Perception (Ch 8 from Berry et al., Cross-cultural Psychology, 2002)

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Perception(Ch 8 from Berry et al.,
Cross-cultural Psychology, 2002)

• Ype H. Poortinga (Prof Em)
• Tilburg University, Netherlands
• University of Leuven, Belgium

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Outline
Historical roots Sensory functions Perception of
patterns and pictures Face recognition across
ethnic groups Psychological aesthetics
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History
Around 1900 savages (i.e., non-Europeans) were
seen either as possessing inferior psychological
capabilities in all respects, or as perceptually
more and as cognitively less skilled. E.g.,
the predominant attention of the savage to
concrete things around him may act as an obstacle
to higher mental development (Rivers, 1901, p.
45) The latter view is known as the compensation
hypothesis Around 1950 a less broad compensation
hypothesis suggested that Africans were more
oriented towards the auditory, or
auditory-kinesthetic modality, and Europeans more
to the visual modality of perception Nowadays
notions about cross-cultural differences in
perception imply less far-reaching
generalizations. However, in other areas, like
social behavior broad and sweeping
generalizations are still in fashion (e.g.,
individualism-collectivism)
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Sensory functions
Four classes of cross-cultural differences
namely, - conditions in the physical
environment with direct effects (e.g., sharp
auditory acuity for higher frequencies among
older Bushmen) - conditions with indirect
effects (e.g., vitamin A deficiency leads to poor
dark adaptation) - genetic factors (e.g., rates
of red-green colour blindness are lower for
hunter-gatherers) - differences in the
interaction with the environment (e.g., tolerance
for environmental noise preference for sweet
foods)
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Perception of patterns and pictures
Among the classics of cross-cultural psychology
are studies of visual illusions (Segall,
Campbell Herskovits). They examined The
carpentered world hypothesis, postulating a
tendency among those raised in an environment
shaped by carpenters (rectangular furniture,
houses and street patterns) to interpret
non-rectangular figures as representations of
rectangular figures seen in perspective
((illusions like the Muelller-Lyer are
affected) The foreshortening hypothesis,
pertaining to lines extending in space away from
the viewer, which in pictorial representations
appear as vertical lines. People living in
environments with wide vistas have learned that
vertical lines on the retina represent long
distances. They should be more suscseptible to
the horizontal-vertical illusion than people
living in an enclosed environment, such as a rain
forest
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Example horizontal-vertical illusion
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Example horizontal-vertical illusion (results)
(Segall, Campbell, Herskovits, 1967)
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2-D representations
Depth perception in 2-dimensional
representations has been studied in a number of
ways. Examples are given on the next slides,
Hudsons pictures and an impossible figure used
by Deregowski Results point to systematic
effects of the ecological environment, but at
the level of specific experiences rather than at
more inclusive levels of perceptual functioning
(as suggested by compensation hypotheses) The
book draws attention to two depth cues, "gradient
of texture", which is perhaps the most powerful
cue, and linear perspective, which is presented
as an example of a "cultural convention
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Face recognition across ethnic groups
People from groups with different facial features
as our own group tend to look more alike to us
this also affects memory for faces In
experiments a distinction is made between two
parameters, namely sensitivity, i.e., proportion
of correct answers, and criterion bias, i.e., a
tendency of either not identifying faces shown
before (false negatives), or "recognizing" faces
not shown before (false positives). The latter
happens more frequently Taken at face value the
differences are so large that eye-witness
evidence in judicial courts by members of one
ethnic group involving other groups can be taken
to result in (unintended) discrimination The
text discusses research showing that familiarity
with certain cues is probably at stake more than
implicit prejudice
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Psychological aesthetics
There is little formal similarity between Bushman
rock paintings, drawings in classical Egypt,
post-Renaissance landscapes from the Dutch
school, Japanese landscapes, etc. Still,
positive correlations in rankings of art objects
tend to be found Theory guided research was
initiated by Berlyne (1960, 1971) who postulated
psychological determinants of aesthetic
appreciation independent of artistic style He
related appreciation to certain
stimulus-characteristics, referred to as
collative variables, including novelty,
uncertainty or ambiguity, incongruity and
complexity Research on collative variables
suggests that underneath the different
conventions about expression there are universal
mechanisms that influence art appreciation The
book gives further information