Module 7: Culture & Cognition Flashcards
cognition
all mental processes used to convert sensory information into knowledge. there are three basic processes involved; attention, perception and thinking, which can differ culturally
attention
the process of focusing our consciousness on specific stimuli
perception
the process by which we obtain information about the world through our senses
thinking
a complex mental process
carpentered world
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
front-horizontal foreshortening
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
symbolizing three dimensions in two
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
holistic cognition
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
analytic cognition
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
Nisbett and Masuda
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
fundamental attribution error
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.
self-serving bias
when success is attributed to internal factors and failure to external factors
research on culture and thinking
are less consistent. sometimes differences are found and sometimes not
positive logical determinism
more western. where things are seen as good or bad and there is one correct solution
naive dialectivism
more eastern. where opposites are accepted and both sides can be seen as partially correct
analytic cognition vs holistic cognition
social orientation hypothesis
different social orientations affect how we see the world and think about the world
big overgeneralization
- 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
Lynn and Verhanen
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?
is this racist?
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
is this good science?
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
Cattell culture fair intelligence test
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
what is the reason for the group difference found (1)?
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
What is the reason for the group differences found (2)?
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.
