Evidence from an emerging sign language reveals that language supports spatial cognition

Pyers, Jennie; Shusterman, Anna; Senghas, Ann; Spelke, Elizabeth S.; Emmorey, Karen

doi:10.1073/pnas.0914044107

Cited by 144 publications

(110 citation statements)

References 32 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

102

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…In one experiment, individuals with global aphasia performed no differently from control participants (Bek, Blades, Siegal, & Varley, 2010), suggesting that the flexible behavior observed with human adults does not depend exclusively on the availability of language (although perhaps having been able to speak for many years could be argued to have crucially affected spatial reorientation). In the second experiment, deaf individuals in Nicaragua who had grown up in an environment without input from a structured sign language performed less well than deaf individuals in a second, later-born cohort who did have such input (Pyers, Shusterman, Senghas, Spelke, & Emmorey, 2010). However, the first cohort still searched at the correct corner far more than would be expected by chance (67.5% as opposed to 25% chance).…”

Section: Is Language Necessary For Feature Use In Reorientation?mentioning

confidence: 87%

Two fields are better than one: Developmental and cognitive perspectives on underatnding spatial reorientation

Twyman¹,

Nardi²,

Newcombe³

2013

CCBR

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Occasionally, we lose track of our position in the world, and must re-establish where we are located in order to function. This process has been termed the ability to reorient and was first studied by Ken Cheng in 1986. Reorientation research has revealed some powerful cross-species commonalities. It has also engaged the question of human uniqueness because it has been claimed that human adults reorient differently from other species, or from young human children, in a fashion grounded in the distinctive combinatorial power of human language. In this chapter, we consider the phenomenon of reorientation in comparative perspective, both to evaluate specific claims regarding commonalities and differences in spatial navigation, and also to illustrate, more generally, how comparative cognition research and research in human cognitive development have deep mutual relevance.

show abstract

Section: Is Language Necessary For Feature Use In Reorientation?mentioning

confidence: 87%

Two fields are better than one: Developmental and cognitive perspectives on underatnding spatial reorientation

Twyman¹,

Nardi²,

Newcombe³

2013

CCBR

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…This change occurs when children begin systematically to produce spatial expressions, including the terms left and right [66,68]. A recent study of adult speakers of an emerging language suggests that the acquisition of spatial language plays a causal role in the emergence of this new navigational pattern [69].…”

Section: Core Knowledge and Geometrical Intuitionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Core systems of geometry in animal minds

Spelke

Lee

2012

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Research on humans from birth to maturity converges with research on diverse animals to reveal foundational cognitive systems in human and animal minds. The present article focuses on two such systems of geometry. One system represents places in the navigable environment by recording the distance and direction of the navigator from surrounding, extended surfaces. The other system represents objects by detecting the shapes of small-scale forms. These two systems show common signatures across animals, suggesting that they evolved in distant ancestral species. As children master symbolic systems such as maps and language, they come productively to combine representations from the two core systems of geometry in uniquely human ways; these combinations may give rise to abstract geometric intuitions. Studies of the ontogenetic and phylogenetic sources of abstract geometry therefore are illuminating of both human and animal cognition. Research on animals brings simpler model systems and richer empirical methods to bear on the analysis of abstract concepts in human minds. In return, research on humans, relating core cognitive capacities to symbolic abilities, sheds light on the content of representations in animal minds.Keywords: cognitive development; animal cognition; navigation; geometry CORE COGNITIVE SYSTEMS IN ANIMAL MINDSFor well over 2000 years, studies of higher cognition have focused primarily on capacities that are unique to humans, such as language and geometrical intuitions. Debates about the nature and sources of these capacities continue to the present day, however, and progress in resolving them pales by contrast with the progress achieved in understanding the perceptual capacities that humans share with other animals. This contrast highlights problems faced by attempts to study higher cognition in any species, and it hints at a solution to those problems.The modern study of perception began with research on humans, who experimented on themselves to probe the physical events that evoke conscious experiences of colour, tone or motion. The power of these 'psychophysical experiments' was greatly enhanced, however, by parallel research on animals. Studies of perception in humans and in other animals were mutually illuminating: while human psychophysical findings guided research on animal perceptual systems, animal research shed light on the development and architecture of those systems, using methods of controlled rearing, neurophysiology and (more recently) genetics. Research from evolutionary biology and computer science enriched both sets of insights, by shedding light on the computational problems that visual systems evolved to solve.The study of higher cognition has not experienced the same synergies. Indeed, attempts to use human conscious experience as a guide to animal research often lead to blind alleys, because human intuition is a poor source of insights into animal minds. This failure stems, we suggest, from three prominent differences between perceptual systems, on one hand, and higher cognitive...

show abstract

“…Boucher et al 2008 , Table 14.1), linguistic isolates who were not exposed to syntactic language before the end of the critical period (Emmorey et al 1993;Martin 2009;Martin et al 2013;Pyers et al 2010), and patients with damage to their lateral PFC or frontoparietal connections (Ditunno and Mann 1990;Gläscher et al 2009;Heremans et al 2012;Kosslyn et al 1985).…”

Section: The "Mental Rotation and Modification Of Object's Location Imentioning

confidence: 99%

Neurobiological mechanisms for nonverbal IQ tests: implications for instruction of nonverbal children with autism

Vyshedskiy¹,

Dunn²,

Piryatinsky³

2017

RIO

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Traditionally, the neurological correlates of IQ test questions are characterized qualitatively in terms of 'control of attention' and 'working memory.' In this report we attempt to characterize each IQ test question quantitatively by two factors: a) the number of disparate objects that have to be imagined in concert in order to solve the problem and, b) the amount of recruited posterior cortex territory. With such a classification, an IQ test can be understood on a neuronal level and a subject's IQ score could be interpreted in terms of specific neurological mechanisms available to the subject.Here we present the results of an analysis of the three most popular nonverbal IQ tests: Test of Nonverbal Intelligence (TONI-4), Standard Raven's Progressive Matrices, and Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC-V). Our analysis shows that approximately half of all questions (52±0.02%) are limited to mental computations involving only a single object; these easier questions are found towards the beginning of each test. More difficult questions located towards the end of each test rely on mental synthesis of several disparate objects and the number of objects involved in computations gradually increases with question difficulty. These more challenging questions require the organization of wider posterior cortex networks by the lateral prefrontal cortex (PFC). This conclusion is in line with neuroimaging studies showing that activation level of the lateral PFC and the posterior cortex positively correlates with task difficulty. This analysis has direct implications for brain pathophysiology and, specifically, for therapeutic interventions for children with language impairment, most notably for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and other developmental disorders. Keywords AbbreviationsNOB score = number of objects score PCT score = posterior cortex territory score

show abstract

Evidence from an emerging sign language reveals that language supports spatial cognition

Cited by 144 publications

References 32 publications

Two fields are better than one: Developmental and cognitive perspectives on underatnding spatial reorientation

Two fields are better than one: Developmental and cognitive perspectives on underatnding spatial reorientation

Core systems of geometry in animal minds

Neurobiological mechanisms for nonverbal IQ tests: implications for instruction of nonverbal children with autism

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About