Culture and Cognitive Process

1
Culture and Cognitive Process
2
What are Basic Cognitive Processes?

• Cognition includes all mental processes used by
  humans to transform sensory input into
  knowledge.
• Sensation
• Perception

3

• CULTURE AS COGNITION

4

• Most scholars view culture itself as cognition.
• Hofstede (1980) culture is mental programming
• Berry et al. (1992) culture defined as norms,
  opinions, beliefs, values and worldviews, which
  are all cognitive products
• Matsumoto Juang (2007) culture is a knowledge
  system
• Bottom line it is cognitive skills that allow
  humans to have culture.

5

• CULTURE AND PERCEPTION

6
Perception and Physical Reality

• Our perceptions of the world do not necessarily
  match the physical realities of the world or of
  our senses.
• Ex) Blind spot
• Change in perception of lukewarm water
• Primary vs. Secondary properties of physical
  objects

7
Cultural Influences on Visual Perception

• Optical illusions perceptions involving apparent
  discrepancy between how an object looks and what
  it actually is

The Horizontal-Vertical Illusion
The Mueller-Lyer Illusion
8
Cultural Influences on Visual Perception

• Theories on reasons for optical illusions
• Carpentered world theory
• Front-horizontal foreshortening theory
• According to both theories, what we see is
  affected by what we learn about how to see things
  (which is developed mostly through cultural
  experiences)

9
Cultural Influences on Visual Perception

• Cross-cultural studies have challenged
  traditional notions about optical illusion.
• Rivers (1905) Compared English, Indians and New
  Guineans
• English more fooled by Mueller-Lyer illusion
• Indians and New Guineans more fooled by
  horizontal-vertical illusion
• Segall et al (1963, 1966) Compared
  industrialized vs. nonindustrialized groups
• Same results as Rivers

10
Cultural Influences on Visual Perception

• Theory on cultural differences in visual
  perception
• Symbolizing three dimensions in to theory
• Other studies also show that physiology, in
  addition to learning, can play a role in observed
  cultural differences.
• Stewart (1973)
• Cultural differences also exist in depth
  perception .

11
Cultural Influences on Visual Perception

• The question of whether these study findings
  would generalize to three-dimensional world
  remains.

12
Cultural Influences on Visual Perception

• Attention
• Masuda Nisbett (2001)
• When asked to recall objects in a scene,
  Americans and Japanese both recalled focal object
  of scene Japanese remembered more background
  objects.
• Japanese were more influenced by changes in
  background information in other recognition tasks
  as well.
• These differences may be due to differences in
  environment

13
Culture and Categorization

• Universal Process of categorization
• Universal categories facial expressions, colors,
  stereotypes, and shapes
• Cultural differences the way in which people
  categorize things
• Western adults categorize by function whereas
  African adults categorize by color.
• American children categorize by shared function,
  whereas Chinese children categorize by shared
  contextual relationships.

14
Culture and Memory

• Universal Memory decrease with age and hindsight
  bias
• Cultural differences memory as a function of
  oral tradition for meaningful material and serial
  position effect

15
Culture and Math Abilities

• Universal Ability to do math
• Everyday cognition
• Cultural differences overall math abilities and
  achievements (these differences probably due to
  differences in educational systems and practices)

16
Culture and Problem Solving

• Problem solving process of discovering ways of
  achieving goals that are not readily attainable.
• Solving of two-step problems depended on context
  for Liberians
• Solving of syllogisms related to schooling

17
Culture and Creativity

• Universal Characteristics of creative
  individuals
• Across cultures, highly creative individuals
  posses a high capacity for hard work, willingness
  to take risks and high tolerance for ambiguity
  and disorder.
• Cultural differences specific ways in which
  creativity fostered

18
Culture and Dialectical Thinking

• Dialectical thinking tendency to accept
  contradictions in thought or belief. Not good or
  bad but good and bad
• Cultural differences East Asians prefer
  dialectical thinking ,whereas Americans prefer
  logical determinism
• Peng and Nisbett (1999)

19
Culture, Regret and Counterfactual Thinking

• Counterfactual thinking hypothetical beliefs
  about the past that could have occurred to avoid
  or change negative outcome. Ex revisionist
  history.
• Universal Feeling of regret over inaction than
  action.

