Key Points
In a study published in the journal Trends in Cognitive Science, Asifa Majid, a professor of cognitive science at the University of Oxford, has outlined the deficit in understanding that has stemmed from ignoring languages other than English..
And as a result, they dont perform well in arithmetic experiments compared to, say, speakers of languages like English, with a vocabulary that encapsulates large cardinal numbers20, 50, 100..
When English is used to carry out research into how the human brain works, scientists formulate questions based on the elements English expresses, making assumptions about what the mind, knowledge, or cognition are according to how the language describes themnot what they might represent in other languages or cultures..
There is this bias in academic research, partly because of where it is done, but also because of the meta-language of talking about the research, says Felix Ameka, professor of ethnolinguistics at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands, who was not involved in Majids work...
But in the West African language Ewe, spoken by over 20 million people, including Ameka, at least nine senses are culturally recognizedsuch as a sense focused on being balanced physically and socially, one focused on how we move through the world, and one revolving around what we feel in our body..
