Cult& Cognition (Psych 4700) Flashcards
Exogenous vs Endogenous
(bottom up) - Likely to attend to visually salient information such as colourful objects or moving objects
(top down) - subscribe to culture to derive meaning in their environment
Rorschach test
Rorschach Test
Chinese americans tended to refer to the whole pattern of the rorschach test
European Americas tended to focus on a specific part withing the same inkblot
Field independent and dependent
field independent- decontextualize the focal object from
the field
field dependent see the focal object as part of the field
Berry and Witkin Study (Estimos and Temme)
Eskimos able to decontextualize the focal object from
the field
West Africa Temme field dependent see the focal object as part of the field
Analytical vs Holistic Cognition
Analytical this cognitive
style is characterized as focusing on the central object by decontextualizing it from the
context. Conversely, a holistic style of thought has been found commonly in East Asian
societies (mainly China, Japan, and Korea), in which people are inclined to attend to both
focal and contextual information as well as to the relations between the two
US vs. Japan- Michigan Fish task comparison
when the original fish were presented with a novel background image, Japanese
participants performed poorly, suggesting that Japanese participants used background
and contextual information to understand the focal objects. These results indicate that
Americans are likely to focus on the focal objects and decontextualize them from the
scene due to an analytic cognitive style while Japanese are more likely to attend to both
focal objects and the background due to their holistic cognitive style.
Diffs noted in social (e.g., rating emotion of central character in figure) & non-social tasks (e.g., Change Blindness Task)
Jap significantly more likely to be
influenced by the background figures than were Amer in the incongruent condition.
For example, when the central figure showed a happy expression and the background
figures presented an angry emotion, Jap rating of happiness was lower than that of Amer
to find the diff btw 2 images. Amer participants found more
differences in the foreground main objects than did Japanese, Jap found more diff in the background items than Amer
Naive Dialecticism: define principle of change, contradiction and holism
Principle of change refers to the idea that the world is an unpredictable dynamic, impermanent and changeable that is always in flux
Principle of contradiction is the belief that two or more contradicting propositions may be both true simultaneously Principle of holism refers to the idea that everything is connect and the part cannot be understood by itself without considering the whole
Dialecticism among those in East relates to
Attribution (type; complexity)
Prediction about the future
Outcomes: linear trend vs. opposite direction
Social sitn’s: Predictions of hypothetical characters in different situations
Members of the east are more comfortable with psychological contradiction within themselves and others than americana and more complex causal theory than did the NA considering the greater the amount of information in explaining others’ behaviours.
Americans more likely to predict in a linear trend whereas Chinese more likely to predict in the opposite direction.
Koreans greater situational inferences than amer esp. when the situational info was salient
Attribution and fundamental attribution error
Bartlet 1932 Study in Britain
English students omitted the foreign elements of the story or changed them to forms commmon to their social group (black came out of his mouth to foaming at the mouth, canoe to boat, hunting seals to fishing. Ghosts was missed by all participants
Reveals that memory involves a constructive process that is deeply conditioned by the meaning of the system of culture.
Taxonomic vs. thematic categorization
American vs. Turkish saw word pairs
Americans > Turkish for categorical errors
Memory Distortions
European Americans reconstructed
their memories of their daily experiences to be more positive than they actually were.
Such memory distortions were absent in Asian American
Autonomous self-goal, Event recall:
European American culture in particular people may focus on information concerning their own roles and perspectives that accentuates the uniqueness and agency of the individual. In contrast in cultures that priorize relational self-goals, such as eat asian, people may focus on and remember information about social intereactions and significant others
European Americans often recall memories of unique personal experiences in which they cast themselves as the central character of the story. In east asian people often recall memories focusing on the role of others and social interactions, with self taking a peripheral role.
Wang and Ross 2005 Priming
Eur Amer (autonomous self-prime) and Asian Amer (relational self-prime) asked to describe themselves as unique indiviudals or as members of social groups. Recall earliest memory.
Memory test from short story.
Both groups, those whose autonomous self-goals were activated prior to recall reported more self-focused memories, whereas those whose relaitonal self goals were madde salient recalled more socially oriented memories. Those with autonomous self-prime condition recalled more informaiton about the protagonist and introduced fewer peripheral characters and fewer social interactions in their story memories.
Memory Valence
The extent to which memory information concerns positive vs negative past events appears to be influenced by self-goals for enhancement vs improvements that are variously emphasized across cultures
Self-enhancement vs. self-improvement
Western, Eur Amer, cultures endorse greater self-enhancement goals that motivate individuals to pursue and maintain positive sense of self. East asian cultures priorize self-improvement goals that motivate individuals to identify their own weaknesses and further seek actual change and improvement in the self.
memory bias vs. even-handed recall
European Am. vs. East Asian: +ve
Americans recalled considerably more success stories than failure stories, Japanese recalled slightly more failure stories than
success stories
Americans remembered far more fair behaviors engaged
by themselves than by others, and they remembered far more unfair behaviors engaged
by others than by themselves. Japanese, in contrast, recalled similar numbers of fair and
unfair behaviors engaged by themselves and by others.
Recall for proud vs. embarrassing event
Canadians found proud events easier to recall than embarassing events
Japanese found no difference in recalling proud and embarrassing events
Canadians reported feeling further away in time from embarassing events than from equally distant proud events
Western individuals can dissociate their current self from blame and yet continue to
claim credit for former accomplishments. These biases were absent among Japanese.
In a study by Kitayama and
colleagues (Kitayama, Markus, Matsumoto, & Norasakkunkit, 1997) using a situation
sampling method. Japanese and American participants were asked to recall situations
they had experienced in which their self-esteem either increased or decreased.
Both Japanese and Americans judged the Japanese self-esteem-decreasing
situations as more condemning to their self-esteem than American ones and judged the
American self-esteem-increasing situations as more enhancing to their self-esteem than
Japanese ones. Thus, life experiences people regularly encounter in the United States are particularly effective in boosting positive self-views, whereas life experiences people regularly encounter in Japan afford opportunities for self-criticism
Specificity definition. Western vs East Asia
Refers to the representation and recall of specific, one-time events occuring at a particular time and place in the past as well as the recollection of rich details about the events
Specific memories of unique events with idioisyncratic details are critical ingredient for the individuality and autonomy that are highly valued in western cultures
Generic memories often imply social conventions, rules, and regularities and therefore are important for people in cultures such as east asia that embrace social harmony and collective solidarity
In one study (Wang, 2009b), Asian and
European American college students were presented with a narrative text and were asked
to segment the text into discrete event
Specificity Findings Asia vs Europe
List of all activities they engaged in on prev day - Eur amer retrieve more frequently unique, one time episodes than do their asian counterparts who often recall more general or routine events . Amer reported 30% more activities than did Korean. Amer report more event-specific details than do asians who often include general informaiton
Pizza Game - Approximately 1 week following the event, a second researcher interviewed children individually about the event in a free recall and a prompted recall task.
American
children recalled more specific details of the staged event in both tasks than did Korean
children
Memory function
Memory = functional adaptation to social-ecological environment
Westerners-meaning & personal identity BUT also for relationship purposes
West- thought & sharing of memories plays a role in coping
East Asia-psychological distancing/avoidance to cope, less disclosure willingness
Memories valued for didactic functions outside of the West
Note: spontaneous moral lessons; memory to “teach and inform” In contrast,
Western cultures emphasize “forward thinking,” and individuals tend not to appreciate
the intellectual and moral values of the past to the same extent.
