Module 7: Culture & Cognition

Question 1

cognition

Answer 1

all mental processes used to convert sensory information into knowledge. there are three basic processes involved; attention, perception and thinking, which can differ culturally

Question 2

attention

Answer 2

the process of focusing our consciousness on specific stimuli

Question 3

perception

Answer 3

the process by which we obtain information about the world through our senses

Question 4

thinking

Answer 4

a complex mental process

Question 5

carpentered world

Answer 5

people in industrialised and urbanized communities are used to seeing rectangular shapes. subconsciously, they expect that an outward angle means something extends and therefore is longer

Question 6

front-horizontal foreshortening

Answer 6

interpreting vertical lines as horizontal lines. vertical lines connecting closer and closer create and illusion of distance. in the Ponzo illusion the vertical lines resemble a street stretching into the distance

Question 7

symbolizing three dimensions in two

Answer 7

implies that western cultures look more to paper, pictures and flat screens, 2D shapes, so they may be more accustomed to recognizing such pictures as Müller-Lyer illusion

Question 8

holistic cognition

Answer 8

often associated with eastern cultures, focuses on the environment and the interdependence of elements. it offers multiple explanations for events, is context-dependent and emphasizes the relationship between object and environment

Question 9

analytic cognition

Answer 9

occurs mainly in western societies, is focused on single objects, is logical and focuses on cause-and-effect relationships. it is context-independent and deterministic

Question 10

Nisbett and Masuda

Answer 10

conducted research on change blindness in america and japan. american were more likely to notice when an object in focus was removed than when an ambient object was removed. with japanese, it was the exact opposite. from this it can be concluded that there are differences in the focus of attention, with americans focusing more on the information and japanese more on the environment

Question 11

fundamental attribution error

Answer 11

means that Westerners tend to explain the behaviour of others by internal factors, such as personality. in contrast they more more likely to explain their own behaviors by external factors.

Question 12

self-serving bias

Answer 12

when success is attributed to internal factors and failure to external factors

Question 13

research on culture and thinking

Answer 13

are less consistent. sometimes differences are found and sometimes not

Question 14

positive logical determinism

Answer 14

more western. where things are seen as good or bad and there is one correct solution

Question 15

naive dialectivism

Answer 15

more eastern. where opposites are accepted and both sides can be seen as partially correct

Question 16

analytic cognition vs holistic cognition

Answer 16

Question 16

social orientation hypothesis

Answer 16

different social orientations affect how we see the world and think about the world

Question 17

big overgeneralization

Answer 17

• indeed, cultural differences in cognition may result from situation factors or experimental research design
• in addition, attributional biases appear to be more universal than previously thought; it may be due to the amount of information available to make the attributions
• it was expected that analytic perceptions would be linked to a more internal locus of control, with holistic perceptions having an external locus of control. however, this was not found in research
• some parts of our memory are more universal than thought
• the effects of training are not considered here, where they should be
• this means that cultural differences between east and west cannot be easily explained by their cultural systems

Question 18

Lynn and Verhanen

Answer 18

claimed that the average IQ in africa is 70, or that men are smarter than women. this is political (racism), but also scientific, and several questions can be asked about this
- is this racist?
- is this good science?
- what is the reason behind the group difference found?
- what does intelligence mean cross-culturally?

Question 19

is this racist?

Answer 19

Lynn is certainly racist. however, this does not mean right away that his research is, for this we have to look at the scientific arguments

Question 20

is this good science?

Answer 20

Lynn et al, certainly did not appear to be doing good science. using western instruments and applying them in Africa does not translate correctly or have the same meaning. using these tests was problematic, and cultural bias was shown in the measurements. in fact, it was found that the average IQ in Africa was closer to 80, which is significantly higher than Lynn claimed

Question 21

Cattell culture fair intelligence test

Answer 21

developed to reduce cultural bias, 27 of 46 items were still found to be culturally biased, showing how difficult it is to develop culture-free tests. as a result, test between different cultures are often difficult to compare

Question 22

what is the reason for the group difference found (1)?

Answer 22

nature (genetic): the Bell Curve by Herrnsteain and Murray proposes that IQ is primarily hereditary. because of this, cultural differences can be explained by genetics. but ethnicity and race are social constructs and cannot correspond to genetic variation. furthermore, ethnicity is a confound with social, educational and economic factors, which could possibly explain variation in IQ

Question 23

What is the reason for the group differences found (2)?

Answer 23

nurture (environmental factors): the Flynn Effect shows that IQ scores increase over years and across generations. one reason is that over the years people have become accustomed to the tests and therefore score better. another is that the environment is now more stimulating or there is better nutrition.

Question 24

stereotype threat

Answer 24

shows that when a widely knowns stereotype exists about a group, it poses a threat that causes them to behave differently

Question 25

Steele et al

Answer 25

conducted a study of stereotype threat amongst people of color and caucasians. in general, people of color are often seen as less intelligent. when no assessment depends on it, the group with people with color scores as high as the caucasian group. once there is an assessment, however they score much lower which reinforces their stereotype

Question 26

what does intelligence mean cross-culturally?

Answer 26

in Spearman’s psychometric approach, intelligence is viewed as a single general factor (g). this general intelligence factor forms the basis for various mental skills, such as verbal reasoning, quantitative reasoning, abstract visual reasoning and short-term memory. according to Spearman “g” largely determines a person’s performance on various cognitive tasks. this is a unidimensional approach to intelligence, where all intellectual abilities can be traced back to one underlying factor

Question 27

multidimensional model

Answer 27

argue that intelligence consists of several independent dimensions. Sternberg identifies three main forms of intelligence: analytical, creative and practical intelligence.

Question 28

intelligence

Answer 28

is understood cross-culturally as the skills to effectively achieve cultural goals, such as maintaining a family, which requires both emotional and cognitive skills