Native Language Promotes Access to Visual Consciousness

Can our native language influence what we consciously perceive? Although evidence that language modulates visual discrimination has been accumulating, little is known about the relation between language structure and consciousness.

We employed electroencephalography and the attentional-blink paradigm, in which targets are often unnoticed.

Native Greek speakers (N = 28), who distinguish categorically between light and dark shades of blue, showed boosted perception for this contrast compared with a verbally unmarked green contrast. Electrophysiological signatures of early visual processing predicted this behavioral advantage. German speakers (N = 29), who have only one category for light and dark shades of blue, showed no differences in perception between blue and green targets.

The behavioral consequence of categorical perception was replicated with Russian speakers (N = 46), reproducing this novel finding.

We conclude that linguistic enhancement of color contrasts provides targets with a head start in accessing visual consciousness. Our native language is thus one of the forces that determine what we consciously perceive.

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