Week Two

Question 1

Taxonomic categorisation (2)

Answer 1

• grouping items according to their perceived similarities
• Westerners are more prone to this

Question 2

Thematic categorisation (2)

Answer 2

• the grouping of items based on their causal, temporal or spatial relationship
• East Asians usually use this

Question 3

Analytic thinking (2)

Answer 3

• a type of thinking characterized by a focus on objects and their attributes
• Westerners usually use this

Question 4

Holistic thinking

Answer 4

• a type of thinking characterized by a focus on the context as a whole
• non-Westerners and especially East Asians use this

Question 5

Origins of thinking styles

Answer 5

• Socialization (proximal): people from different cultures are exposed to different social experiences and also to cultural products that emphasize analytically (independent) or holistically (interdependent) perceived selves
• Philosophical traditions (distal): both thinking styles were present in ancient Greece (analytic) and Confucian China (holistic), it is not clear how they took root there though

Question 6

The default thinking style (2)

Answer 6

• holistic thinking is more prevalent globally and even in American babies
• thus analytic thinking is likely learned through contact with Western society and education systems

Question 7

What cognitive processes does thinking style influence? (5)

Answer 7

1. attention
2. attribution
3. reasoning
4. tolerance of contradiction
5. talking and thinking

Question 8

Cultural variation in attention (3)

Answer 8

• analytic thinkers focus attention on separate parts of a scene
• holistic thinkers direct attention more broadly across the whole seen
• East Asians see foreground objects as part of the background context whereas Westerners focus on foreground objects while disregarding the background

Question 9

Rorschach test study (3)

Answer 9

• European American and Chinese Americans were asked to describe what they saw in some Rorschach inkblots
• Europeans tended to describe what they saw based on a single aspect of the image (a little blotch somewhere that looks like a ferrari)
• Chinese Americans tended to give “whole card” responses describing what they saw in the entire image

Question 10

Rod and frame test (3)

Answer 10

• a test that is comprised of a rod and surrounding frame that are both rotated in some way
• goal is to say whether rod is pointing straight up which can only be done by ignoring the frame’s position and just focusing on the rod
• analytic thinkers (high in field independence) can do this well, holistic thinkers (high in field dependence) cannot

Question 11

Field dependence vs independence (1)

Answer 11

• field independence is the tendency to separate objects from their background fields while field dependence is the tendency to view objects as bound to their backgrounds

Question 12

Foreground and background study (4)

Answer 12

• Japanese and American participants viewed images of underwater scenes and described what they saw
• Japanese made 60% more references to the background image while Americans focused on the fish
• after, they viewed more scenes with the same centre fish but with a different background and were asked if they had seen the same fish before
• Americans recognised the fish regardless of background while Japanese were more likely to recognise the fish in the original background

Question 13

Eye-tracking and focus study (5)

Answer 13

• Japanese and American participants wearing eye trackers were shown images with a central figure in the foreground surrounded by other people in the background
• each person had an emotional expression that was either consistent or inconsistent with the central figure
• participants were asked to identify the emotion of the central figure
• for Americans, the expression of background people had no impact on emotional expression judgements, and they focus more on the central figure
• Japanese people’s judgements on the central figure were influenced by the emotions of the background people and they spent more time focusing on aspects of the background

Question 14

Saccades (2)

Answer 14

• rapid eye movements in which the gaze shifts quickly from one fixation point to another
• East Asians show more saccades than Americans, indicating they scan an entire scene more thoroughly

Question 15

Artistic preferences (3)

Answer 15

• East Asian paintings emphasize the context by incorporating small figures and scenes with high horizons
• Western paintings have relatively high central figures and low horizons
• same differences found when kids were asked to draw a landscape

Question 16

Dispositional attributions (2)

Answer 16

• explaining behaviour in terms of someone’s underlying qualities
• Westerners usually do this

Question 17

Situational attributions (2)

Answer 17

• explaining behaviour in terms of contextual factors
• East Asians usually do this

Question 18

Fundamental attribution error (2)

Answer 18

• the tendency to ignore situational info while focusing on dispositional information in explaining others’ behaviour
• turned out to not be as universal as previously thought

Question 19

Age and Attribution study

Answer 19

• Children (aged 8, 11 and 15) and uni students from India and the US were asked to describe a situation when someone behaved in either an expected, socially acceptable manner or a deviant antisocial manner and then had to explain why the person acted that way
• American: the older they were the more likely they made dispositional attributions (fundamental attribution error)
• Indian: the older they were the more likely they made situational attributions

Question 20

Rule based reasoning

Answer 20

• making decisions based on fixed, abstract rules and laws
• analytic thinkers usually do this

Question 21

Associative reasoning (2)

Answer 21

• making decisions based on the relationships between objects and events
• holistic thinkers usually do this

Question 22

Rule based vs Associative Reasoning study (5)

Answer 22

• European Americans, Asian Americans and East Asians were shown 2 groups of flowers and 2 target flowers
• they had to identify which flower belongs to each group
• if rule based: flower A goes with group 2 and flower B goes with group one because of the shape of the stems
• if associative: flower A goes with group 1 and flower B goes with group 2 because they resemble those groups most
• European Americans used rule based, East Asians used associative and Asian Americans fell in the middle

