Rock, Paper, Aliens: Effects of Labels and Iconicity on Non-Linguistic Cognition

Linguistic labels are not merely passive tags. Instead, emerging evidence suggests that they play an active role in linguistic processing and even aspects of non-linguistic cognition. Labels have been found to augment cognitive functions such as categorisation, and visual discrimination and detection; possibly by providing abstracted and categorical sensory predictions which modulate ongoing cognition. Further, these influences are amplified by activation of labels through cueing (i.e., visual or auditory presentation of a label to a participant in an experimental setting). Another body of evidence demonstrates that label form is not always arbitrary. Iconicity describes correspondences between label form and meaning, as illustrated by the Bouba-Kiki effect. Iconicity may affect cognitive processes including label learning, and is underpinned by crossmodal sensory correspondences. This raises the question of whether iconic labels may provide particularly strong or informative sensory predictions, thereby exaggerating established effects of labels on non- linguistic cognition. This thesis sought to build on the existing evidence in several ways. These include investigating whether novel labels affect non-linguistic cognition, and if iconic label forms would exert particularly powerful effects. We also explored if novel label and iconic advantages extend to practical behavioural domains, and whether these advantages are underpinned by the same mechanism as those proposed for real labels. The thesis details five behavioural experiments designed to address these questions. We hypothesised that even novel labels would augment non- linguistic cognition including categorisation, visual discrimination and visual working memory capacity. Further, we expected iconic label form to amplify these advantages, and that novel label and iconic facilitation would translate to practical tasks which depend on multiple domains of non- linguistic cognition such as origami and lithic tool production. Finally, we anticipated that label and iconic advantages would increase with item typicality and cueing, indicating the provision of top-down sensory predictions. Three experiments using original alien stimuli found that novel labels enhance non-linguistic cognition including categorisation and visual discrimination. Further, iconicity and cueing amplified these effects; and typicality results show that these advantages resulted from labels providing abstract and categorical sensory predictions. Experiment 2 compared linguistic labels to non-linguistic cues to resolve the Iconicity Paradox, finding that label and iconicity advantages result from properties inherent to labels. Experiment 3 produced mixed results, but provided tentative evidence that cued labels interact with working memory by promoting chunking. Experiments 4 and 5 investigated whether label and iconic advantages extended to practical behavioural domains. Experiment 4 used origami as an experimental proxy for lithic manufacture. The latter was of high adaptive importance to hominins; and serves as one of the best records of hominin behaviour and by extension cognition. Understanding how labels and iconicity interact with this key process is therefore important from an evolutionary perspective. Iconic labels roughly doubled origami production success, likely by supporting cognitive processes such as visual perception and aspects of goal directed behaviour. Experiment 5 used real knapping to corroborate origami simulation. Further, labels affected handaxe morphology by exaggerating elongation, and iconicity may have facilitated production performance. Together, experimental results suggest that even novel labels can augment diverse non-linguistic cognitive processes, and that cueing and iconicity exaggerate these effects. Further, they both provide mechanistic insight and extend these effects to practical tasks. Findings are explored in the contexts of labelling and cognition, iconicity and the evolution of language. In particular, it is hypothesised that label-derived augmentation of non-linguistic cognition and practical tasks such as knapping may provide a complimentary adaptive advantage to communication. Iconic advantages also add to suggestions that iconicity may have been prevalent early in language evolution. Together, the results could have potential implications for the timing and means by which different components of language evolved.

Name dc:type.qualificationname

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

Doctoral

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

University of Cambridge

Year dc:date.issued

2025

Author dc:creator

• Scott, James

Advisors dc:contributor.advisor

• Bozic, Mirjana
• Foley, Robert

• iconicity
• language evolution
• labels
• labelling
• language and cognition
• lithics
• origami
• flint knapping
• palaeolithic archaeology
• iconic
• words
• language and mind
• effects of labels on non-linguistic cognition
• effects of language and non-linguistic cognition
• non-label cues
• non-linguistic cues
• working memory
• visual discrimination
• categorisation
• Sapir-Whorf
• whorfian
• linguistic relativity
• human evolution
• hominin evolution
• evolutionary anthropology
• experimental psychology
• experimental archaeology
• language

Licence

• https://apollo8-f-pro.lib.cam.ac.uk/bitstreams/f93424d8-1ca7-47bf-ae95-b353d20ce24f/download
• http://purl.org/NET/rdflicense/allrightsreserved

DOI dc:identifier.doi

https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.119270

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.repository.cam.ac.uk:1810/385799