Our View of the World: Culture, Thought & Language (AQA GCSE Psychology)
Revision Note
Written by: Claire Neeson
Reviewed by: Lucy Vinson
Variation in recall of events
This topic is directly related to the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis (SWH) which is covered here
The SWH suggests that the language someone speaks has a direct effect on the way that they recall information
English speakers can identify the perpetrator of accidental actions more than Spanish speakers can (based on the linguistic differences between “She broke the vase” compared to, “The vase broke” (Fausey & Boroditsky, 2011)
Native American culture (specifically the Hopi tribe) was studied by Whorf to investigate variation in recall of events
Hopi language differs from languages such as English or French because it does not distinguish between time scales i.e. they have no way of expressing past, present and future as different and separate entities
The Hopi language has no words for hours, minutes, or days of the week and there is no concept of being ‘on time’ or ‘late’ for an event
Time in the Hopi world is linked to the phases of the moon and the movements of the sun
The Hopi refer to one full day as a ‘sleep’ and a year is known as a ‘winter’
The Hopi. The concept of time is not part of their language.
Research by Carmichael (1932) involved two groups of participants shown the same pictures with different descriptions
When participants were asked to draw them, the pictures reflected the labels they had heard which suggests that language influences recall of events (e.g. those who heard ‘eyeglasses’ drew eyeglasses)
Examiner Tips and Tricks
This topic also has relevance to the active process of memory (as covered in the Memory topic of the AQA GCSE Psychology specification). Bartlett’s (1932) War of the Ghosts study also used a Native American folk tale to investigate the interference of cultural schemas on recall. You could incorporate his study into a synoptic question on language and thought (synoptic means offering a general, holistic view of one topic or idea).
Variation in recognition of colours
Humans are able to see millions of colours (as variations of the colour wheel) but colour is not necessarily universal in how it is perceived across cultures
Colour is perceived rather than seen (i.e. it is a subjective rather than a wholly objective process) and will largely depend upon environmental factors such as experience (and therefore culture)
Brown & Lenneberg (1954) found, via their research into the Zuni tribe of New Mexico that the absence of a colour word in a specific language affects how well that colour is recognised (the Zuni had one word only to cover the various shades of yellow and orange and struggled to recall any yellow/orange shades when compared to English speakers)
Robertson et al. (2000) studied the Berinmo people of New Guinea and found that they had difficulty recalling and distinguishing between a variety of colours as they only have five words for different colours in their own language (e.g. one name only for any yellow, orange or brown shades; one name only for white/light colours)
The above two research findings offer support for the idea that language influences cognitive processes such as memory (as suggested by the SWH)
The Colour Wheel.
Evaluation of our view of the world: culture, thought & language
Strengths
Culture affects many aspects of human experience (via ritual, beliefs, religion, habits) so it is highly likely to have an impact on language and thought, therefore the theory has good face validity
Research into variation in recall and recognition has good application as the findings could be used to foster better understanding across cultures
Weaknesses
Just because the Hopi had different ways of thinking about time does not mean that they were unable to mark time (they had four time periods - sunrise, noon, sunset, and midnight) which means that the theory lacks validity
Heider & Olivier (1972) reported contradictory results to those cited above: there was no difference in a colour recognition task between the Dani tribe from New Guinea (who only have two colour words) compared to English speakers
Worked Example
Here is an example of a question you might be asked on this topic - for AO2.
AO1: You need to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of key concepts, ideas, theories and research.
AO2: You need to apply your knowledge and understanding, usually referring to the ‘stem’ in order to do so (the stem is the example given before the question)
AO3: You need to analyse and evaluate key concepts, ideas, theories and research.
After each featured question there is a ‘model’ answer i.e. one which would achieve top marks in the exam.
AO2 Question: Imagine that you have been asked to conduct a study to investigate variation in colour recognition. Use your knowledge of psychology to describe how you would do this.
In your answer explain:
how you would select participants to take part in your study
one feature of the task that participants would be required to do [3]
Guidance: Up to 2 marks for a description of how to select participants.
Plus 1 mark for a feature of the task.
Model answer:
A description of how participants would be selected including reference to an appropriate named sampling method [2 marks]:
Participants could be selected using volunteer/self-selecting sampling. This could be done by posting an ad on social media asking for participants from a diverse range of cultural backgrounds to take part in a psychological study.
One feature of the task [1 mark]:
Participants could be given the colour wheel to look at for 5 seconds and then be asked to pick out the same wheel from a selection of 10 different colour wheels.
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