Question 23

Tolerance of contradiction (2)

Answer 23

• tendency for analytic thinkers to view objects as separate and internally consistent makes it hard for them to tolerate contradiction
• tendency for holistic thinkers to view the world as consisting of fluid interrelated parts makes them feel that contradiction is natural and they accept it in themselves and the world ( naive dialecticism)

Question 24

Acceptance of contradiction study (7)

Answer 24

• Chinese and American students were presented with several contradictory arguments
• Argument A: a sociologist who surveyed college students from 100 universities claimed that there is a high correlation among female students smoking and being slender
• Argument B: biologist found that heavy doses of nicotine lead to weight gain
• half of the participants received either one argument or both, then were asked how plausible they believed it to be
• both Chinese and American students found A to be more compelling when presented with only one, but when presented with both:
• Americans were even more convinced in argument A, denying contradiction by getting confident in the better statement
• Chinese ppl became less convinced on A and more on B because they were reminded that the world is often contradictory, making it harder to determine which was correct

Question 25

Future predictions study (4)

Answer 25

• Chinese and American students were shown graphs showing the past performance of certain trends (worldwide cancer death rates) and were asked to estimate what they thought would happen in the next few years
• Chinese students were almost twice as likely to predict that the trend would reverse
• Americans predicted that the trend would continue in the same direction
• Chinese people have a nonlinear perspective of change while Westerners have a linear one

Question 26

Talking and thinking study (4)

Answer 26

• European Americans and Asian Americans completed Raven’s matrices (nonverbal IQ test) in two halves of 10 items each
• participants completed the first half without speaking while in the second half they were asked to either vocalise their thoughts while solving (thinking aloud) or repeat the alphabet (articulatory suppression)
• European: did just as well when silent as thinking aloud but the articulatory suppression interferred
• Asian: did worse when thinking aloud but were unaffected by articulatory suppression

Question 27

Talking and thinking (1)

Answer 27

• talking and thinking out loud is harder for holistic thinkers

Question 28

High context cultures (3)

Answer 28

• East Asia
• people are deeply involved with one another, share information that guides their behaviour
• they can be less explicit

Question 29

Low context cultures (3)

Answer 29

• North America
• less involvement among individuals
• have to communicate with more explicit details

Question 30

Ignore the tone/word study (6)

Answer 30

• Japanese and American participants listened to words that were either pleasant (grateful) or unpleasant (complaint), accompanied by either a pleasant or unpleasant tone
• sometimes the tone matched the word and other times it was the opposite
• they had to say whether the word was pleasant or not (ignore the tone) or if the tone was pleasant or not (ignore the word)
• Americans had a harder time making judgements about the tone than the words
• Japanese people had a harder time making judgment about the words than the tone
• Americans habitually focus on the meaning of what is said (explicit) than on the tone in which it is
  spoken (implicit). The opposite is the case for Japanese.

Question 31

Whorfian hypothesis of linguistic relativity (4)

Answer 31

• theory explaining the connection between cognition and language
• strong form: language determines how people think, we are unable to do much thinking on a topic without the relevant words available
• strong form is often rejected because for example infants show evidence for quite complex thinking without being able to speak
• Weak form: language influences how people think (i.e. using politically correct words)

Question 32

What does language influence (5)

Answer 32

1. color perception
2. odor perception
3. perceptions of agency
4. spatial perception
5. numerical cognition

Question 33

Number of lables that colors have (3)

Answer 33

• There is cultural variation in the number of color labels that languages have.
• all have at least 2 words (roughly corresponding to black and white) but not all languages have more.
• potential indication for universalism: as the number of distinctions (labels) increases, similar colors are
  added to the spectrum (languages with 3 color words usually
  have red next to black and white).

Question 34

Categorical perception

Answer 34

perceiving stimuli as belonging to separate and discrete categories, even
though they may gradually differ from each other along a continuum.

Question 35

Language & perceiving color

Answer 35

The Berinmo and English-speakers were shown a target chip and 2 other chips and were asked which
was more similar to the target. Both chips were equally distant in hue from the target but either fell into
different color categories or in the same:
* English boundaries: both chips fall into 2 different color categories for English speakers (blue and
green), but in the same color category for the Berinmo speakers (Nol).
o English: more likely to choose the chip that is in the same color category as the target (Chip 1).
o Berinmo: equally likely to choose either chip à both are in the same color category as the target.
* Berinmo boundaries: the opposite is the case. Now the Berinmo distinguish between the 2 chips,
while the English do not. Therefore, the English are now equally likely to choose either chip, while
the Berinmo choose the first chip most often.
à The color categories in a language influence color perception at the boundaries of those categories
(evidence for categorical perception).

Question 36

Odor perception

Answer 36

The English language is relatively impoverished in the descriptions of odors. The Jahai (a group of
nomadic hunter-gatherers) have a much larger vocabulary of olfaction words and research has found that
they are better in recognizing different odors (perhaps because of this). In contrast, Americans were found
to be better at describing colors (and they have more color words than the Jahai). This can be seen as evidence
for the influence of language on odor perception.

