Influences Beyond Language: Comparing Spatial Referencing in Native French Speakers from Four Countries

Influences Beyond Language? A Comparison of Spatial Referencing in Native French Speakers from Four Countries Lisa Huther (lisa.huether@psychologie.uni-freiburg.de) University of Freiburg, Department of Psychology, Engelbergerstrasse 41 79085 Freiburg, Germany Anne Bentz (anne.bentz@psychologie.uni-freiburg.de) University of Freiburg, Department of Psychology, Engelbergerstrasse 41 79085 Freiburg, Germany Hans Spada (spada@psychologie.uni-freiburg.de) University of Freiburg, Department of Psychology, Engelbergerstrasse 41 79085 Freiburg, Germany Andrea Bender (bender@psychologie.uni-freiburg.de) University of Freiburg, Department of Psychology, Engelbergerstrasse 41 79085 Freiburg, Germany Sieghard Beller (sieghard.beller@uni-paderborn.de) University of Paderborn, Department of Human Sciences, Warburger Strase 100 33098 Paderborn, Germany Abstract Research has shown that spatial referencing differs across cultures. Whether “Western” samples, specifically ones speaking the same native language, show the same referencing patterns has not been investigated thus far. Examining spatial referencing behavior across different tasks, we compared samples from four different countries speaking the same language with respect to their application of the intrinsic frame of reference (FoR) and the three variants of the relative FoR. Our findings indicate influences of factors beyond language: While the four French-speaking samples showed an overall preference for the reflection variant of the relative FoR, they differed significantly regarding the extent to which reflection and the intrinsic FoR were applied. Moreover, in all samples, characteristics of the referenced objects, namely whether they were animate or inanimate, influenced FoR use. The order of tasks also had an impact on referencing behavior. Keywords: space; spatial cognition; frames of reference (FoRs); linguistic relativity; object characteristics; animacy; French. The Question of Language’s Influence on Cognition In the past decades, the debate about linguistic relativity (known as the Sapir-Whorf-Hypothesis, e.g. Sapir, 1949; Whorf, 1956), that is, whether language determines cognition, has been revived (e.g. Gumperz & Levinson, 1996). An influential research area spurring this revival concerns frames of reference in the domain of space. Languages differ regarding spatial referencing, that is, how they preferentially describe the position of objects in relation to one another (e.g. Majid, Bowerman, Kita, Haun, & Levinson, 2004; Mishra, Singh, & Dasen, 2009). Moreover, it has been shown that across different languages, frames of reference (FoRs) covary in language and cognition (e.g. Danziger, 2011; Haun, Rapold, Janzen, & Levinson, 2011; Levinson, 2003). However, there is still much debate on how this covariation comes about, specifically whether language determines cognition or vice versa or whether environmental factors influence both language and cognition (see e.g. the debate between Levinson, Kita, Haun, & Rasch, 2002, and Li & Gleitman, 2002; and see Haun et al., 2011; Li, Abarbanell, Gleitman, & Papafragou, 2011). In their overview of cross-cultural findings, Majid and colleagues (2004) investigated environment (urban vs. rural), habitual action (subsistence patterns) and cognitive styles (individualism vs. collectivism) as possible mediators between FoRs in language and cognition. They found that none of these factors beyond language systematically accounted for differences in non-linguistic FoR use between speakers of different languages. Commonly, in spatial referencing research, language and culture are treated as one entangled factor (e.g. Burenhult & Levinson, 2008). As they are closely intertwined (e.g. Kodish, 2003), differential effects of language and culture are arguably difficult to investigate. However, feasible approaches would be to investigate individuals living in the same country but speaking different languages or the other way around: individuals speaking the same language but living in different countries.