The traditional approach to the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis looks at language and
categorically different perception or interpretation of the environment. Another
aspect of linguistic relativity relates language to the process of cognition itself,
including the ease or facility of cognitive processes. With particular reference to
the Chinese language and its unique orthography, some evidence for language-related
differences in the manner of information processing is reviewed. These include
visual form perception, manipulation of numbers, and memory versus manipulation and
elaboration of verbal information. These differences have implications for cognitive
development as well as cross-cultural testing and comparison.
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