Grammatical gender and linguistic relativity: A systematic review

Can an isolated middle-series item make a "Dent" in the bow-shaped serial-position curve of comparative judgments?

Studies have shown that local (e.g., midseries) items' specific properties, including being isolated from rest of the items, can generate a local distinctiveness effect, enhancing the memory performance for the local items in serial recall or absolute judgments. However, this has not been the case in relative (comparative) judgments. For the first time, the present study found a local distinctiveness effect in comparative judgments by using an opposite-gender name for the midseries item in an otherwise uniformly one-gender name serial list. The reasons for the previous studies' failure to produce this effect in comparative judgments and the present study's success in obtaining it were discussed. The implication of the finding for the item/order information opponent-process theories was also suggested.

Semantic gender: Norms for 24,000 Dutch words and its role in word meaning

Semantic gender norms are presented for 24,037 Dutch words. Eighty participants rated 6017 words each on a five-point Likert scale ranging from feminine to masculine. Each word was rated by ten male and ten female participants. The collected norms show high reliability and correlate well with similar norms in English. We show that semantic gender is distinct from other lexical dimensions such as valence, arousal, dominance, concreteness, and age of acquisition. Semantic gender is not the same as the grammatical gender of words, either. The collected norms can be predicted accurately using a semantic space based on word association data. A dimension explaining a good amount of variance is present in this space, indicating that semantic gender is an important component of the human meaning system.

Exploring the nature of the gender-congruency effect: implicit gender activation and social bias

The aim of the study was to explore the nature of the gender-congruency effect, characterized by a facilitation on the processing of congruent words in grammatical gender. Moreover, we explored whether resemblances between gender identities and gender attitudes with grammatical gender modulated lexical processing. We designed a gender-priming paradigm in Spanish, in which participants decided the gender of a masculine or feminine pronoun preceded by three different primes: biological gender nouns (mapping biological sex), stereotypical nouns (mapping biological and stereotypical information), and epicene nouns (arbitrary gender assignment). We found faster processing of gender congruent pronouns independently of the type of prime, showing that the grammatical gender feature is active even when processing bare nouns that are not conceptually related to gender. This indicates that the gender-congruency effect is driven by the activation of the gender information at the lexical level, which is transferred to the semantic level. Interestingly, the results showed an asymmetry for epicene primes: the gender-congruency effect was smaller for epicene primes when preceding the feminine pronoun, probably driven by the grammatical rule of the masculine being the generic gender. Furthermore, we found that masculine oriented attitudes can bias language processing diminishing the activation of feminine gender, which ultimately could overshadow the female figure.

(Hu)man-Like Robots: The Impact of Anthropomorphism and Language on Perceived Robot Gender

Implementing anthropomorphic features to robots is a frequently used approach to create positive perceptions in human-robot interaction. However, anthropomorphism does not always lead to positive consequences and might trigger a more gendered perception of robots. More precisely, anthropomorphic features of robots seem to evoke a male-robot bias. Yet, it is unclear if this bias is induced via a male appearance of higher anthropomorphic robots, a general male-technology bias, or even due to language aspects. As the word robot is differently grammatically gendered in different languages, this might be associated with the representation of robot gender. To target these open questions, we investigated how the degree of anthropomorphism and the way the word robot is gendered in different languages, as well as within one language influence the perceived gender of the robot. We therefore conducted two online-studies in which participants were presented with pictures of differently anthropomorphic robots. The first study investigated two different samples from which one was conducted in German, as grammatically-gendered language, and one in English as natural gender language. We did not find significant differences between both languages. Robots with a higher degree of anthropomorphism were perceived as significantly more male than neutral or female. The second study investigated the effect of grammatically-gendered descriptions (feminine, masculine, neuter) on the perception of robots. This study revealed that masculine grammatical gender tends to reinforce a male ascription of gender-neutral robots. The results suggest that the male-robot bias found in previous studies seems to be associated with appearance of most anthropomorphic robots, and the grammatical gender the robot is referenced by.

Across-language masculinity of oceans and femininity of guitars: Exploring grammatical gender universalities

This is the first cross-language study to reveal nouns with invariable masculine or feminine grammatical gender assignments in nine gendered languages from different groups of one linguistic family. It evidences that many cases of gender universality have semantic motivation-an entity's grammatical gender correlates with either traditional masculine/feminine connotations, or cultural and symbolic implications. The study's findings also testify thematic preferences: most masculine grammatical gender universalities are found for the nouns denoting artifacts, whereas most feminine universalities are identified for abstract concepts. The apparent existence of grammatical gender universalities has a cognitive significance. From a psycholinguistic perspective, grammatical gender is viewed as a built-in personification pattern for speakers' mental representations. This research presents cross-linguistic constants in conceptualizing the natural kinds, artifacts, and abstract concepts denoted by the considered nouns, as "male" or "female".

Toward a script relativity hypothesis: focused research agenda for psycholinguistic experiments in the science of reading

The purpose of this paper is to extend the linguistic relativity hypothesis (i.e., the language we speak affects the way we think) to a script relativity hypothesis (i.e., the script in which we read influences our thought). Based on the rich body of knowledge in the science of reading that shows the effects of literacy on our cognitive processes, the foundation, rationale, and converging evidence of script relativity are discussed. The tenable notion of script relativity is anchored in previous research into the connection between language and thought as well as a causal relationship from language to cognition. Further discussed is the application of linguistic relativity to reading in both first and second languages to elucidate the reading-to-cognition link and how reading affects our attention, perception, and thought. Focused research for script relativity is suggested in the areas of the operating principle of script (alphabetic vs. morphosyllabic), reading directionality (left-to-right vs. right-to-left), word configurations (linearity vs. block), literacy experience (literates vs. illiterates), and interword spaces (presence vs. absence of interword spaces). The article ends with further recommendations and future directions. It is suggested that linguistic and cultural effects on cognition be controlled in future studies to disentangle the true effects of script.

