Language & thought

Describe the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis.

A psychologist carried out a study to see if there was any variation in the recall of events between people who speak different languages.

The psychologist used an opportunity sample to gather participants who were either English speakers or non-English speakers. The participants were shown video clips of people breaking a window. Sometimes they broke it on purpose and sometimes it was an accident.

When the participants were asked to write down what they had seen, the non-English speakers were less accurate in their recall of the clips that showed accidental behaviour.

Identify the independent variable in the described study.

Briefly evaluate the described study carried out by the psychologist.

Describe and evaluate Piaget’s theory that language depends on thought.

Outline Piaget’s theory that language depends on thought.

A researcher wanted to understand the possible relationship between language and thought.

To help him understand this possible relationship, he carried out a study to see if there was any variation in the recognition of colours between people who speak different languages.

The participants were either English speakers or non-English speakers. Only the non-English speakers’ language includes words that mean ‘light shade of green’ and ‘dark shade of green’.

The researcher showed each participant 10 cards in different shades of green. Each participant was asked if the card was a light or dark shade of green.

The researcher recorded how long it took each participant to give a correct answer. The results of the research are shown in Table 1.

Table 1 Total time (in seconds) that 10 participants took to recognise all of the shades of green

Which is the correct ratio of time taken by non-English speaking participants to time taken by English speaking participants?

Shade one box.

Identify one conclusion about the participants’ recognition of colours that the researcher could draw from his results.

Use the data in Table 1 to explain your answer.

How can this conclusion be explained using the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis about thinking and language?

The Sapir–Whorf hypothesis suggests thinking depends on language. Briefly explain two evaluations of the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis.