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I think one thing that hasn't been mentioned here is the aspect of choice.
As we know, there are many people out there who are content to be "in the box" thinkers. I imagine that for many of this type of thinker, language has much more influence on the thought process, since this type of person often likes to categorize things and label them. On the other hand, we have people who are more "outside the box" thinkers who constantly challenge things, and are often not constrained by such things as language, nor would they choose to be.
In either case, I think that language can definitely influence thought, along with stories and literature, culture, and a multitude of other factors. In all likelihood, we are all somewhere in between these extremes, and language likely has an effect in proportion to this.
I'm not saying that this is definitely the case, as I have not done any experiments to prove it one way or the other. It is simply my experience that some people seem to be more influenced by their language base than others.
In application to presentation, I would have to say that in any presentation, you have to be aware of your audience. Some people learn better when information is structured in a particular way. Some benefit more from pictures, and others prefer text. Some learn in a top-down fashion where you present the point and explain it, while others need a bottom up approach where you explain a point, and then present it. The topic is important too. Some topics are easier to represent visually than others.
I remember how, often, in school, I would not be able to sit through a lecture or presentation. If it was not followed up by a reasonable text approximation, I usually did poor in those classes. I had friends who could not bring themselves to open up a book, and if there was no presentation, or if the presentation was too abstract, they did poorly.
Anyway, I'm starting to get a bit redundant here.
bye for now,
Chris Strolia-Davis
Database Specialist
Contractor - CDO Technologies Inc.
-----Original Message-----
From: Sean McGrath [mailto:sean.mcgrath@propylon.com]
Sent: Wednesday, December 17, 2003 11:05 AM
To: xml-dev@lists.xml.org
Subject: RE: [xml-dev] The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint
> [...] the thesis that language shapes cognition is highly overrated.
"highly overrated" is, of course, subjective. I have certainly met and read
some linguistic determinists that have gone off the deep end but I would
certainly be in the camp that believes that language is a contributing
factor to cognition.
XML (as in so many other things (which is why it is a fascinating field (in
my opinion))), throws up some interesting examples:
Can the language you speak influence the way you model data in an XML
schema? I think the answer is yes and wrote an article on the subject for
ITWorld, illustrating how an Irish speaker would model a Bishop (of all
things).
How to model a Bishop : http://www.itworld.com/nl/xml_prac/08082002/
regards,
Sean
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