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Related Experiment Video

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Examining Bilingual Language Control Using the Stroop Task

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Variability in the Alignment of Number and Space Across Languages and Tasks.

Andrea Bender^1,2, Annelie Rothe-Wulf³, Sieghard Beller^1,2

¹Department of Psychosocial Science, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway.

Frontiers in Psychology

|October 20, 2018

Summary

Human conceptualization of space and number varies across cultures and languages. This study reveals how task characteristics and cultural background influence these representations, impacting cross-domain alignment.

Keywords:

culture frames of reference language mental number line number space space-number mapping

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Area of Science:

Cognitive Science
Cross-cultural Psychology
Linguistics

Background:

The human brain links spatial and numerical domains, but their conceptualization varies culturally and linguistically.
Spatial frames of reference and mental number line features are influenced by culture, education, and writing systems.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the influence of culture, language, and task on the conceptualization of space and number.
To compare ordered arrangements of numbers, letters, and text across different linguistic and cultural groups.

Main Methods:

Conducted a large-scale survey involving speakers of five languages with diverse writing systems and number word compositions.
Utilized tasks assessing ordered arrangements of numerical, alphabetical, and textual data.

Main Results:

Representations within a single domain (e.g., spatial) can differ based on task demands.
The degree of alignment between spatial and numerical representations varies significantly across different cultures and domains.
Language and cultural background demonstrably shape cognitive representations.

Conclusions:

Cognitive representations are not universal and are shaped by linguistic and cultural contexts.
Task-specific demands interact with cultural factors to influence how humans conceptualize abstract domains like space and number.