1

Monika Wrobel, Ph.D.
M17. People Across Cultures: An Introduction to Cross-Cultural Psychology

#5

CULTURE AND

CULTURE AND

COGNITION

COGNITION

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2

Cross

Cross

-

-

cultural approach to

cultural approach to

cognition

cognition

Universal nature of cognitive processes



18

th

& 19

th

century philosophy

(Locke, Hume, Mill)



20

th

century psychology

(Piaget)

But cross-cultural research has challenged

this view

(e.g. limited universality of Müller-Lyer

illusion)

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Richard E.

Richard E.

Nisbett

Nisbett

’

’

s

s

r

r

esearch

esearch

(1)

(1)

Conducted in China,

Korea, Japan, and the

USA

Focused on differences

between East Asian and

Western cognitive

processes.

2

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4

Richard E.

Richard E.

Nisbett

Nisbett

’

’

s

s

r

r

esearch

esearch

(2)

(2)

The Japanese participants:

made over 60 % more
references to contextual
elements;

made almost 100% more
statements about
relationships with
inanimate aspects of the
environment.

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Limited universality of

Limited universality of

the

the

fundamental attribution error

fundamental attribution error

(FAE)

(FAE)

FAE

= the tendency to overestimate the internal and

underestimate the external factors when explaining the
behaviors of others

(Heider, 1958; Ross, 1977)

A result of our tendency to pay more attention to the
object rather than to the situation.

A classic experiment by Jones and Harris (1967)

pro-

and anti-Fidel Castro essays.

Cross-cultural comparisons indicate that the FAE
may be more common in Western societies than in
Eastern societies.

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Analytic

Analytic

vs

vs

.

.

holistic

holistic

information

information

processing

processing

Two kinds of information processing



Westerners

analytic information processing



Easterners

holistic information processing

This dimension is responsible for the
differences in cognitive processes between
people from the West and people from the
East.

3

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Cultural

Cultural

differences

differences

in

in

attention

attention

and

and

perception

perception

Westerners

engage in context-
independent and analytic
perceptual processes

easily distinguish an
object from its
surroundings

fixate on the focal object

Easterners

engage in context
dependent and holistic
perceptual processes

do not distinguish an
object from its
surroundings

make more saccades
(rapid eye movements
from one location to the
other)

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Cultural

Cultural

differences

differences

in

in

categorization

categorization

Westerners

are more likely to use
categorization and rules
in reasoning about
everyday life events

focus on features that
both objects have in
common (A and B are
both X)

Easterners

are more likely to
emphasize relationships
and similarities

focus more holistically on
relations between objects
when organizing the
environment (A is a part
of B)

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Cultural

Cultural

differences

differences

in

in

thinking

thinking

and decision making

and decision making

Westerners

deeply believe in formal
logic

what is true must

be logical

think that two contradictory
things can’t exist together
and one has to choose
between them

often argue if they have
different opinions

Easterners

make relatively little use of
formal logic

search for the ”Middle
Way” between opposing
propositions (harmony and
balance!)

think that there’s no sense
in arguing, because both
different opinions may be
true

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Locus of control in analytic and

Locus of control in analytic and

holistic cultures

holistic cultures

Differences in locus of control:



Westerns

internal locus of control



Easterners

external locus of control

Westerners experience the illusion of control more
often than Easterners.

Study by Lee et al. (1996)

differences between

Western and Eastern sport presenters.

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Mechanisms underlying cultural

Mechanisms underlying cultural

differences in cognitive processes

differences in cognitive processes

Social factors



a complex, interdependent social world

one needs to

pay attention to relationships and to the context



an independent, individualistic social world

one might

pay attention to objects and one’s goals

Physical factors



particular environments may encourage culturally specific
patterns of attention



Eastern environments are more complex and contain a
larger number of objects than Western environments

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Culture and intelligence

Culture and intelligence

(1)

(1)

Intelligence

= good memory, the ability to think logically,

plan, solve problems, comprehend ideas, use language,
and learn?

Intelligence and race



socio-economic factors



danger of stereotyping

Problems with intelligence measures

intelligence tests

may be biased in favor of some cultural groups



non-verbal tasks (e.g. Picture Arrangement, Matrix Reasoning,
Block Design)



verbal tasks (e.g. Vocabulary, Information, Similarities)

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Culture and intelligence

Culture and intelligence

(2)

(2)

Cattell’s Culture Fair Intelligence Test and Raven
Intelligence Test



„culture-fair”/„culture-free”?



„culture-reduced”?

Problems with the situation of testing

Sternberg

IQ measured by intelligence tests vs.

practical intelligence



research in Kenya – the lower the child’s IQ was, the more
herbs used in folk medicine he or she could list.



children from maladjusted families (the ability to count money
vs. poor mathematical knowledge)