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Published on: November 30, 2018
Effects of Language on Visual Perception
Gary Lupyan1, Rasha Abdel Rahman2, Lera Boroditsky3
1University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA.
Abstract:
Does language change what we perceive? Does speaking different languages cause us to perceive things differently? We review the behavioral and electrophysiological evidence for the influence of language on perception, with an emphasis on the visual modality. Effects of language on perception can be observed both in higher-level processes such as recognition and in lower-level processes such as discrimination and detection. A consistent finding is that language causes us to perceive in a more categorical way. Rather than being fringe or exotic, as they are sometimes portrayed, we discuss how effects of language on perception naturally arise from the interactive and predictive nature of perception.
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