Week 2: Cultural variation & development

Question 1

What are 3 biases in imitation in cultural learning

Answer 1

1. Prestige bias: Humans want to know who has prestige—that is, those who have skills and are respected by others—and they try to imitate what those individuals are doing
   –> eg. explains the wide-spread interest in lives of celebrities/famous people
2. Similarity bias: choosing whom to imitate, and learn from, based on the target’s similarity to themselves
3. Conformist transmission: tendency to learn from people who are engaging in behaviors that are more common compared with others –> tendency to follow/imitate what the majority is doing

Question 2

What 3 cognitive capacities do the cultural learning skills of humans rest on

Answer 2

1. Mentalizing and perspective taking (theory of mind): when people learn from others, they are able to take on the perspectives of those others by considering their inten­tions, goals, preferences, and strategies –> interest in the mental states of others (= mentalizing)
2. Language: being able to communicate ideas and intentions
3. Sharing experiences and goals: humans are motivated to share their experiences and goals with others, and this is an essential part of cultural learning; sharing experiences and goals allows humans to engage in collaborative learning, figuring things out together

Question 3

Explain the experiment mentioned in the lecture on learning in humans vs. chimps and the two kinds of learning connected to it

Answer 3

Experiment: They showed both kids and chimps someone do something to a box and then receive a treat out of it, and then gave them the opportunity to do it themselves. Then, they did the same but with a see-through box, so you they could see that the tapping etc didnt do anything and they could just access the treat if they wanted to. The chimps immediately went for the treat without doing the ritual, but the kids still first did the ritual and then obtained the treat, even though they could see it was unnecessary.

2 forms of learning:
1. Imitative learning = the learner internalizes something of the model’s goals and behav­ioral strategies (what the kids engaged in)
–> less effective, more precise
–> not based on outcome
2. Emulative learning = the learner focuses on the environmental events involved, such as how the use of one object could potentially cause changes in the state of the environment (what the chimps engaged in)
–> more effective, less precise
–> focused on the outcome of the behavior
–> can be a very clever and creative form of learning

Question 4

How is cultural learning possible?

Answer 4

Theory of mind and language lead to the accumulation of cultural information. Accumulation of cultural information plus innovation (= modification and improvement of the transmitted cultural information) leads to the ratchet effect.

Question 5

Explain the ratchet effect

Answer 5

= After an initial idea is learned from others, it can then be modified and improved upon by other individuals. Cultural information thus grows in complexity, and often in usefulness, over time. It means that a culture can only move forward after certain innovations/evolutions.

Question 6

Explain how population size and interconnection are related to cumulative cultural evolution (ratchet effect)

Answer 6

• Population size is related to the speed of evolution because there’s a stronger likelihood of having a successful model to copy and build on in a larger group than in a smaller group. Since there will be more innovations that come from a larger group, it’s more likely that at least one person will stumble on a good idea. It follows, therefore, that bigger groups should lead to faster cultural evolution.
  –> students coming from larger group had a higher probability of being able to recreate an intricate fishing net than students from smaller groups
• Another way to see the relationship between population size and cultural evolu­tion is to look at the cultural complexity of people living in different environments; different levels of exposure to people from other parts of the world.
• It also matters how interconnected you are, because this influences how likely you are to be able to share ideas with others

Question 7

Explain the brain size of humans in the context of evolution and cultural learning

Answer 7

Humans have much larger brains than other mammals of similar size. Because brains require much energy to function, this brain size also has costs; 1) our muscles are weaker, and 2) our intestines got shorter (because of eating cooked food).
Evolutionary advantage: Social brain hypothesis = To function well in a highly social community, one must be able to outmaneuver others within it, which requires attending to a highly complex series of relationships. Perhaps it was the great cognitive demands inherent in social living that led to the evolution of large primate brains.
–> support comes from the fact that the neocortex (area responsible for higher functions) in humans is much larger

Question 8

Explain the difference in performance in certain tasks in human kids vs chimps

Answer 8

Given our larger brain size, one would expect humans to be smarter than other primates on virtually all intellectually demanding task. However, there are only certain kinds of tasks where we have an advantage over the most intelligent primates (chimpanzees): social learning tasks.
Social learning tasks: children and primates were given a social problem-solving task in which they observed a model solve a problem and subsequently had to solve it themselves. They could only do this by performing the same behaviors as the model.
Children were far more likely to do precisely what the model did compared to other primates.

