.
Language processing offers a novel approach to resolving long-standing linguistic classification debates.