Exposing implicit biases and stereotypes in human and artificial intelligence: state of the art and challenges with a focus on gender

Biases in cognition are ubiquitous. Social psychologists suggested biases and stereotypes serve a multifarious set of cognitive goals, while at the same time stressing their potential harmfulness. Recently, biases and stereotypes became the purview of heated debates in the machine learning community too. Researchers and developers are becoming increasingly aware of the fact that some biases, like gender and race biases, are entrenched in the algorithms some AI applications rely upon. Here, taking into account several existing approaches that address the problem of implicit biases and stereotypes, we propose that a strategy to cope with this phenomenon is to unmask those found in AI systems by understanding their cognitive dimension, rather than simply trying to correct algorithms. To this extent, we present a discussion bridging together findings from cognitive science and insights from machine learning that can be integrated in a state-of-the-art semantic network. Remarkably, this resource can be of assistance to scholars (e.g., cognitive and computer scientists) while at the same time contributing to refine AI regulations affecting social life. We show how only through a thorough understanding of the cognitive processes leading to biases, and through an interdisciplinary effort, we can make the best of AI technology.

How bilinguals refer to Mandarin throwing actions in English

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

In the present study, we tested how Mandarin-English bilinguals choose English words to refer to prototypical Mandarin throwing actions. Languages differ in how they refer to events. In Mandarin and English, words for throwing actions differ notably on a variety of dimensions so there are few perfect translation equivalents. In previous studies, when faced with the challenge of how to speak about such events, bilinguals sometimes use language-specific ways in each language, sometimes show convergence, sometimes use more general terms, and there are times when they can be quite creative.

DESIGN/METHODOLOGY

We showed video clips of six prototypical Mandarin throwing actions (corresponding to rēng , diū , pāo , tóu , shuāi , shuǎi ) to Mandarin-English bilinguals and English monolinguals. Participants labeled the actions and chose the English word most closely corresponding to the action. The bilinguals did the same in Mandarin.

FINDINGS/CONCLUSION

The results showed that the bilinguals chose many of the same words in English as English monolinguals did. However, the bilinguals differed from the monolinguals in two ways: (1) they tended to choose more different responses and (2) they referred to diū actions most often as throw rather than lob as the monolinguals did.

ORIGINALITY

These results suggest that bilinguals use a variety of strategies to refer to the not-easily-translatable.

English Speakers' Implicit Gender Concepts Influence Their Processing of French Grammatical Gender: Evidence for Semantically Mediated Cross-Linguistic Influence

Second language (L2) learners often show influence from their first language (L1) in all domains of language. This cross-linguistic influence could, in some cases, be mediated by semantics. The purpose of the present study was to test whether implicit English gender connotations affect L1 English speakers’ judgments of the L2 French gender of objects. We hypothesized that gender estimates derived from word embedding models that measure similarity of word contexts in English would affect accuracy and response time on grammatical gender (GG) decision in L2 French. L2 French learners were asked to identify the GG of French words estimated to be either congruent or incongruent with the implicit gender in English. The results showed that they were more accurate with words that were congruent with English gender connotations than words that were incongruent, suggesting that English gender connotations can influence grammatical judgments in French. Response times showed the same pattern. The results are consistent with semantics-mediated cross-linguistic influence.

Implicit Representation of Grammatical Gender in Italian Children with Developmental Language Disorder: An Exploratory Study on Phonological and/or Syntactic Sensitivity

Children with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) display impaired phonological and/or morpho-syntactic skills. To detect these impairments, it would be of value to devise tasks that assess specific markers of implicit linguistic competence. We administered a forced choice semantic categorization task developed in Italian (Belacchi and Cubelli in Journal of psycholinguistic research 41:295-310, 2012) for detecting the implicit use of grammatical gender markers in classifying epicenes names of animals: phonological and/or syntactic. Seventy Italian children with expressive-phonological DLD (mean age: 61.20 months) were compared with a same-size control group. Overall, the children with DLD performed more poorly than the control group. Also, the DLD participants used the phonological index to a significantly lesser extent, confirming their specific impairment in the phonological processing of words. The current study provided evidence for the status of phonological discrimination skills as a precursor of language development, and the value of using categorization tasks to assess implicit linguistic competence in children with DLD.

The scope of grammatical gender in Spanish: Transference to the conceptual level

The aim of the present study was to explore under what circumstances we could observe a transference from grammatical gender to the conceptual representation of sex in Spanish, a two-gender language. The participants performed a lexical decision task and a gender decision task in the auditory modality, including words referencing inanimate entities associated with males or females. The sex stereotype could be congruent (falda [skirt], feminine) or incongruent (corbata [tie], feminine) with the grammatical gender. If the transfer from grammatical gender to conceptual information related to sex is settled, we should observed faster access for the congruent words compared with the incongruent ones both in the gender decision task and in the lexical decision task. The results showed a facilitation while processing congruent vs. incongruent words where attention to gender was mandatory during the adapted gender decision task. However, there was a lack of transference during the lexical decision task that might have been caused by the absence of direct conceptual activation by the time the decision was made. Additionally, we found that grammatical gender and sex-related information are closely connected, such as the indexical information about the sex of the speaker primes the activation of information related to sex at the conceptual (sex stereotype) and also at the lexical level (grammatical gender). Altogether, the results indicate that gender congruency effect is magnified by direct gender activation.