Question 9

Explain 2 different kinds of causes and what they entail

Answer 9

Proximate causes = those that have a direct and immediate relationship with their effects
Distal causes = those initial differences that lead to effects over long time periods, often through indirect relationships

Question 10

Explain why the Spaniards could conquer the Incans based on proximal and distal causes

Answer 10

Proximal causes: technology & diseases
The Spaniards had steel swords, guns, and ships, while the Incans had stone clubs, slingshots, and quilt armor. Also, Spanish explorers spread a smallpox epidemic.
Distal causes: geography & climate
Two subtle differences in the geography of Eurasia (Spain) and America (Incan) are important:
- Domesticated plant species: Eurasia’s land had a variety of plant species especially suitable for domestication, which led to agriculture –> sedentary lifestyle –> development of tools and technology.
- Domesticated animal species: Eurasia also had domesticated animal species, which led to the development of diseases –> resistance to them in the course of time (immunity).
Geographical position: a denser population in Eurasia and a major continental axis running from east to west (instead of north to south) permitted a greater exchange of ideas, which allowed for inventions and wide-spread immunity.
–> Minor geographical variations can result in large cultural differences.

Question 11

Explain two different ways of explaining cultural variation and which one is thought to account for more variation

Answer 11

1. Evoked culture: the notion that cultural norms are a direct response to ecological factors
   –> eg. in areas where there’s a high parasite prevalence, attractiveness is more important because it serves as an indication of health
2. Transmitted culture: the notion that cultural norms are learned from other individuals; people come to certain cultural practices through social learning, or by modelling the behaviour of others who live near them
   –> eg. watching your neighbor plant weeds and enjoy its benefits makes you inclined to imitate them

Transmitted culture is thought to account for more cultural variation, because even when certain norms are learned through being evoked by the ecology, they still have to be spread around through transmitting

Question 12

Explain natural selection and cultural evolution

Answer 12

Natural selection = the evolutionary process that occurs when (1) individual variability exists among members of species on certain traits, (2) these traits are associated with different reproductive rates, and (3) these traits have a hereditary basis. The proportion of advantageous traits will increase over time.
Cultural evolution = the process by which some cultural ideas are more likely to attract followers than others, thereby becoming more common in a population (just as in natural selection). However, these ideas are not tied to genes so they can be passed to more people than just offspring and they do not have to be adaptive.

Question 13

Provide 3 differences between biological and cultural evolution

Answer 13

1. Copying errors (mutations) in genes are very rare and emerge by chance. In contrast, copying errors in cultural ideas are much more common, and these errors are often intentional innovations that are planned, rather than random accidents.
2. Genes can only be passed vertically from parents to offspring, and evolution of genes is slow and gradual. In contrast, a cultural idea can pass horizontally from one person to anyone else, it can be transmitted to many people in an instant.
3. Cultural ideas do not have to be adaptive (i.e., result­ ing in more surviving offspring) in order to become common, unlike evolutionary processes with genes. Many cultural ideas spread even though they are quite maladaptive.

Question 14

What are 4 characteristics that make ideas likely to spread

Answer 14

1. Communicable ideas = is easy to remember and summarize, it is socially desirable and/or it is personally relevant; it is more likely to be talked about
2. Useful ideas = is relevant and useful; sharing useful information shows cooperation, which increases the likelihood of being helped in the future
3. Emotional ideas = evokes a shared emotional reaction among people; sharing emotional ideas connects people with others
4. Minimally counterintuitive ideas = is minimally counterintuitive; they are more likely to be remembered

Question 15

Explain the dynamic social impact theory

Answer 15

= a theory that states that individuals influence each other through interacting, ultimately leading to cultures: norms develop between those that communicate regularly.

Question 16

What are 3 visible changes in cultures over the past decades

Answer 16

1. Globalization (and glocalization): With globalization (internet, low-cost transportation, wide-spread social media) cultures are becoming increasingly interconnected, which leads to cultural homogeneity at a global level. Simultaneously, there is increasing cultural diversity within the borders of many countries (glocalization), leading to cultural heterogeneity at a more local level.
2. Individualism: There has been an overall trend toward individualism and, tending to go with it, an increasing orientation toward money and materialism.
   –> increase in unique baby names and the use of “I” rather than “we” pronouns in lyrics of songs.
3. Intelligence (IQ): There has been an increase in IQ (Flynn effect), for which 3 potential reasons are proposed:
   - Nutrition: adequate nutrition is necessary for a fully functioning mind
   –> however: evidence for improved nutrition does not parallel higher IQ scores
   - Education: the amount of education needed to get a good job is increasing
   –> however: IQ scores are also rising among those who do not improve their educational level
   - Pop culture: pop culture has become progressively more complex and challenging
   –> however: it could also be that pop culture has become more complex because humans became more intelligent and thus, could make more complex things

