[lit-ideas] One, Two, Many
- From: "Andreas Ramos" <andreas@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "Lit-Ideas" <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 21 Aug 2004 09:02:35 -0700
Language may shape human thought
(NewScientist.com news service) Language may shape human thought - suggests a
counting study
in a Brazilian tribe whose language does not define numbers above two.
Hunter-gatherers from the Pirahã tribe, whose language only contains words for
the numbers
one and two, were unable to reliably tell the difference between four objects
placed in a
row and five in the same configuration, revealed the study.
Experts agree that the startling result provides the strongest support yet for
the
controversial hypothesis that the language available to humans defines our
thoughts.
So-called "linguistic determinism" was first proposed in 1950 but has been
hotly debated
ever since.
"It is a very surprising and very important result," says Lisa Feigenson, a
developmental
psychologist at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, US, who has
tested babies'
abilities to distinguish between different numerical quantities. "Whether
language actually
allows you to have new thoughts is a very controversial issue."
Peter Gordon, the psychologist at Columbia University in New York City who
carried out the
experiment, does not claim that his finding holds for all kinds of thought.
"There are
certainly things that we can think about that we cannot talk about. But for
numbers I have
shown that a limitation in language affects cognition," he says.
"One, two, many"
The language, Pirahã, is known as a "one, two, many" language because it only
contains words
for "one" and "two"-for all other numbers, a single word for "many" is used.
"There are not
really occasions in their daily lives where the Pirahã need to count," explains
Gordon.
In order to test if this prevented members of the tribe from perceiving higher
numbers,
Gordon set seven Pirahã a variety of tasks. In the simplest, he sat opposite an
individual
and laid out a random number of familiar objects, including batteries, sticks
and nuts, in a
row. The Pirahã were supposed to respond by laying out the same number of
objects from their
own pile.
For one, two and three objects, members of the tribe consistently matched
Gordon's pile
correctly. But for four and five and up to ten, they could only match it
approximately,
deviating more from the correct number as the row got longer.
The Pirahã also failed to remember whether a box they had been shown seconds
ago had four or
five fish drawn on the top. When Gordon's colleagues tapped on the floor three
times, the
Pirahã were able to imitate this precisely, but failed to mimic strings of four
of five
taps.
Babies and animals
Gordon says this is the first convincing evidence that a language lacking words
for certain
concepts could actually prevent speakers of the language from understanding
those concepts.
Previous experiments show that while babies and intelligent animals, such as
rats, pigeons
and monkeys, are capable of precisely counting small quantities, they can only
approximately
distinguish between clusters consisting of larger numbers. However, in these
studies it was
unclear whether an inability to articulate numbers was the reason for this.
The Pirahã results provide a much stronger case for linguistic determinism,
says Gordon,
because, aside from their language, they are otherwise similar to other adult
humans,
whereas there are many more factors that separate babies and animals from adult
humans.
However, scientists are far from a consensus. Feigenson points out that there
could be other
reasons, aside from pure language, why the Pirahã could not distinguish
accurately for
higher numbers including not being used to dealing with large numbers or set
such tasks.
"The question remains highly controversial," says psychologist Randy Gallistel
of Rutgers
University in Piscataway, New Jersey. "But this work will spark a great deal of
discussion."
Journal reference: Science Express (19 August 2004/ Page 1/
10.1126/science.1094492)
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