Lera Boroditsky is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Stanford University doing research in cognitive science with a specific focus on cognitive linguistics. She studies language and cognition, specifically focusing on interactions between language, cognition, and perception. She received her B.A. from Northwestern University and her Ph.D. from Stanford University, where her thesis advisor was Gordon Bower. Her first faculty position was at MIT in the Department of Brain & Cognitive Sciences at age 23.

Her research combines insights and methods from linguistics, psychology, neuroscience, and anthropology. She has received several awards for her research, including an NSF CAREER award, the Marr Prize from the Cognitive Science Society, and being named a Searle Scholar.

Her work has provided new insights on the controversial question of whether the languages we speak shape the way we think (see Sapir–Whorf hypothesis). She has discovered important empirical examples of cross-linguistic differences in thought and perception that stem from syntactic or lexical differences between languages. This work has been influential in the fields of psychology, philosophy, and linguistics in countering the notion that human cognition is largely universal and independent of language and culture.

In addition to scholarly work, Boroditsky also gives popular science lectures to the general public, and her work has been covered in news and media outlets. For the Burning Man festival, she once built a banana vehicle.^[1]

[edit] References

[edit] Publications

• Boroditsky, L. (2003). Linguistic Relativity. In L. Nadel (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science, (pp. 917-922). London: Macmillan.
• Boroditsky, L., Schmidt, L., & Phillips, W. (2003). Sex, Syntax, and Semantics. In Gentner & Goldin-Meadow (Eds.,) Language in Mind: Advances in the study of Language and Thought. MIT Press: Cambridge, MA.
• Boroditsky, L. & Ramscar, M. (2002). The Roles of Body and Mind in Abstract Thought. Psychological Science, 13(2), 185-188.
• Boroditsky, L. (2001). Does language shape thought? English and Mandarin speakers' conceptions of time. Cognitive Psychology, 43(1), 1-22.
• Boroditsky, L. (2000). Metaphoric Structuring: Understanding time through spatial metaphors. Cognition, 75(1), 1-28.

[edit] External links

• Boroditsky's website
• Profile in the Boston Globe
• NPR interview (MP3)
• Story in the Economist
• Searle Scholars Profile
• Profile in San Francisco Guardian
• Radio interview on Philosophy Talk
• Brief magazine article - Scientific American Mind