What's in a word?

There is a quote in The Truthful Art from Albert Einstein that originates from a letter he wrote to a colleague. The book states: “The words of language, as they are written or spoken, do not seem to play any role in my mechanism of thought. The physical entities which seem to serve as elements in my thoughts are certain signs and more or less clear images..."

He goes on to say that he believes that these signs/images are the "essential feature in productive thought —before there is any connection with logical construction in words or other kinds of signs which can be communicated to others."

If read in isolation, it may seem that Einstein is expressing his opinion on how thoughts work in general, but he is careful to note that this is how he perceives and processes thoughts.

How large of an influence does language have on how we perceive the world?

That is exactly the topic of the following TED talk, which once again comes from my Cognitive Neuroscience class. This talk on language is by Lera Boroditsky, Associate Professor at UC San Diego (and if going by her Instagram pictures; someone with a very fun life: https://www.instagram.com/leraboroditsky)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKK7wGAYP6k

You should definitely watch the entire video, but if you want to jump to the particular spots I'll be referring to, it starts at 2:25.

She shares how the people in the Kuuk Thaayorre tribe in Africa conceptualize places in space (e.g., left/right) by only using cardinal directions (i.e., North/South/East/West)... for everything. To them, there is no such thing as left or right.

The fascinating part is that it's not just about the words used—this actually makes a difference in the way that individuals from this tribe perceive the world.

In Chapter 8 of The Functional Art, Dr. Cairo describes different ways of organizing data - including how we typically should display changes over time (most likely, in a timeline or time series that moves from left to right).

However, when individuals from the Kuuk Thaayorre tribe were asked to organize events by time, it changed depending on which cardinal direction they themselves were facing! If facing south, time went from left to right. If north, time was from right to left; if east, time came toward their body! Dr. Boroditsky points out that instead of having time follow them around, time always stayed constant with the landscape. When deciding the best method to represent time visually, we are likely to organize our timelines from left to right because it is our cultural norm. Although this is a very specific example, it does make me wonder how many other assumptions we make based on our own cultural standards and expectations and how they may influence how we visualize data.