Question 17

Explain Raven’s Matrices

Answer 17

= a problem-solving IQ test that doesn’t require any specific cultural knowledge or language skills, making it supposedly culture-free. This IQ test shows the largest increase in IQ outcome across time, with cultures of recent decades scoring higher than past decades: it is by no means ‘culture-free’

Question 18

What are 2 reasons for cultural persistence and give 2 examples of case studies corresponding to them

Answer 18

1. Building on previous structures: Innovations within cultures build on previous cultural structures: existing cultural habits influence and constrain the evolution of new cultural habits. Initial cultural conditions have a disproportionate influence on cultural evolution.
   Case study: Why is there considerable variability in economic development across regions of sub-Saharan Africa?
   From 1400-1900 there were numerous slave trades in Africa that spread the fear of capture across regions where people were captured the most, making those people motivated to acquire weapons to defend themselves. These weapons could be most easily acquired from Europeans in exchange for slaves, creating a gun-slave cycle. People developed a deep mistrust of those around them, which persists to this day and is responsible for the low economic development in these parts of Africa.
   –> The lingering aftereffect of slave trade in Africa results in poor economic development in the regions where slave-trade was most common.
2. Pluralistic ignorance = The tendency for people to collectively misinterpret the thoughts that underlie other people’s behavior. There is a difference between what people publicly say, and what they actually think. Through pluralistic ignorance, cultural behaviors can come to persist even when a majority of people do not privately endorse the behavior themselves.
   Case study: Why was alcohol prohibited in the early 20th century US when there was no majority support?
   In the 1919, there was a prohibition of alcohol sales and consumption. While this law never had majority support, it appeared as if it did, because few people were willing to publicly argue in favor of keeping alcohol legal (presumably because it was seen as a socially undesirable attitude). Once polls were conducted, evidence was collected on the strength of anti-prohibition feelings and the law ended.
   –> Pluralistic ignorance resulted in the misinterpretation of the amount of pro-prohibition attitudes.

Question 19

Explain the 3 different theories that are contrasted in the article on “Rice Versus Wheat Agriculture”

Answer 19

1. Modernization hypothesis: as societies become wealthier, more educated, and capitalistic, they become more individualistic and analytical.
   –> But it is difficult to explain why Japan, Korea, and Hong Kong are persistently collectivistic despite their per-capita gross domestic products being higher than that of the EU.
2. Pathogen prevalence theory: a high prevalence of communicable diseases in some countries made it more dangerous to deal with strangers, making those cultures more collectivistic.
   –> But pathogens are strongly correlated with heat, so they might confound with rice growing.
3. Rice theory: rice-growing requires more functional interdependence than wheat-growing, which makes rice-growing cultures more collectivistic.

Question 20

Explain the main point, method of testing and results of the article on “Rice Versus Wheat Agriculture”

Answer 20

Main point: rice theory can explain East-West differences in individualism vs. collectivism.
–> A history of rice farming makes cultures more interdependent and holistically-thinking, whereas wheat farming makes cultures more independent and analytically-thinking.

Method of testing rice theory: It would be flawed to directly compare rice areas (East Asia) and wheat areas (the West), because they also differ on many other factors (religion, politics). Therefore, China (which farms rice in some areas and wheat in other areas) was used to test rice theory.

Results: The study found the following results:
- The modernization hypothesis and pathogen prevalence theory were not consistent with the data.
- Rice theory was the only model that fit the data: rice-growing southern China was indeed found to be more interdependent and holistically thinking than the wheat-growing north.

Question 21

Explain the difference in acquiring culture between humans and animals

Answer 21

People are not born with their cultures: they are born culture-free. In contrast to animals that have hard-wired skills from birth and follow their instinct, humans are hardwired to learn culture.

Question 22

Explain sensitive period

Answer 22

One source of evidence for the fact that the human brain is preprogrammed to learn cultural meaning systems comes from sensitive periods for acquiring language and culture.
Sensitive period = period of time during development when it is relatively easy to acquire a set of skills; if an individual misses that chance to acquire those skills, doing so after the sensitive period has ended would be difficult

Question 23

Name and explain 4 kinds of evidence for the sensitive period in language acquisition and give examples where provided

