Where Word and World Meet: Language and Vision Share an Abstract Representation of Symmetry
Where Word and World Meet: Language and Vision Share an Abstract Representation of Symmetry
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DOI：
10.1037/xge0001283
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发表时间：
2022-09-15
影响因子：
4.1
通讯作者：
Trueswell, John
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Hafri, Alon;Gleitman, Lila R.;Trueswell, John
对称性在自然界、逻辑和数学、感知、语言和思维中无处不在。尽管人类对视觉对称性(例如，蝴蝶的对称性)非常敏感，但自然语言中的对称性超出了视觉空间属性：许多单词指向具有对称内容的抽象概念(例如，平等、结婚)。例如，如果马克嫁给了比尔，那么比尔就嫁给了马克。在这两种情况下(视觉和语言)，对称性可以被形式化地描述为变换下的不变性。这是巧合，还是有更深层次的心理相似之处？这里我们问的是，对称性的表现形式是否在语言和视觉上是一致的。为此，我们开发了一种新的跨模式匹配范式。在每个实验中，参与者观察到一个视觉刺激(对称性或非对称性)，并必须在与刺激无关的对称性和非对称性英语谓词之间做出选择(例如，“协商”或“提议”)。在第一项关于视觉事件(对称碰撞或不对称发射)的研究中，参与者可靠地选择了与事件对称性匹配的谓词。第二项研究表明，这种“语言-视觉对应”被概括为对象，当刺激的二元性变得不那么明显时(即，对于一个对象，而不是两个面向内部的对象)，这种对应关系被削弱了。最后的一项研究显示，当非手语者猜测美国手语中手语的英文翻译时，也会产生同样的效果。美国手语在空间上表达了许多对称的概念。综上所述，我们的发现支持人类通过知觉和语言手段获得的对称抽象表示的存在。更广泛地说，这项工作揭示了语言认知界面丰富、结构化的本质。
Symmetry is ubiquitous in nature, in logic and mathematics, and in perception, language, and thought. Although humans are exquisitely sensitive to visual symmetry (e.g., of a butterfly), symmetry in natural language goes beyond visuospatial properties: many words point to abstract concepts with symmetrical content (e.g., equal, marry). For example, if Mark marries Bill, then Bill marries Mark. In both cases (vision and language), symmetry may be formally characterized as invariance under transformation. Is this a coincidence, or is there some deeper psychological resemblance? Here we asked whether representations of symmetry correspond across language and vision. To do so, we developed a novel cross-modal matching paradigm. On each trial, participants observed a visual stimulus (either symmetrical or nonsymmetrical) and had to choose between a symmetrical and nonsymmetrical English predicate unrelated to the stimulus (e.g., "negotiate" vs. "propose"). In a first study with visual events (symmetrical collision or asymmetrical launch), participants reliably chose the predicate matching the event's symmetry. A second study showed that this "language-vision correspondence" generalized to objects and was weakened when the stimuli's binary nature was made less apparent (i.e., for one object, rather than two inward-facing objects). A final study showed the same effect when nonsigners guessed English translations of signs from American Sign Language, which expresses many symmetrical concepts spatially. Taken together, our findings support the existence of an abstract representation of symmetry which humans access via both perceptual and linguistic means. More broadly, this work sheds light on the rich, structured nature of the language-cognition interface.