Language Processing Affected by Gender of Speaker

The manner and speed with which we understand words may be influenced by the gender of the speaker, a recent insight has suggested.

The study from University of Kansas suggests that language with grammatical gender may be interpreted and understood differently among listeners, depending on the sex of the speaker.

Scientists found through an experiment that the sex of a speaker did have an influence on the manner and speed at which listeners identified words grammatically.

According to Michael Vitevitch, KU professor of psychology, grammar and syntax have always been thought for many years to be automatic and distinct, which cannot be influenced by other processes in the brain.

"Our study shows that all that other information does influence not just word recognition processing, but higher-level processes associated with grammar," said Vitevitch.



Source: Medindia