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Differences in how english and german speakers talk and reason about CAUSE
conference contribution
posted on 2003-01-01, 00:00 authored by Bianca KlettkeBianca Klettke, P WolffThis research identifies how English and German speakers differ in the range of situations they describe as causal and how these difference may influence causal reasoning. In Experiments 1 and 2, English and German speakers described 3D animations of complex events using CAUSE verbs (cause, get) and ENABLE verbs (let, enable). As predicted, English speakers used CAUSE verbs to describe a wider range of events than German speakers. In Experiment 3, English and German speakers viewed 3D animations of CAUSE and ENABLE events and then estimated the likelihood of the effect (E) in the presence of the affector (A), p(E|A), in hypothetical situations similar to the one they just saw. Given the results of Experiments 1 and 2, we predicted that German speakers’ estimates of p(E|A) would be higher than English speakers’ estimates of p(E|A) for ENABLE events, but not necessarily for CAUSE events. The results were as predicted. The findings suggest that English and German speakers differ in the range of situations they describe as causal and that these differences in linguistic coding may lead to differences in causal reasoning.
History
Event
Cognitive Science Society (U.S.). Conference. (25th : 2003 : Boston, Mass.)Pagination
675 - 680Publisher
Lawrence ErlbaumLocation
Boston, MassachusettsPlace of publication
Mahwah, N.J.Start date
2003-07-31End date
2003-08-02Language
engPublication classification
E1.1 Full written paper - refereedCopyright notice
2003, Taylor & FrancisEditor/Contributor(s)
R Alterman, D KirshTitle of proceedings
Proceedings of the Twenty-Fifth Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science SocietyUsage metrics
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