Whether humans are born with certain innate abilities to understand spatial relationships in the wider world is a question that has troubled thinkers at least as far back as Aristotle. So-called nativists argue for such an innate understanding, whereas others, notably the late Benjamin Whorf, contend that spatial understandings are directed by learned language. By comparing people of different linguistic backgrounds as well as the spatial strategies of small children with the great apes, researchers have found evidence for a middle way: humans do have an innate spatial strategy, but it can be overridden by language.

SCIENCE NEWS October 30, 2006
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