


And those expectations can be altered with a single word, they say.

To show how deeply words can influence perception, Lupyan and Yale graduate student Emily J. Ward used a technique called continuous flash suppression to render a series of objects invisible for a group of volunteers.



Immediately before looking at the combination of the flashing lines and suppressed object, the study participants heard one of three things: the word for the suppressed object ("pumpkin," when the object was a pumpkin), the word for a different object ("kangaroo," when the object was actually a pumpkin), or just static.


"Hearing the word for the object that was being suppressed boosted that object into their vision," Lupyan says.

And hearing an unmatched word actually hurt study subjects' chances of seeing an object.

"With the label, you're expecting pumpkin-shaped things," Lupyan says. "When you get a visual input consistent with that expectation, it boosts it into perception. When you get an incorrect label, it further suppresses that."






"There's no point in figuring out what some objective taste is," Lupyan says. "What's important is whether the milk is spoiled or not. If you expect it to be orange juice, and it tastes like orange juice, it's fine. But if you expected it to be milk, you'd think something was wrong."

Citation: Gary Lupyan and Emily J. Ward, 'Language can boost otherwise unseen objects into visual awareness', PNAS August 12, 2013, doi:10.1073/pnas.1303312110