Thinking through syntax: Expanding the scope of "thinking for speaking"

The "thinking for speaking" hypothesis proposes that our language can influence cognition during language produc- tion or interpretation, directing our attention to the grammat- ical and/or semantic categories readily codable in our lan- guage. Beyond the codability of grammatical and semantic categories, the role of syntactic hierarchy–a core feature of human language—has not been studied so far. This study addresses this gap by investigating the effect of learning dif- ferent complex noun phrase (NP) structures on English na- tive participants' similarity judgments of objects which dif- fered in color or number. In Experiment 1, as the training proceeded, participants who learned to describe novel objects following an unusual NP structure that highlights the dimen- sion of number over color were more likely to judge objects matching on number; by contrast the judgments of partici- pants who learned a more typical NP structure that highlights color over number did not change significantly over time. The training-specific effect observed in Experiment 1 failed to emerge in Experiment 2 where online language involvement was reduced. These results extend the scope of "thinking for speaking", suggesting that hierarchical structure in syntax may also influence cognition during language use. They also shed light on the potential for cognitive flexibility in representations of the NP.