<p>I was reading about <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistic_relativity" rel="nofollow">linguistic relativity</a> and it struck me that there could also be differences in multilingual individuals and mono/bi-lingual individuals on how they derive/reason/create structure out of the environment (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Causality#Theories" rel="nofollow">causality models</a>).</p>

<p>Anyway, my question can be split as : </p>

<ol>
<li><p><strong>Are there standard/widely accepted experiments have been done to test methods used by individuals to infer cause and effect?</strong> Couple
of  examples for what i have in mind is <a href="http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/1914185?uid=3738256&amp;uid=2&amp;uid=4&amp;sid=21101477174411" rel="nofollow">here</a> and <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0010027796007159" rel="nofollow">here.</a> </p></li>
<li><p>Is there consensus on correlation between these experiments and indication of causal models used?</p></li>
<li><p>If so, have there been studies of those experiments across monolingual, bilingual and multilingual individuals?</p></li>
</ol>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-12-05T02:21:54.997Z
@JoshGitlin: I did a quick search on google scholar, and realized there's a lot more i have to read just to get this question more clear. Will do that once i get some free time. In fact i don't think i saw any established experimental paradigm for causal models used by people.
Software Mechanic
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-12-10T17:45:06.010Z
My initial search and skim suggests that the answers are no to all three questions, but i shall wait.
Software Mechanic
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-03-20T13:09:06.380Z
This is an interesting question, but awfully broad.
Krysta
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-03-21T04:09:56.677Z
Hmm.. broad?..ok, how would you make it narrower? I thought I made it as specific as i could.
Software Mechanic
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-03-24T11:44:49.027Z
You say yourself that you're conflating many factors of language differences and split the question into multiple sub-questions--personally, I'd narrow those lists considerably by picking the factors of greatest interest.
Krysta
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-03-28T11:26:01.630Z
I almost voted to close this for being unclear, but since the author is still active, I think you could greatly simplify this question by simply restating it to be about the evidence for cognitive differences in bi/multilingual persons. There is substantial research on this, but I would say the question has no scientific answer as is.
Christian Hummeluhr
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-03-29T16:05:15.310Z
@ChristianHummeluhr: Am not comfortable phrasing it as broad as cognitive differences.  I do agree there might not be scientific answer at the moment, but it's not never gonna be answered question.
Software Mechanic
<philosophy-of-mind><rationality><linguistics>
Causal reasoning(implicit models?) vs grammar of native language
Software Mechanic
# Causal reasoning(implicit models?) vs grammar of native language

(Asked by: username_0 on 2012-12-03)

I was reading about [linguistic relativity](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistic_relativity) and it struck me that there could also be differences in multilingual individuals and mono/bi-lingual individuals on how they derive/reason/create structure out of the environment ([causality models](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Causality#Theories)).

Anyway, my question can be split as :

1. **Are there standard/widely accepted experiments have been done to test methods used by individuals to infer cause and effect?** Couple
   of examples for what i have in mind is [here](http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/1914185?uid=3738256&uid=2&uid=4&sid=21101477174411) and [here.](http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0010027796007159)
2. Is there consensus on correlation between these experiments and indication of causal models used?
3. If so, have there been studies of those experiments across monolingual, bilingual and multilingual individuals?

**Tags:** philosophy-of-mind, rationality, linguistics

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: @JoshGitlin: I did a quick search on google scholar, and realized there's a lot more i have to read just to get this question more clear. Will do that once i get some free time. In fact i don't think i saw any established experimental paradigm for causal models used by people.  
> **username_0**: My initial search and skim suggests that the answers are no to all three questions, but i shall wait.  
> **username_1**: This is an interesting question, but awfully broad.  
> **username_0**: Hmm.. broad?..ok, how would you make it narrower? I thought I made it as specific as i could.  
> **username_1**: You say yourself that you're conflating many factors of language differences and split the question into multiple sub-questions--personally, I'd narrow those lists considerably by picking the factors of greatest interest.  
> **username_2**: I almost voted to close this for being unclear, but since the author is still active, I think you could greatly simplify this question by simply restating it to be about the evidence for cognitive differences in bi/multilingual persons. There is substantial research on this, but I would say the question has no scientific answer as is.  
> **username_0**: @ChristianHummeluhr: Am not comfortable phrasing it as broad as cognitive differences.  I do agree there might not be scientific answer at the moment, but it's not never gonna be answered question.  

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## 0 answers