Answer 23

1. Discrimination and categorisation of phonemes: The ability to discriminate among different sounds. At birth, infants have the ability to discriminate among all the phonemes that humans are able to produce. Within the first year they begin to lose this ability and instead gain increased ability to discriminate phonemes from their own language.
   –> Native English-speaking babies of different months old are tested in their ability to distinguish between 2 sounds from the Hindi language. The older they get, the lower the percentage of infants able to discriminate the Hindi sounds.
2. Accents: After the sensitive period for acquiring language it is much more difficult to master a language. In immigrant families, older people often preserve a thick accent, while younger children do not.
3. Brains of bilanguals: Early in life the language center of the brain is quite flexible at attuning itself to various kinds of linguistic input. After the sensitive period starts to close, those regions can no longer restructure themselves to accommodate the new language: a new area has to be occupied.
   –> Bilinguals that learned a second language later in life show activation in different brain regions when hearing one language than when hearing the other language. Those that learned both languages earlier in life showed activation in the same part of the brain, regardless of the language they heard. Once the sensitive period is over, the brain cannot be remodeled.
4. Feral children: Children who were raised without language input during their sensitive period have considerable difficulty in acquiring language (mastering grammar, syntax). However, these are single instances for which there has not been experimental control to draw firm conclusions

Question 24

Explain what shibboleths are

Answer 24

= certain markers that make it possible to distinguish foreigners or those who do not belong to a particular class or group of people.
–> “Scheveningen” (Dutch word) is unpronounceable for Germans.

Question 25

Explain the 3 levels of acculturation identified by Minouri

Answer 25

1. Cognitive: knowledge of cultural norms and practices.
2. Behavioral: mastering behavior and practicing the cultural norms.
3. Affective: showing appropriate emotional reactions when a cultural norm is violated.

Question 26

Explain the difference between acculturation and enculturation

Answer 26

Acculturation = learning a second culture –> much research about this
Enculturation = learning your first culture, the culture you are born in –> not much research on this

Question 27

Name and explain 2 studies that provided evidence for the sensitive period in culture acquisition

Answer 27

1. Acculturation of Japanese immigrant children:
   Study with Japanese immigrant children showed that it was easier for younger children to acculture, but also that the age of entry is important for the acquisition of a new culture. A sensitive period of 9/10 years was found: only the children that moved before age 9 reached the last type of acculturation.
   –> could have to do with more exposure to it if you enter earlier, so that would lead to more identification with the culture
2. Acculturation of Chinese immigrant children:
   Immigrants of different ages were asked various questions about their identification with Chinese and Canadian culture. Levels of cultural identification were plotted against age of immigration and the number of years spent in Canada.
   Time spent in Canada predicted identification with Canadian culture:
   - Before sensitive period (age 0-15): positive relationship with identification.
   - After sensitive period (age 16 >): no or a non-significant negative relationship with identification.
   –> Exposure to a second culture increased the identification with that culture in those that immigrated before the end of the sensitive period.
   –> findings were not replicated!

Question 28

Explain how cultural differences are related to development

Answer 28

The acquisition of culture through socialization is a developmental process, continuing throughout one’s lifetime. Cultural differences in psychological processes become more pronounced with age.

Question 29

Explain 5 differences in early developmental experiences that could possibly lead to cultural differences

Answer 29

1. Personal space: The early physical experiences of infants, such as the amount of bodily and face-to-face contact between the mother and the infant, differ between cultures.
   –> German/Greek children had much less bodily contact with the mother than Cameroonian/Costa Rican kids, but much more time in face-to-face contact
   –> The amount of personal space a child gets could influence the development of individuality (recognition of oneself in the mirror).
2. Co-sleeping: Children sharing the same bed with their caretakers. Cultures differ in whether the child sleeps alone or with the parents. In many cultures, co-sleeping is quite common, while European-descent North American children often get their own room.
   –> Co-sleeping decisions and how others in the culture respond to them, reflect the underlying values of a culture. While Asian/African/Latin-American parents worry about the separation between the parents and the child, European and North American parents feared for a lack of privacy for them and their child.
3. Parenting style: It was proposed that different parenting styles exist and that their prevalence differs across different cultures.
   –> Outcomes; Authoritative parenting leads to the most desirable outcomes in Western cultures, but authoritarian parenting has some positive outcomes in other cultures (increased family cohesion and improved grades). However, too authoritarian parenting styles relate to maladjustment and less happiness in children across cultures.
4. Attachment style: There are different kinds of attachment styles, and their prevalence differs in different cultures.
5. Noun bias = the tendency in young children to have a vocabulary with more nouns relative to the number of verbs and other relational words.
   Explanation:
   - Nature of language: in some languages, nouns tend to come in rather salient locations (english), while in others this is the case for verbs (less noun bias; Japanese)
   –> in some languages (pro)nouns can even be dropped
   - Communication about objects: children learn to communicate about objects differently.
   –> Western: tend to perceive the world in analytic terms, seeing objects as discrete and separate.
   –> Eastern: tend to perceive the world in holistic terms, stressing the relations between objects.

