Linguistic Determinants of Choice-Reaction Time among Aborigines and White Australians

Abstract

Aboriginal and white Australian adolescent males classified stimuli along a specifically Aboriginal or a moiety dimension of dual organization and a colour dimension. A 2 x 2 randomized factorial design with simple reaction time (SRT) as the covariate showed that Aborigines recorded significantly greater choice-reaction times (CRT) on both CRT tasks. A significant culture x task interaction was in the opposite direction to the suggestion that moiety classification would favour Aborigines in a CRT task. Codability was slightly related to CRT for the white Australian group.