The strong version of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis (linguistic determinism) holds that:

A: Language influences thought in subtle but measurable ways

B: Language and thought are entirely independent cognitive systems

C: Language determines thought — you cannot think concepts that your language has no words for

D: All languages encode the same conceptual distinctions but using different phonological forms

Correct: Language determines thought — you cannot think concepts that your language has no words for

Linguistic determinism — the strong Whorfian view — claims that thought is constrained by language: without a word for a concept, you cannot think it. This extreme position has largely been rejected empirically. The weak version, linguistic relativity, holds instead that language influences (not determines) thought — speakers of different languages show measurable differences in perception and cognition, but these are biases, not rigid boundaries.

Rosch (Heider, 1972) studied the Dani people of New Guinea, who have only two basic colour terms. She found that, compared to English speakers, the Dani:

A: Could not perceive differences between colours that lacked a name

B: Were faster at remembering focal (prototypical) colours than non-focal ones — the same pattern as English speakers

C: Performed worse on all colour memory tasks, confirming linguistic determinism

D: Created new colour terms spontaneously during the study

Correct: Were faster at remembering focal (prototypical) colours than non-focal ones — the same pattern as English speakers

Rosch's (1972) cross-cultural study found that even without distinct colour terms, the Dani showed the same advantage for focal colours (the "best" examples of red, blue, green, etc.) as English speakers. This challenged the strong Whorfian view: perceptual categories exist independently of linguistic labels. However, later work with Russian speakers (Winawer et al., 2007) showed that language-specific categories do produce faster discrimination at linguistic boundaries, supporting weak linguistic relativity.

Winawer et al. (2007) found that Russian speakers were faster at discriminating blues that crossed the Russian linguistic boundary (goluboy/siniy) than blues within the same category. When a verbal interference task was added, this advantage:

A: Increased, because language was no longer distracting them from colour perception

B: Disappeared, demonstrating that the advantage was linguistically mediated

C: Remained unchanged, showing it was a perceptual rather than linguistic effect

D: Reversed — Russian speakers became slower than English speakers

Correct: Disappeared, demonstrating that the advantage was linguistically mediated

The verbal interference result is the critical evidence for linguistic mediation: when Russian speakers had to hold a verbal string in memory (occupying phonological working memory), the between-category advantage disappeared. This shows the colour discrimination advantage is not perceptual — it is produced online by language. Non-verbal interference did not eliminate the effect, confirming the conclusion.

Boroditsky (2001) found that Mandarin speakers were faster than English speakers at confirming "March comes earlier than April" when primed by a vertical spatial array. This suggests:

A: Mandarin speakers have better working memory for temporal information

B: Habitual use of vertical metaphors for time in Mandarin facilitates vertical-spatial priming of temporal concepts

C: English speakers use horizontal metaphors exclusively; Mandarin speakers use no spatial metaphors

D: Temporal reasoning is culture-specific and cannot be compared cross-linguistically

Correct: Habitual use of vertical metaphors for time in Mandarin facilitates vertical-spatial priming of temporal concepts

Boroditsky's studies showed that the spatial metaphors a language habitually uses for time (English primarily horizontal; Mandarin more commonly vertical) influence how readily speakers accept temporal relations when primed with matching spatial layouts. This is linguistic relativity in the weaker form: language doesn't prevent time-thinking, but it shapes which spatial-conceptual schemas are recruited fastest.

True or False: According to Vygotsky, inner speech develops directly from an innate internal monologue and is present from birth.

Answer: False

FALSE. Vygotsky argued that inner speech develops from social, external speech — it is internalised interpersonal communication. Development proceeds: social (outer) speech → private speech (audible self-talk, peaking around ages 5–7) → inner speech (silent, condensed, predicative). Inner speech is not a diminished form of outer speech; it is structurally different — highly abbreviated, semantically dense, and oriented to meaning rather than syntax.

Which property best characterises Vygotsky's account of inner speech?

A: It is a fully formed internal sentence that mirrors external speech structure

B: It is predicative — the subject is omitted because it is always contextually known to the speaker

C: It is a phonological code stored in Baddeley's articulatory loop

D: It develops before external speech and is the source of language development

Correct: It is predicative — the subject is omitted because it is always contextually known to the speaker

For Vygotsky, inner speech is predicative: it omits the subject (always known to the inner speaker) and consists largely of predicates. If you are thinking about a book you are reading, you think "fascinating" not "this book is fascinating". Inner speech is the condensed, "for oneself" form of language — meaning-dense, context-dependent, and structurally distinct from communicative outer speech.

Lupyan & Clark (2015) proposed a "label feedback" view of language and thought. What does this claim?

A: Language labels are retrieved after concepts are fully activated — language describes thought but does not influence it

B: Linguistic labels actively reshape perceptual representations during categorisation, not merely reflect pre-existing concepts

C: Labels are stored in a separate system from conceptual knowledge and do not interact during perception

D: Language influences thought only in children; adults process concepts independently of language

Correct: Linguistic labels actively reshape perceptual representations during categorisation, not merely reflect pre-existing concepts

Label feedback means linguistic labels, once learned, are fed back into perceptual and conceptual processing and modify how categories are represented and accessed. Using a category label activates feature clusters associated with it, sharpening the typical features and suppressing atypical ones. This goes beyond Whorf's static view: language is an active participant in online cognition, not a fixed lens through which the world is passively viewed.

Gilbert et al. (2006) found that categorical perception of colour was stronger in the right visual field than the left. This is significant because:

A: It shows colour perception is entirely right-hemisphere-dependent

B: The right visual field projects to the left hemisphere where language is dominant, linking language involvement to categorical effects

C: The left visual field is better at detecting focal colours due to faster processing

D: It contradicts the Winawer et al. (2007) findings and refutes linguistic relativity

Correct: The right visual field projects to the left hemisphere where language is dominant, linking language involvement to categorical effects

The right-visual-field advantage for categorical colour perception is crucial evidence for language mediation: visual information from the right field goes first to the left hemisphere, which in most people houses language networks. When language is suppressed (verbal interference) or stimuli are shown to the left visual field (right hemisphere), categorical advantages diminish. This suggests that colour categories are imposed by linguistic processing in the left hemisphere rather than by low-level perception.