The children were asked which of the original objects went best with the new one.
Children that grouped the piece of yellow rope with the yellow stick were noted as
classifying objects on the basis of colour, while children that grouped the piece of
yellow rope with the piece of blue rope were noted as classifying objects on the basis
of shape/form.
As predicted, Navaho-speaking children tended more strongly to classify
objects on the basis of shape/form than English-speaking children. In both groups,
classification based on shape/form increased with age, but later and less marked in
children speaking English than in children speaking Navaho. These results seem to
confirm the linguistic relativity hypothesis.