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Language affects 'half of vision'

Yes, a new study about Sapir-Whorf,

The researchers said the findings supported the Whorf hypothesis, but only in the right visual field.

Report co-author Aubrey Gilbert said: "Previous studies addressing the possible influence of language on perception have tended to look for a simple yes or no answer to the question.

"Our findings suggest a more complex picture, based on the functional organisation of the brain."

This is by no means the last word on this fascinating subject...

By Ehud Lamm at 2005-12-28 15:35 | General | other blogs | 8289 reads

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A beautiful segue

I recently read Drawing on the Artist Within. Despite the name, the topic of the book is creativity in general (Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain is the "drawing" book, a classic). I personally generally agree with Betty Edwards' conclusions.

Why I wanted to bring it up is that CS and programming are rather "language"-oriented. Or using the math "dichotomy", rather algebraic as opposed to geometric. I can easily imagine that many programmers overemphasize this aspect in their learning, etc. albeit not exactly intentionally. To the extent that Betty Edwards has anything at all, this is to their detriment.

By Derek Elkins at Wed, 2005-12-28 22:06 | login or register to post comments

How does that say that **language** shapes thought

Did I miss something in the article?

Surely what's demonstrated in the study is the commonly accepted result that pre-conceived IDEAS dictate perception.

No one argues against that, AFAIK - it's a common topic of psych books
(A la "it rains on the
the plains in in spain")

But Sapir-Whorf talks about LANGUAGE, not ideas.

By Sam at Thu, 2005-12-29 23:09 | login or register to post comments

The point is that it seems to

The point is that it seems to confirm that the language area of the brain is involved in perception (a non-languistic process).

By Ehud Lamm at Fri, 2005-12-30 17:43 | login or register to post comments

The PNAS paper

Is here.

By Ehud Lamm at Tue, 2006-01-03 10:20 | login or register to post comments