Question 30

Explain the study done on sleeping arrangements talked about in the lecture and to what concept this is related

Answer 30

This is related to the concept of co-sleeping.
People from the US and from India were asked how they would plan the sleeping arrangements for a family of 7 for varying space situations, such as 3 available rooms. Indians saw the 3 scenarios in the picture as equally desirable, while the vast majority of Americans preferred the third. Different underlying values are assumed to be guiding their decisions.

Question 31

What are the 4 parenting styles and what are 3 measurement issues when it comes to cross-cultural research into parenting styles

Answer 31

Parenting styles:
1. Authoritarian: Strict rules, little open dialogue
–> Low responsiveness, high demandingness
2. Authoritative: Child-centered, democratic, independence
–> High responsiveness, high demandingness
3. Permissive: Very involved, few limits and controls
–> High responsiveness, low demandingness
4. Uninvolved: Neglectful, passive, uninterested
–> Low responsiveness, low demandingness

It is important to consider parenting styles as a continuum instead of distinct categories. Next to this, the measurement of parenting styles across cultures often fail to consider:
1. Developmental stages: there are different parenting styles depending on the stage of development of the child.
–> In many Asian cultures, infants and toddlers are shown a great deal of indulgence and few demands placed on them until they reach school age and parents become much stricter.
2. Expression of responsiveness: cultures differ in the ways that warmth and responsiveness are communicated by parents
–> What looks like cold behavior in the West may be perceived as concern or interest in the East.
3. Role of training (jiao xun): the authoritarian category excludes the role of training, which is a core part of Chinese parenting and an essential form of nurturing for Chinese parents.

Question 32

Name and explain the 2 most familiar difficult developmental periods

Answer 32

1. Terrible twos: A developmental transition characterised by obstinacy and stubbornness that is seen as a period in which a young toddler begins to establish his/her individuality.
   –> period is most pronounced in Western toddlers and not so much in cultures were the focus is less on independence and more on interdependence (Japan)
2. Adolescence: A developmental transition often characterised by symptoms of rebellion and antisocial behavior in the West. It is a universal developmental phase, but rebellion and antisocial behavior are more prevalent in individualistic societies because there are more life choices available, which results in delayed commitment (an extended period of adolescence) and thereby increased stress and confusion.

Question 33

Explain socialization through education and 2 ways in which education shapes ways in thinking that are not explicitly taught

Answer 33

Much of human socialization occurs through schools. Being educated shapes our thinking in quite profound ways. Schooling provides us with explicit kinds of knowledge, but it also shapes our thinking in ways that are not explicitly taught.
1. Taxonomic categorization = The ability to categorize items together based on what they have in common. Reflects analytic reasoning, instead of holistic (which focusses on the relationships among items).
–> Eg. From these items, which one does not belong; saw, hammer, log, hatchet. Based on taxonomic categorization; log, but people without education (using holistic reasoning) could say for example; “The hammer, because the saw and the hatchet could be used to cut the wood and the hammer cannot.”
2. Logical reasoning = The ability to apply a rule on the basis of logical principles rather than on personal experience. Reflective of abstract thinking rather than concrete thinking.
–> Eg. If in the far north bears are white, and Novaya Zemyla is in the far north, what colors are the bears there? Based on logical reasoning; white, but people without education could say for example; “You should ask people who live there and have seen them”.

Question 34

Explain the case study of East Asian math education

Answer 34

Why do US schools perform worse on math compared to East Asian schools?
The cross-national differences in math performance involve differences in several factors:
- Math teaching: in East Asian schools a greater % of class time is devoted to math, more homework is assigned etc.
- Educational values: Asian parents view education as more central in their children’s lives.
- Expectations: American mothers report being far more satisfied with their children’s performance and they also set lower standards with rising age, while Asian mothers set higher standards.
- Language differences: numbers are harder to learn in English than in Japanese, Korean, or Chinese, because there are more irregular number words in English.
–> Various cultural factors translate to the performance differences of math education between East Asian and American children.

Question 35

Explain Developmental Niche Theory

Answer 35

= A theoretical framework for understanding and analyzing how culture shapes a child’s development.
It assumes that there are multiple factors that are involved in the development of children:
- Physical & social settings: affordances that the physical space provides (nutrition, climate).
- Customs & practices of child rearing: inherited and adapted ways of nurturing, entertaining, educating, and protecting the child.
- Caretaker’s psychology: parental ethnotheories (what is the meaning of childhood?).
–> Ethnotheories = beliefs and values about child development and parenting.