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SAGE Journal User Guide

Article 1: Saj, A., Fuhrman, O., Vuilleumier, P., & Boroditsky, L. (2014). Patients with left spatial neglect also neglect the “left side” of time. Psychological Science, 25(1), 207-214. doi: 10.1177/0956797612475222  

• An empirical article comparing patients with left spatial field neglect to those without, showing that they experienced not only visual-spatial neglect but also neglect of their thinking about the past, which correlates with the conceptual left side of time.

Discussion Questions

1. What is left visual-spatial field neglect? Describe the reasoning behind extending this perceptual deficit to a conceptual one.  What is the relationship between space and time?
2. Describe the tasks that the 3 groups of participants completed. Which one(s) measured conceptual neglect of time?
3. Considering Figures 2 and 3, and the text, summarize the main results. 
4. What do you suppose would happen if you had participants whose language did not involve a left-to-right metaphor for time, but rather a top-to-bottom arrangement, or a circular one?

Article 2: Pexman, P. (2008). It’s fascinating research: the cognition of verbal irony. Current Directions in Psychological Research, 17(4), 286-290. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8721.2008.00591.x

• A review paper supporting the claim that children and adults combine multiple cues to constrain their interpretation of irony, and the cues are weighed in parallel.

Discussion Questions

1. Define what irony is, and give an example. Explain what is ironic about it.
2. Describe the procedure the author has used to study irony comprehension in children.
3. To what extent to people with autism or brain injury understand irony? Can the multiple constraint model account for those findings?
4. What cues do you use to detect whether someone means the opposite of what they literally said? Which cues in the model would you weight the highest? Would you add any other cues to the model?

Article 3: Collins, K. A., & Clement, R. (2012). Language and prejudice: direct and moderated effects. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 31(4), 376-396. doi: 10.1177/0261927X12446611

• A review paper examining the link between language and prejudice. 

Discussion Questions

1. Provide one example each of language as a vessel, language as a barometer, and language as a lens. Think about language examples you’ve heard, or could imagine.
2. In your life, do you think language contributes to prejudice more explicitly or implicitly? Try to be concrete in answering this.
3. When considering prejudice specifically, do you think the language and thought relationship is stronger in the prejudiced language causes prejudiced thought direction, or the opposite? Why?
4. Currently, in US law, there are many ways in which cannot legally discriminate against someone, such as sex, race, or age. Do you think language should be one of these factors, too? How could one quantify this and show evidence for discrimination based on language?