Researchers define language in these kinds of studies somewhat differently from one another. Language can be written, spoken, or even just understood, as there are those people who understand someone speaking to them in a different language, but they are not fluent enough to carry on a conversation or to read the language in a book or newspaper. Because of that, it is very important for researchers to consider the issue of language carefully. Language fluctuates between different people and different cultures (Niemeier & Dirven, 2000). For most of the studies, though, researchers define language as the native language (both spoken and written) of the individual subject or study participant (Niemeier & Dirven, 2000). That way, the participants all know the language fluently and their thoughts are not influenced by their inability to come up with a word for an object.

Thought can influence language in some cases, instead of...
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