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CULTURE AND
CULTURE AND
COGNITION
COGNITION
Monika Wrobel, Ph.D.
M17. People Across Cultures: An Introduction to Cross-Cultural Psychology
Cross-cultural approach to
Cross-cultural approach to
cognition
cognition
Universal nature of cognitive processes
18th & 19th century philosophy (Locke, Hume, Mill)
20th 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. Nisbett s research (1)
Richard E. Nisbett s research (1)
Conducted in China,
Korea, Japan, and the
USA
Focused on differences
between East Asian and
Western cognitive
processes.
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Richard E. Nisbett s research (2)
Richard E. Nisbett s research (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 the
Limited universality of the
fundamental attribution error (FAE)
fundamental attribution error (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 vs. holistic information
Analytic vs. holistic 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.
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Cultural differences in attention and perception
Cultural differences in attention and perception
Westerners Easterners
engage in context- engage in context
independent and analytic dependent and holistic
perceptual processes perceptual processes
easily distinguish an do not distinguish an
object from its object from its
surroundings surroundings
fixate on the focal object make more saccades
(rapid eye movements
from one location to the
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other)
Cultural differences in
Cultural differences in
categorization
categorization
Westerners Easterners
are more likely to use are more likely to
categorization and rules emphasize relationships
in reasoning about and similarities
everyday life events
focus more holistically on
focus on features that relations between objects
both objects have in when organizing the
common (A and B are environment (A is a part
both X) of B)
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Cultural differences in thinking
Cultural differences in thinking
and decision making
and decision making
Westerners Easterners
deeply believe in formal make relatively little use of
logic what is true must formal logic
be logical
search for the  Middle
think that two contradictory Way between opposing
things can t exist together propositions (harmony and
and one has to choose balance!)
between them
think that there s no sense
often argue if they have in arguing, because both
different opinions different opinions may be
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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 (1)
Culture and intelligence (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 (2)
Culture and intelligence (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
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vs. poor mathematical knowledge)
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