Journal article : Review
Over-reliance on English hinders cognitive science
- Abstract:
- English is the dominant language in the study of human cognition and behavior: the individuals studied by cognitive scientists, as well as most of the scientists themselves, are frequently English speakers. However, English differs from other languages in ways that have consequences for the whole of the cognitive sciences, reaching far beyond the study of language itself. Here, we review an emerging body of evidence that highlights how the particular characteristics of English and the linguistic habits of English speakers bias the field by both warping research programs (e.g., overemphasizing features and mechanisms present in English over others) and overgeneralizing observations from English speakers’ behaviors, brains, and cognition to our entire species. We propose mitigating strategies that could help avoid some of these pitfalls.
- Publication status:
- Published
- Peer review status:
- Peer reviewed
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- Files:
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(Preview, Version of record, pdf, 2.5MB, Terms of use)
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- Publisher copy:
- 10.1016/j.tics.2022.09.015
Authors
- Publisher:
- Elsevier
- Journal:
- Trends in Cognitive Sciences More from this journal
- Volume:
- 26
- Issue:
- 12
- Pages:
- 1153-1170
- Publication date:
- 2022-10-14
- Acceptance date:
- 2022-09-22
- DOI:
- EISSN:
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1879-307X
- ISSN:
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1364-6613
- Pmid:
-
36253221
- Language:
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English
- Keywords:
- Subtype:
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Review
- Pubs id:
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1286678
- Local pid:
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pubs:1286678
- Deposit date:
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2022-12-01
Terms of use
- Copyright holder:
- Blasi et al.
- Copyright date:
- 2022
- Rights statement:
- © 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
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