Editing Language of thought hypothesis (section)

== Empirical testing ==
{{Refimprove section|date=August 2011}}
Since LOTH came to be it has been empirically tested.  Not all experiments have confirmed the hypothesis;

*In 1971, Roger Shepard and Jacqueline Metzler tested Pylyshyn's particular hypothesis that all symbols are understood by the mind in virtue of their fundamental mathematical descriptions.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Shepard|first1=Roger N.|last2=Metzler|first2=Jacqueline|title=Mental Rotation of Three-Dimensional Objects|journal=Science|date=1971-02-19|volume=171|issue=3972|pages=701–703|doi=10.1126/science.171.3972.701|pmid=5540314|bibcode=1971Sci...171..701S |citeseerx=10.1.1.610.4345|s2cid=16357397 }}</ref> Shepard and Metzler's experiment consisted of showing a group of subjects a 2-D line drawing of a 3-D object, and then that same object at some rotation. According to Shepard and Metzler, if Pylyshyn were correct, then the amount of time it took to identify the object as the same object would not depend on the degree of rotation of the object. Their finding that the time taken to recognize the object was proportional to its rotation contradicts this hypothesis.
*There may be a connection between prior knowledge of what relations hold between objects in the world and the time it takes subjects to recognize the same objects. For example, it is more likely that subjects will not recognize a hand that is rotated in such a way that it would be physically impossible for an actual hand.{{Citation needed|date=August 2011}} It has since also been empirically tested and supported that the mind might better manipulate mathematical descriptions in topographical wholes.{{Citation needed|date=August 2011}} These findings have illuminated what the mind is not doing in terms of how it manipulates symbols.{{Citation needed|date=August 2011}}
*Certain deaf adults who neither have capability to learn a spoken language nor have access to a sign language, known as [[Home sign|home signers]], in fact communicate with both others like them and the outside world using gestures and self-created signing. Although they have no experience in language or how it works, they are able to conceptualize more than iconic words but move into the abstract, suggesting that they could understand that before creating a gesture to show it.<ref>Coppola, M., & Brentari, D. (2014). From iconic handshapes to grammatical contrasts: longitudinal evidence from a child homesigner. Frontiers in Psychology, 5, 830. [http://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00830]</ref> Ildefonso, a homesigner who learned a main sign language at twenty-seven years of age, found that although his thinking became easier to communicate, he had lost his ability to communicate with other homesigners as well as recall how his thinking worked without language.<ref>Downey, G. (2010, July 21). Life without language. Retrieved December 19, 2015, from [http://neuroanthropology.net/2010/07/21/life-without-language/]</ref>
*Other studies that have been done to discover what thought processes could be non-lingual include a study done in 1969 by Berlin and Kay which indicated that the color spectrum was perceived the same no matter how many words a language had for different colors, and a study done in 1981 and fixed 1983 which alluded, that counterfactuals are processed at the same rate, ease of conveying through words notwithstanding.<ref>Bloom, P., & Keil, F. (2001, September 1). Thinking Through Language. Retrieved December 19, 2015, from [http://www.yale.edu/minddevlab/papers/bloom.keil.thinking.pdf]
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* Maurits (2011) describes an experiment to measure the [[word order]] of the language of thought by the relative time needed to recall the verb, agent, and patient of an event. It turned out that the agent was recalled most quickly and the verb least quickly, leading to a conclusion of a [[subject–object–verb]] language of thought (SOVLOT).<ref name="Maurits">Luke Maurits. ''[https://digital.library.adelaide.edu.au/dspace/bitstream/2440/74128/8/02whole.pdf Representation, information theory and basic word order]''. University of Adelaide, 2011-09. Accessed 2018-08-14.</ref> Surprisingly, some languages, e.g., [[Persian language]], have this ordering form, meaning that the brain needs less energy to convert the concepts in this languages into the thought concepts.