Examining Experimental Methods in Linguistic Relativity Studies: Process, Problems and Prospect

This paper examines the basic reasoning, experimental procedures and most recent development of main experimental methods in linguistic relativity studies.By contrasting different experiments using the same method, it discovers important variables affecting experimental results.This paper further identifies common problems of those experimental studies, such as subjects' mixed linguistic background, cursory description of language features, neglect of important variables, and unclear cause-result relations.The author, in the end, proposes several methods to modify future experimental designs, such as, elaboration of language characteristics,implementation of developmental studies, and direct observation of cognitive processes.