The Influence of Native Language on our Cognition

Abstract

The interaction between language and cognition is an extremely complex issue. Many disciplines have struggled to unravel that issue. In recent times, a debatable question has arisen in cognitive sciences regarding how and whether natural language alter cognition. Long lasting debate about this issue has not provided a conclusive result. In this study, I carried out random block experiment design to examine the effect of one’s language on thinking . The experiment was designed to evaluate the influence that natural language is operating on the cognition of native Arabic and French speakers on categorization of inanimate items. Population of the study consisted of 66 participants: 33 native speakers of Arabic (20 males and 13 females) and 33 native speakers of French (16 females and 17males). Participants were asked to attribute masculine and feminine voice to the inanimate pictures presented in psychological tool Super lab. The findings show that both groups of participants assign voice according to the grammatical gender of their native language.