This week's New Scientist magazine takes a look at the question of whether language affects the way we experience the world.
The idea that language guides human thinking and shapes perception has a long and turbulent history. Philosophers have toyed with it for centuries, but its reputation became tarnished before modern psychologists could begin putting flesh on its bones.... Recently, however, the idea has made a comeback. Studies in the late 1990s indicated that infants are better able to group objects into categories - animals versus vehicles, say - if they have already learned the category names.... Such findings suggest that language does indeed have benefits beyond communication, for children at least. But is this also true for healthy adults?
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