Language of Thought Hypothesis - Empirical Testing

Empirical Testing

Since LOTH came to be it has been empirically tested. Not all experiments have confirmed the hypothesis;

• In 1971, Roger Shepard and Jacqueline Metzler tested Pylyshyn’s particular hypothesis that all symbols are understood by the mind in virtue of their fundamental mathematical descriptions. Shepard and Metzler’s experiment consisted of showing a group of subjects a 2-D line drawing of a 3-D object, and then that same object at some rotation. According to Shepard and Metzler, if Pylyshyn were correct, then the amount of time it took to identify the object as the same object would not depend on the degree of rotation of the object. Their findings were that there was a proportionate change in time it took subjects to recognize the object to degree of rotation, disconfirming their hypothesis.

• There may be a connection between prior knowledge of what relations hold between objects in the world and the time it takes subjects to recognize the same objects. For example, it is more likely that subjects will not recognize a hand that is rotated in such a way that it would be physically impossible for an actual hand. It has since also been empirically tested and supported that the mind might better manipulate mathematical descriptions in topographical wholes. These findings have illuminated what the mind is not doing in terms of how it manipulates symbols.