Many linguists hypothesize that the vocabulary a language uses for spatial relations influences how its speakers mentally represent space. For instance, speakers of languages that rely on absolute directions (like 'north' or 'east') are thought to maintain a constant awareness of their geographic orientation, unlike speakers of languages that rely on relative directions (like 'left' or 'right'). To test this, researcher Kenji Sato and colleagues placed participants from two distinct linguistic groups in a windowless, rotating room. Sato hypothesized that after the room was rotated, speakers of the absolute-direction language would still be able to accurately point toward specific geographic landmarks, whereas speakers of the relative-direction language would not.
Which finding, if true, would most directly support Sato's hypothesis?
- ABoth groups of speakers demonstrated similar speed and accuracy when learning the layouts of new spatial environments from a printed map.
- BSpeakers of the relative-direction language successfully identified the positions of objects relative to their own bodies after the room was rotated.
- After the room was rotated, speakers of the absolute-direction language pointed to geographic landmarks with high accuracy, whereas speakers of the relative-direction language frequently pointed in the wrong direction.Cevap
- DParticipants from both groups reported that they had actively practiced tracking absolute geographic directions since early childhood.