Question 37

Language & perceptions of agency

Answer 37

English and Spanish speakers watched videos showing people involved in some actions, like breaking
a vase, either by acting intentionally or unintentionally. Later, the participants saw pictures of different
people and were asked to recall which one broke the vase.
* Intentional: English and Spanish speakers were equally accurate, because the languages do not
differ on describing intentional agency.
* Unintentional: English speakers were more accurate than Spanish speakers, because the latter
usually do not encode agency for unintentional behavior (they use passive constructions).
à Active vs. passive construction differences between languages influence perceptions of agency

Question 38

Relativistic orientation

Answer 38

indicating locations with words relative to the speakers (left, front).

Question 39

Absolute orientation

Answer 39

indicating locations with words independent of the speaker (North, South

Question 40

Language & spatial perception

Answer 40

Dutch (relativistic orientation) and Guugu Yimithirr (absolute orientation)
speakers were shown a row of figures of a cow, a pig, and a person on a table.
The table was against the north wall, so participants were facing the north.
They were then asked to go to a different room with a similar scene, but against
the south wall. They were told to arrange the figures to create the same scene
as in the first room.
* Dutch: arranged the scene based on their own position relative to the
figures.
* Guugu Yimithirr: arranged the scene using cardinal (compass)
directions, so the scene was turned around.
à Spatial references in a language (relativistic vs. absolute) influences how
people perceive and remember things.

Question 41

The Piraha

Answer 41

a tribe that has a number system that contains only 1, 2, and ‘many’. It has been studied to investigate
numerical cognition. In all kinds of different tasks they completed, their number of errors increased
with the magnitude of the numbers they were asked to estimate.

Question 42

Rough quantity estimation skill

Answer 42

the ability to distinguish between quantities that are not that close. The Piraha were shown to be able
to do this (they know that 12 is more than 8), while they could not distinguish between more similar
quantities (between 8 and 9). Therefore, it is likely that rough quantity estimation is innate.

Question 43

Main Point Article: Culture and The Physical Environment

Answer 43

Westerner’s perceptions tend to focus on salient foreground objects (analytic perception), whereas
Asians are more inclined to focus on contexts (holistic perception). This is (at least partly) caused by
the relatively complex environments of Asians, which afford more holistic perception

Question 44

Culture and the Physical Environment: Study 1

Answer 44

American and East Asian students were shown multiple pictures of US or Japanese environments and
asked to rate their complexity and ambiguity. US scenes were rated to be less complex and ambiguous
than the Japanese scenes.
The number of objects in the scenes was also analyzed with a computerized program, also
showing that Japanese scenes had a much larger number of objects than the American scenes.
à The Japanese environment is more ambiguous and contains more elements than the American
environment.

Question 45

Culture and the Environment: Study 2

Answer 45

Participants were presented with either American or Japanese scenes and then asked to do an
attentional task. When primed with Japanese environments, both Japanese and American participants
attended more to contextual information than they did when primed with American scenes.
à The Japanese environment affords more holistic perception than the American environment.

Question 46

Color Recognition and Memory

Answer 46

[30] Color recognition & memory (Heider, 1972)
Dugum Dani (agricultural population with 2 color terms: cool/dark shades and warm/light shades) and
Americans were shown the 40-color array covered with a sheet of white card. An individual test chip
from the array was placed on top for 5 seconds, removed, and a 30 second delay follow. Then the array
was uncovered and the participants were asked which chip they had seen.
* Dani: found it easier to learn and recognize the focal colors of the English color categories even
though they are not coded in their language vocally. They also made confusions in memory that
were similar to those of the English speakers, rather than being based on their own color names.
à Color perception and memory seems to be universal and independent from language.
But: there was a lack of replication studies and the Dani performed much worse overall (5% vs. 28%)

Question 46

Creative thinking

Answer 46

Optimal creativity requires both analytic and holistic thinking, which may be one of the reasons why
multicultural teams produce more creative ideas. Both thinking styles bring different things to the table:
* Individualistic (analytic): solutions that can show one’s uniqueness, which generates novel ideas.
* Collectivistic (holistic): solutions that fit with existing social concerns, which generates useful ideas.

Question 47

Concepts of time

Answer 47

How time is perceived to pass in space depends on spatial perception and writing systems. Different
cultures were found to have different spatial concepts of time:
1. English: horizontal; left to right.
2. Arabic: horizontal; right to left.
* Australian Aborigines: absolute; passing from East to West.
o If they are facing South their perception resembles the English, while it resembles Arabs when
they are facing North.

Question 48

Language & time perception

Answer 48

English and Chinese participants (speaking Mandarin, which is written top-down) were shown fish
swimming either vertically or horizontally. They were asked whether March comes before or after April.
* Mandarin speakers: were faster at responding when the fish swam vertically.
à The spatial properties of the writing system of a particular language is linked to people’s perception
of time.