English and Chinese children’s motion event similarity judgments

Abstract

This study explores the relationship between language and thought in similarity judgments by testing how monolingual children who speak languages with partial typological differences in motion description (English and Chinese) respond to visual motion event stimuli. Participants were either Chinese-or English-speaking, 3-year-olds, 8-year-olds and adults (32 in each group) who judged the similarity between caused motion scenes in a match-to-sample task. The results suggest, first of all, that the two younger groups of 3-year-olds are predominantly path-oriented, irrespective of language, as evidenced by their significantly longer fixation on path-match videos rather than manner-match videos in a preferential looking scheme. Using categorical measurement of overt choices, older children and adults also showed a shared tendency of being more path-oriented. However, the analysis using continuous measurement of reaction time revealed significant variations in spatial cognition that can be related to linguistic differences: English speakers tended to be more manner-oriented while Chinese speakers were equally manner-and path-oriented. On the whole, our findings indicate a likelihood that children's non-linguistic thought is similar prior to internalising the lexicalisation pattern of motion events in their native languages, but shows divergences after such habitual use, thus suggesting that the pattern of non-linguistic thought may be linked, among other things, to linguistic structure.

Cognitive restructuring in the bilingual mind: motion event construal in early Cantonese–English bilinguals

“…Given the different linguistic patterns available in Cantonese but not in English, it may be more efficient for early bilinguals to draw on a single linguistic pattern which is workable in both languages and generalizable to a wide range of communication contexts. In addition, previous findings have shown that language-specific concepts are established in early childhood (Hickmann & Hendriks, 2006;Ji & Hohenstein, 2018). Early exposure to a second language may enable bilinguals to be more sensitive to the typical patterns of both languages.…”

“…According to Linguistic Relativity (Whorf, 1956), cross-linguistic differences in lexicalization may have an effect on general cognition. Empirical evidence shows that, on the one hand, the effects of language on thought have been detected in a wide range of conceptual domains, such as colours (Athanasopoulos, Damjanovic, Krajciova, & Sasaki, 2011), objects (Pavlenko & Malt, 2011), time (Boroditsky, Fuhrman, & McCormick, 2011), and motion (Ji & Hohenstein, 2018). On the other hand, such effects are context-bound and seen under certain conditions.…”

“…One limitation of this study is the use of a triads-matching task in event categorization. Although the triads-matching paradigm has been extensively used as a classical measure of participants’ preferences and successfully implemented in different cognitive domains (Bylund & Athanasopoulos, 2014b; Ji & Hohenstein, 2018; Park, 2019), a shortcoming of the design is that, to some extent, it confounds path preference with manner preference. That is, this paradigm assumes that a higher proportion of manner preference is equivalent to a lower proportion of path preference.…”

“…This study combines two research paradigms: a linguistic encoding paradigm that allows us to manipulate participants’ short-term language activation, and a triads-matching paradigm that has been widely used in the domain of motion to access participants’ perceptions of event similarity (Athanasopoulos, Damjanovic, Burnand, & Bylund, 2015b; Ji & Hohenstein, 2018).…”

Cognitive Representation of Spontaneous Motion in a Second Language: An Exploration of Chinese Learners of English

“…For L1 speakers, techniques such as similarity judgments, eye–tracking and memory tests have produced some clear evidence for the linguistic relativity hypothesis when used in studies (Boroditsky, 2001; Levinson, 2003; Hohenstein, 2005; Ji and Hohenstein, 2018, to name a few). To cite an example, Hohenstein (2005) examined how differently aged English and Spanish children conceptualize spontaneous motion events.…”