Can the English stand the bottle like the Dutch? Effects of relational categories on object perception

ABSTRACT

Does language influence how we perceive the world? This study examines how linguistic encoding of relational information by means of verbs implicitly affects visual processing, by measuring perceptual judgements behaviourally, and visual perception and attention in EEG. Verbal systems can vary cross-linguistically: Dutch uses posture verbs to describe inanimate object configurations (the bottle stands/lies on the table). In English, however, such use of posture verbs is rare (the bottle is on the table). Using this test case, we ask (1) whether previously attested language-perception interactions extend to more complex domains, and (2) whether differences in linguistic usage probabilities affect perception. We report three nonverbal experiments in which Dutch and English participants performed a picture-matching task. Prime and target pictures contained object configurations (e.g., a bottle on a table); in the critical condition, prime and target showed a mismatch in object position (standing/lying). In both language groups, we found similar responses, suggesting that probabilistic differences in linguistic encoding of relational information do not affect perception.

KEYWORDS:

• Language
• perception
• attention
• cross-linguistic analysis

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Guillaume Thierry for help in collecting the English data of Experiment 1, and for helpful feedback on this project. In addition, we thank Caspar Hautvast for facilitating this collaboration, and Arfryn for their hospitality.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 Thierry et al. (2009) refer to this component as visual Mismatch Negativity (vMMN).

2 Boutonnet et al. (2013) use the term Deviance-Related Negativity (DRN).

3 The final model included random intercepts for participants and items.

4 The final model included random intercepts for participants and items, as well as random by-participant slopes for Condition.

5 Participants included in the analysis were 28 native speakers of Dutch (26 female; age: M = 21.3 years, SD = 1.60, range 19–25) and 27 English native speakers (20 female; age: M = 21.5 years, SD = 2.69, range 18–31).

6 Participants included in the analysis were 28 native speakers of Dutch (21 female; age: M = 21.5 years, SD = 1.7, range 19–26) and 28 English native speakers (18 female; of 4 participants no age information was recorded; the mean age of the other 24 participants was 22.7 years, SD = 2.1, range 19–27).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research [grant number 275-89-022].