Linguistic and Activity Relativity in Cognition

This work compares the features of cognitive processes uncovered in experimental studies undertaken to test the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis with cultural features of thinking that are shaped by activity-related factors rather than by language that have been identified by cross-cultural research into thinking. It is concluded that this latter area of research has uncovered more essential differences in cognitive processes. There is discussion of the linguistic aspect of activity-related differences in thinking, in particular the possibility of using Hymes’ idea of functional linguistic relativity in cross-cultural research. The article concludes with a discussion of possible social-psychological reasons why the linguistic-relativity phenomenon is more popular than activity-related relativity.