Spatial reasoning in Tenejapan Mayans

Abstract

Language communities differ in their stock of reference frames (coordinate systems for specifying locations and directions). English typically uses egocentrically defined axes (e.g., “left-right”), especially when describing small-scale relationships. Other languages such as Tseltal Mayan prefer to use geocentrically-defined axes (e.g., “north-south”) and do not use any type of projective body-defined axes. It has been argued that the availability of specific frames of reference in language determines the availability or salience of the corresponding spatial concepts. In four experiments, we explored this hypothesis by testing Tseltal speakers’ spatial reasoning skills. Whereas most prior tasks in this domain were open-ended (allowing several correct solutions), the present tasks required a unique solution that favored adopting a frame of reference that was either congruent or incongruent with what is habitually lexicalized in the participants’ language. In these tasks, Tseltal speakers easily solved the language-incongruent problems, and performance was generally more robust for these than for the language-congruent problems that favored geocentrically-defined coordinates. We suggest thatlisteners’ probabilistic inferences when instruction is open to more than one interpretation account for why there are greater cross-linguistic differences in the solutions to open-ended spatial problems than to less ambiguous ones.

Complementarity of Space and Time in Distance Representations

“…39 Although the use of the absolute uphill/downhill spatial frame of reference may seem awkward from the Western perspective, a recent study on spatial reasoning skills in Tenejapans (Li, Abarbanell, Gleitman & Papafragou, 2011) found that Tzeltal speakers easily solve the languageincongruent problems, and their performance is generally more robust in such tasks than in language-congruent tasks based on the geocentrically-defined coordinates.…”

Language and Thought: The Neo-Whorfian Hypothesis

“…Therefore, the evidence does not show that any of the participants could not solve the task the other way. In fact, further research showed that both groups could solve the task both ways (Li et al, 2005). The results, though, do show a different preferential understanding of the task, related to the dominant spatial vocabulary.…”

Diferentes maneiras de observar eventos: o aprendizado de língua estrangeira e a aquisição de padrões de perspectivação conceitual de ações na L2

“…These results indicate that bilingualism may result in the adjustment of bilinguals' sensitivity to their native language construal patterns. In another study, Li et al (2011) conducted four experiments to see whether specific spatial frames of reference in language would prime corresponding spatial conceptualization, specifically in non-linguistic spatial tasks. The participants were members of a Mayan population whose language (Tseltal) uses geocentric spatial frames.…”