What did the first group do better? (Passage: Language and thought)

Linguists have long debated whether the language we speak shapes how we think. One experiment compared speakers of a language with distinct words for light blue and dark blue with English speakers, who use one word for both. The first group were faster at telling apart two shades of blue when one fell on each side of the boundary between their two colour words. The effect vanished when participants were asked to repeat a string of digits while performing the task, suggesting that language was playing a role in the judgement itself.

Answer and explanation

Correct answer: A. Distinguish shades that fell across their colour-word boundary

  1. Step 1: Look at the results. Step 2. They were faster at telling shades apart across the boundary. Answer: Distinguish shades that fell across their colour-word boundary. Why not the others: Naming, digits and word memory are not reported.

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