Lecture 4 Culture and Cognition

Introduction I All mental processes we use to transform sensory input into knowledge is known as COGNITION. These processes include perception, rational thinking and reasoning, language, memory, problem solving, decision making, etc.

Outline Culture,, sensation, perception and attention Culture, categorisation and concept formation Culture and memory Cuture and face recognition Cukture and problem solving Cukture and decision-making Culture and creativity Culture and consiousness Culture and intelligence

Culture, attention, sensation, and perception Universally, human beings have a blind spot in each eye  uniformity in terms of visionary sensation. However, visual perception may differ between cultures. Popular illusion studies – Mueller-Lyer, horizontal-vertical, Ponzo illusions.

Mueller- Lyer illusion

Ponzo illusion

Horizontal-vertical illusion

Attention Holistic vs. Analytic perception - Western cultures – drawn by context independent and analytic perceptual processes (by focusing on object or person) Asian cultures – context dependent and holistic perceptual processes by attending to the relationship between the object and context in which the object is located.

Culture, categorisation and concept formation Grouping things into categories is known as categorisation – basic mental process Categorisation is made on the basis of similarities; and a label is attached on it. Some categories are universal across cultures. E.g. facial expressions, primary colours, Stereotyping – categorisation involving people

Categorisation may differ between cultures. In peeling task, Malaysians may peel an apple outwardly, but British people may peel apple inwardly – categorising of the right way of peeling a fruit. Sorting task – young children of Western cultures tend to group pictures by colour (not function or shape). As grow older they grouped the items by shape, and then function. But the African adults group things by colour – are they being regressed? Or not receiving enough schooling? Culture, categorisation and concept formation

To group by colours Young children of Western culture To group based on shape and function Adults of Western culture To group by colours African adults Culture, categorisation and concept formation

Memory and Culture Does it true that those who are from nonliterate societies develop better memory skills than those of literate ones? A study by Ross & Millson (1970) – Ghanaian college students were better at recalling stories that was read aloud to them than their American counterparts. Thus, people of oral tradition are better at remembering things. However, in other study, nonliterate Africans did not perform better when they were tested with lists of words instead of stories  suggested the complexity of task may contribute to performance

Serial position effect – things that appear at first (primacy effect) or at last (recency effect) are remembered better. No significant relationship between serial position and likelihood of remembering in a tribal society of Liberia. Wagner (1980) – rehearsal may help one to retent memory of the first item sensed. Children attending schools remember things better because they involved in a lot of practices. Memory and Culture

Similarities in memory:  Educated Africans = Americans in recalling lists of words.  Both European and African Americans have similar negative racial stereotypes  Memory abilities tend to decrease with age

Culture and face recognition Previous findings showed that people recognise individuals of same race better than they did people of other races.

Culture and problem solving Problem solving = the process we attempt to discover ways of achieving goals that do not seem readily attainable Experiment by Cole et al (1971) – American subjects performed better in task of unfamiliar problem in artificial setting (releasing a marble in order to open a panel) compared to Liberian subjects. Does that mean that the American are better at problem solving? Unfamiliarity with machines, may bring difficulty to understand apparatus in this experiment ; thus showed weak performance

Cole repeated the experiment using materials familiar to people of Liberia  they scored easily in the test. Coles suggested that our ability to solve problems in context-dependent. Culture and problem solving

Culture and decision making It is suggested that people of different cultural groups may use the same types of strategies in making decisions. However, people may differ in terms of relative weighting or importance of these strategies. People from Individualistic culture are more likely to seek further info about event themselves. Whilst, those of collectivistic culture tend to involve others in their decision making processes, asking opinions and advice from significant others.

Yi and Park (2003) – 800 college students in Korea, Japan, China, USA, Canada – Findings showed that Korean displayed higher level of cooperative decision-making, Japanese lowest level of cooperative decision making compared to the Americans. - suggested some social changes in Asian societies. Culture and decision making

Culture and creativity Creative individuals have been shown to have a high tendency for hard work, a willing ness to take risks, and high tolerance for ambiguity and disorder. People of different culture may have different view of allowing creativity to flourish, e.g. in conformist and nonconformist culture.

Culture and Consciousness Culture and dreams – culture, violence, personal factors may affect dream content, e.g. study by Punamaeki & Joustie(1990) amongst Palestinian children in Gaza

Culture and Time Differences in time orientation and perspective are often a source of confusion and irritation for visitors to a new culture. Punctuality is always a problem to Asian compared to European

Culture and perception of pain Tolerance of pain signifies honour and courage e.g. in circumsicion. Moaning from a labour pain is acceptable in every culture. Muslims who tolerate with pain are of high ‘iman’

Culture and Intelligence Is IQ biologically predetermined? Is IQ culturally or environmentally determined? How do you define the concept of intelligence? Issues of bias of intelligence tests/ measurements.

RECAP: Culture,, sensation, perception and attention Culture, categorisation and concept formation Culture and memory Culture and face recognition Culture and problem solving Culture and decision-making Culture and creativity Culture and consciousness Culture and intelligence