Re:Speakers of different languages remember visual scenes di...
by tgv on Saturday August 19, 2023 @02:56PM
(#37191895)
Unsurprisingly, that's not what the headline suggests.
And, as it turns out, they measured something else indeed. They measured recall of a visual scene after guiding subjects in different ways. English speakers were guided with e.g. clock and clown or clock and mirror. The first pair have some overlap, so (as theory suggests) subjects start looking at both. The second pair has no overlap, so the word clock doesn't make the subject scan for the mirror. Then they tested recall on these pictures. There are differences between people with different language proficiency, but they are small.
So it doesn't show that speakers of different languages remember visual scenes differently, but rather that people only recognize objects from partially heard words quickly in the language(s) they're proficient in.
I wish they'd stop clickbaiting for this kind of technical studies.
And, as it turns out, they measured something else indeed. They measured recall of a visual scene after guiding subjects in different ways. English speakers were guided with e.g. clock and clown or clock and mirror. The first pair have some overlap, so (as theory suggests) subjects start looking at both. The second pair has no overlap, so the word clock doesn't make the subject scan for the mirror. Then they tested recall on these pictures. There are differences between people with different language proficiency, but they are small.
So it doesn't show that speakers of different languages remember visual scenes differently, but rather that people only recognize objects from partially heard words quickly in the language(s) they're proficient in.
I wish they'd stop clickbaiting for this kind of technical studies.