Language-induced categorical perception of faces?

Categorical perception (CP) facilitates the discrimination of stimuli belonging to different categories relative to those from the same category. Effects of CP on the discrimination of color and shape have been attributed to the top-down modulation of visual perception by the left-lateralized language processes. We used a divided visual field (DVF) search paradigm to investigate the prospective effects of CP for face identity and gender processing. Consistent with visual processing of face identity in the right hemisphere, we found CP facilitated perception only in the left visual field (LVF). In contrast, and consistent with language-induced CP, we observed a between-category advantage for processing face gender only in the right visual field (RVF). Taken together, our results suggest that language-induced CP plays a role in the category-based visual processing of faces by the left hemisphere, but face familiarity processing might be dependent on different, identity-specialized networks in the right hemisphere

Individual Differences in Preferred Thought Formats Predict Features of Narrative Recall

Humans differ in how they experience their own thoughts. Some say they hear sentences in their “mind's ear”, others report seeing images in their “mind’s eye”, and many struggle to describe their inner worlds. Here, we tested whether individual differences in thought formats predict accuracy and properties of verbal recall after listening to short podcasts about science. To assess the accuracy of recall, we measured the semantic similarity between embeddings of participant recall statements and the original podcasts. To characterize the properties of participants’ recall language, we measured the perceptual strength of content words in their responses. Individual differences in thought formats were not associated with differences in the accuracy of verbal recall. By contrast, recall statements high in perceptual strength were more likely among participants who reported vivid visual imagery, while statements low in perceptual strength were more likely among those with higher verbal scores. Results highlight an intriguing connection between subjective reports about thought format and the attributes of naturalistic verbal memory recall

Linguistic Metaphors Shape Attitudes towards Immigration

Immigration policy has been one of the top concerns of American voters over the last decade and has attracted some of the most heated rhetoric in politics and news media across the world. Much like other political language, talk about immigration is suffused with metaphor. To what extent does the language about immigration, and specifically the metaphors used, influence people’s views of the issues? How powerful are these metaphors? In our studies, we exposed participants to one of four versions of a passage about an increase in immigrants in one town. The four versions of the passage included all identical facts and figures and differed in only a single word at the beginning of the passage, describing the increase in immigrant labor as either an “increase,” a “boost,” an “invasion,” or a “flood.” Although the passages differed only in this one word, participants’ attitudes towards this increase and their predictions about its effects on the economy differed significantly depending on the metaphor. Of course, opinions on immigration differ across political affiliations. Remarkably, the single word metaphor was strong enough to mitigate much of the difference in opinion on immigration between Democrats and Republicans in our sample. Further analyses suggested that the results are not due simply to positive or negative lexical associations to the metaphorical words, and also that metaphors can act covertly in organizing people’s beliefs

Individual Differences in Preferred Thought Formats Predict Features of Narrative Recall

Humans differ in how they experience their own thoughts. Some say they hear sentences in their “mind's ear”, others report seeing images in their “mind’s eye”, and many struggle to describe their inner worlds. Here, we tested whether individual differences in thought formats predict accuracy and properties of verbal recall after listening to short podcasts about science. To assess the accuracy of recall, we measured the semantic similarity between embeddings of participant recall statements and the original podcasts. To characterize the properties of participants’ recall language, we measured the perceptual strength of content words in their responses. Individual differences in thought formats were not associated with differences in the accuracy of verbal recall. By contrast, recall statements high in perceptual strength were more likely among participants who reported vivid visual imagery, while statements low in perceptual strength were more likely among those with higher verbal scores. Results highlight an intriguing connection between subjective reports about thought format and the attributes of naturalistic verbal memory recall

Linguistic Metaphors Shape Attitudes towards Immigration

Immigration policy has been one of the top concerns of American voters over the last decade and has attracted some of the most heated rhetoric in politics and news media across the world. Much like other political language, talk about immigration is suffused with metaphor. To what extent does the language about immigration, and specifically the metaphors used, influence people’s views of the issues? How powerful are these metaphors? In our studies, we exposed participants to one of four versions of a passage about an increase in immigrants in one town. The four versions of the passage included all identical facts and figures and differed in only a single word at the beginning of the passage, describing the increase in immigrant labor as either an “increase,” a “boost,” an “invasion,” or a “flood.” Although the passages differed only in this one word, participants’ attitudes towards this increase and their predictions about its effects on the economy differed significantly depending on the metaphor. Of course, opinions on immigration differ across political affiliations. Remarkably, the single word metaphor was strong enough to mitigate much of the difference in opinion on immigration between Democrats and Republicans in our sample. Further analyses suggested that the results are not due simply to positive or negative lexical associations to the metaphorical words, and also that metaphors can act covertly in organizing people’s beliefs

Embodied and distributional representations of meaning: The role of visual and verbal imagery

How do we translate abstract linguistic symbols into meaningful concepts? According to embodied accounts of meaning comprehension, our sensorimotor experiences with the world shape our understanding of language (Barsalou, 1999; Zwaan, 2014). The meanings of words are grounded in our sensory and motor experiences. For instance, when we hear the word “run,” our brain activates regions associated with the physical act of running, suggesting a direct link between our bodily experiences and language comprehension. The distributional account suggests that linguistic meaning arises from statistical patterns of word usage within context: Words acquire meaning through their co-occurrence with other words, proposing that the semantic content of a word is largely derived from the company it keeps (Firth, 1957; Lupyan & Winter, 2018). Recently, a new theory has emerged by merging these two perspectives, proposing a division of labor between embodied experiences and distributional semantics (Andrews et al, 2009, 2014; Hoffman, 2016). This dual theory suggests that while embodied cognition might be more crucial for understanding concrete concepts that can be directly experienced through our senses, distributional semantics play a pivotal role in grasping abstract concepts that lack direct sensory correlates. This division of labor implies that both mechanisms jointly contribute to our comprehensive understanding of language, with each taking precedence depending on the nature of the word or concept being processed. In the current work, we ask whether which representations are employed depends on the comprehenders' visual and verbal imagery abilities. For instance, individuals with a high propensity for visual imagery might lean more heavily on embodied processing during language comprehension, whereas those with weak visual imagery or higher propensity for verbal imagery might depend more on the distributional aspects of language