culture and attention Flashcards
society
people grouped in same geographical location
their behaviours and values influence our own e.g. dress
west vs east culture (simplistic view)
east:
traditional and conservative
respect elders as decision makers
collectivist
value hard work over creativity
west:
liberal
make decisions for self, express opinions
value creativity
individualistic
different religions - more varied in east than west
east vs west - eye contact perception
east = direct eye-contact is rude, esp to elders
west = expect eye-contact, shows respect and engagement, encouraged from young age
Blais et al (2008) - eye fixation data in W vs EA observers
western = triangular fixation (eyes and mouth)
east asian = directly at centre (around nose)
even though this is on an image and therefore no social interaction or consequence
Uono & Hietenan (2015) - finnish vs japanese eye perception
determine if eyes in an image are looking at them or averted
finnish people much faster with pics of same race rather than japanese
japanese were equally as slow for both (similar speed to finnish looking at japanese face)
reasoning - finnish people have more experience with eye contact and so process this info faster
culture difference in art
western = prominent foreground objects which demand attention
eastern = more general and background focus
kitayama et al (2003) - framed-line test (FLT)
kyoto and chicago undergrads
relative and absolute task of drawing a line in a frame
relative = draw a line that is a proportion of the frame e.g. 1/3rd
absolute = draw a line of a specific length e.g. 30mm
results:
japan focus on context - better at relative
usa focus on individual objects - better at absolute
also done with people living in a different culture
they performed at the level of their host culture (don’t know if this is a permanent or reversible change, length of stay in new culture also wasn’t noted)
discussion:
EA = holistic/field dependent
NA = analytic/field independent
gaze cueing effect with culture
SOA = stimulus onset asynchrony
gaze cue paradigms use short SOAs so a study done with different lengths of SOAs used
gaze cueing effect seen with long and short SOAs in american participants
no gaze cueing effect in long SOAs with japanese participants - use of context to know whether to follow the cue so they aren’t thrown off
scanpath
shows fixations (eyes stop)
shows saccades - rapid jerky eye movement
shows distribution of attention
heat map
eye tracking, warmer colours for areas attended to for longer
chua et al (2005) - culture in eye movements in scene perception
recorded number of fixations and time spent looking at central object and background - comparing american and chinese participants
both more fixations on background than object - theres more of the background size wise
chinese took longer to fixate on central object than americans who were drawn to focal point instantly
chinese spent similar time looking at object and the background whereas american spent more time focussed on the object
shows EA focus on context and NA focus on individual objects
differences in judgement and memory have origins in what is attended to when viewing a scene
miyamoto et al (2006) - holistic vs analytic perception of scenes
images from japan and usa displayed and described
japanese scenes viewed as more complex with objects more embedded in the field
miyamoto et al 2006 - change blindness task
prime participants with japanese or usa scene
flashing images with one element changing is shown and the change is only noticed when attention is drawn to it
all did better when primed with japanese scene
culturally characteristic environments give distinctive patterns of perception
therefore its a dynamic process where attention can be shaped and sustained by perceptual environment