20
Summary

• Sources of cultural differences in cognition are
  unknown for the most part.
• May be due to differences in ancient philosophies
  in Greece and China
• Or it may be other cultural differences such as
  education
• Or it may be noncultural factors

21
Culture and Dreams

• Several cultural differences have been noted
  regarding manifest content of dreams, emotions
  associated with dreams and role of dreams in
  cultures.

22
Culture and Consciousness

• Culture and Dreams
• As noted in your text, cultural differences have
  been found between Finnish and Palestinian
  Children, as well as between Irish, Israeli and
  Bedouin children, as well as between
  Anglo-American, Mexican American, and African
  American women.
• The role of dreams is also different across
  cultures, for instance Mayan Indians use dream
  sharing and interpretation in teaching.

23
Culture and Time

• Cultural differences have also been found on time
  perspective and orientation
• Hall (1973)
• Hofstede (2001) Long versus short-term
  orientation
• There significant cultural variations on the
  notion of being on-time
• Some research suggests cultural differences in
  time orientation are related to weather, health
  and happiness.

24

• CULTURE AND INTELLLIGENCE

25
Culture and Intelligence

• The concept of Intelligence
• Technically speaking, from a Western perspective,
  IQ is a conglomeration of numerous intellectual
  abilities centering around verbal and analytic
  tasks.
• Historically, IQ is the most hotly debated
  psychological construct.
• Is intelligence generalized (G) or situation
  specific (S)?

26
Traditional Definitions of Intelligence

• Intelligence In American psychology, IQ is
  based on a conglomeration of numerous
  intellectual abilities centering around verbal
  and analytic tasks are purported to tap
• Reflection of cognitive development
• Comprised of many subcomponents including verbal
  and spatial comprehension
• Operation, content and product
• General intelligence (g)

27
Cross-Cultural and Multicultural Research on
Intelligence

• Cross-cultural and cross-ethnic group differences
  in intelligence
• Great debate on sources of such differences. Is
  it biological or cultural?
• Is IQ biologically predetermined?
• Twin studies, brain size, brain function
• Is IQ culturally determined?
• Economic deprivation and social class
• Stereotype threat
• Evaluation of both positions Some problems with
  empirical evidence of both sides

28
Culture and Intelligence (cont.)

• Is IQ biologically predetermined?
• Differences stem from heredity (are innate). See
  Arthur Jensen.
• Twin studies indicate that identical twins raised
  in separate environments are similar in IQ.
• Is IQ culturally or environmentally determined?
• Ethnic and racial minorities score lower because
  they are economically deprived.

29
Culture and Intelligence (cont.)

• Cultural differences may be the result of
  different beliefs about what intelligence is or
  due to the use of culturally inappropriate
  measures of intelligence.
• Stereotype Threat (Claude Steele)-societal
  stereotypes about a group can actually influence
  the performance of individuals from that group
  (African Americans performed worse when asked to
  indicate their race before taking a test then
  afterwards.)

30
The Concept of Intelligence in Other Cultures

• There are significant cultural differences in
  what intelligence is i.e., the concept and
  meaning of intelligence.
• Intelligence defined differently
• This makes valid comparison of intelligence
  difficult if not impossible.
• Intelligence tests require knowledge of culture,
  which also makes valid comparisons difficult

31
Culture and Intelligence (cont.)

• Intelligence Tests
• The need for and use of IQ tests historically was
  to help school personnel identify children in
  need of special education.
• Not everyone benefited.
• Ellis Island-immigrants tested as mentally
  defective.
• The average score of minorities continues to be
  12-15 lower than average European Americans.

32
Recent Developments in Theories about
Intelligence in Contemporary Psychology

• To set the record straight, theoretical
  understanding of intelligence in American
  psychology are continually expanding.
• Creativity
• Emotional Quotient (EQ)
• Logical mathematical, linguistic, musical,
  spatial, bodily kinesthetic, interpersonal,
  intrapersonal
• Contextual, experiential, componential
• Intelligence maybe more aptly defined as skills
  and abilities necessary to effectively accomplish
  cultural goals