Culture and cognition

Question 1

Holistic perception

Answer 1

Attending to the relationship between the object and the context in which it is located

Question 2

Culture as a knowledge system

Answer 2

Attention –> perception –> thinking

Question 3

Attention

Answer 3

What kinds of stimuli in our environments, or in our minds, do we focus our attention to in the first place

Question 4

Perception

Answer 4

How do we perceive the world around us
Do people of different cultures perceive the same physical realities

Question 5

Thinking

Answer 5

How do we thing about the world
how do we categorize objects
Do we remember things in the same ways across cultures
Do we solve problems in the same ways across cultures

Question 6

Analytic perception

Answer 6

context-independent and analytic perceptual processes that focuses on salient objects

Question 7

Culture and perception

Answer 7

People’s perception of the world and the physical reality are not the same
- optical illusions: Muller-Lyer illusion, horizontal-vertical illusion and the Ponzo illusion
- carpentered world
- front-horizontal foreshorting: vertical lines represent long distances
- 2D/3D

Question 8

Culture and thinking

Answer 8

Categorization:
- memory
- math
- problem solving
- creativity
- dialectical thinking: acceptance of contradictions –> positive logical determinism and naive dialectism

Question 9

Positive logical determinism

Answer 9

Mutually exclusive categories (Western)
- black and white

Question 10

Naive dialectism

Answer 10

Both true, middle ground
- grey

Question 11

Culture and intelligence

Answer 11

• knowledge
• problem solving
• adaption

Question 12

Unidimensional approach to intelligence

Answer 12

One general intelligence factor
–> Spearman’s g

Question 13

Multidimensional approach to intelligence

Answer 13

Analytic, creative, practical, emotional, social, sexual etc.

Question 14

Nature/nurture –> why are there cultural/group differences

Answer 14

1. do people think differently?
2. do people think at different levels?
3. are the measurements inaccurate?
   Guiding question: what is the role of genetics, environment and methods/bias?

Question 15

Genes and ecology on intelligence

Answer 15

• intellectual abilities are inborn: biological programming/nativist view
• correlation test scores of identical twins raised seperately: r = .9
• certain conditions affect cognitive development

Question 16

The bell curve
- Hernstein & Murray, 1994

Answer 16

• IQ is unchangeable
• IQ determines succes in life
  –> pverty explained by low intelligence
  But:
• confounding of performance with potential: up to 30% cultural bias
• interventions underestimated
• ethnicity is confounded with social, educational and economic factors

Question 17

Race and intelligence:
Lynn & Verhanen controversies

Answer 17

• men more intelligent than women
• claim that the average IQ in Africa is 70
  –> but samples are not representative, measures questionable

Question 18

Final thoughts on Culture and intelligence

Answer 18

Murray/Bell curve/Lynn & Verhanen: you are poor because you are not intelligent
- data is data, and the retraction due to public pressure is not good scientific conduct
- if there are methodological and statistical flaws, the retraction is good scientific conduct

Question 19

Gender in intelligence

Answer 19

• average total scores the same
• overrepresentation of males in the extremes
  Females: higher in verbal fluency, writing and preceptual speed
  Males: higher in visual-spatial and (some) mathematical problem-solving

Question 20

Flynn-effect

Answer 20

IQ gemiddelde blijft 100, maar IQ 100 nu is veel hoger dan IQ 100 20 jaar geleden
Reasons:
- education and test familiarity
- stimulating environment
- nutrition
–> reversed Flynn effect sine 1990’s in North and West Europe

Question 21

Socioeconomic status on intelligence

Answer 21

• link between SES and cognitive test scores
• correlation of SES factors and test scores is higher in developing than in industrialized countries
• starting point: genetic influences are fully realized under advantageous SES conditions

Question 22

Environment on intelligence

Answer 22

• availability of and access to resources
• educational opportunities and quality, curriculum
• beliefs, attitudes (stereotypes, low-effort syndrome), practices
• family climate
  Distinguish between
• cognitive potential
• cognitive skills
• score on a cognitive test

Question 23

Culture free tests for intelligence

Answer 23

Raven’s progressive matrices
- minimal use of language
- even on this test, there are differences
–> culture as a proxy for familiarity with test

Question 24

Intelligence in SA

Answer 24

• differences larger when cognitive complexity higher
• but differences may also be due to bias and cultural differences in valued tasks
  –> how does content familiarity affect performance on tests differing in cognitive complexity?

Question 25

Cognitive vs. cultural complexity
- intelligence in SA

Answer 25

• attention, short-term memory - small cultural differences
• working memory - moderate cultural differences
• fluid reasoning - biggest cultural differences
• classis interpretation: higher cognitive complexity shows larger cross-cultural score differences