Cognition and Perception

1. Cognition and Perception Psych 448C 11/10/08

2. Objectives • Basic cognitive and perceptual processes may not be universal. • Holistic reasoning (middle-class, Western) vs. analytical reasoning (middle-class, East Asian): • 1. Attention to objects versus relationships • 2. Categorization using abstract rules versus similarity information

3. Cultural Variations in Socio-Cognitive Processes Self Concepts In North America, people tend to conceptualize “the self” as an entity detached from others and its context. ＝Independent View of Self In East Asia, people tend to conceptualize “the self” as a relational and contextual existence ＝Interdependent View of Self （Markus & Kitayama, Psychological Review, 1991）

4. Analytic Thought • Origin: Greek Philosophy • The dominant patterns are • observed in Euro-American • societies Determinants： Relatively mild climates; economy does not require strong social ties; nature can be easily controlled. World View: Things exist by themselves and can be defined by their attributes (context independent, object-oriented).

5. Holistic Thought • Origin: • East Asian Philosophy • (Taoism, Buddhism, • East Asian Animism) • The dominant patterns • are observable in China, • Japan, Korean cultures. Determinants: Frequently changing climate; Economy requires strong social ties. World view: Things are inter-related. Various factors are involved in an event (context dependent, context-sensitive).

6. Early Social Differences in Ancient Greece and China • Social Structure: • China: family, village, emperor • Greece: city-states, king • Harmony in China: relationships • Debate in Ancient Greece: arguments • Differences in social systems remain between East Asians and the West

7. General Assumption in Psychology: Cultural factors are superficial or simply treated as noise. Socio-Cognitive Processes Self Concept Causal Attribution Attitude Inference Basic Processes Biological Factors Attention Culture Ecological Factors The assumption of Cultural Psychology (1): Culture as a worldview shapes human socio-cognitive processes. The advanced assumption of Cultural Psychology (2): Culture as a worldview shapes even basic psychological processes, especially attention.

8. Cognitive Differences Follow from Social Differences: • Attention and Perception • Categorization and Reasoning

9. Attention and Perception

10. Attention and Memory: Masuda and Nisbett (2001)

11. American Participants: Object Moving Objects Japanese Participants: Background Inert Objects Masuda and Nisbett (2001):

13. Phase 1-Judge how much you like the target animals. Phase 2-Identify previously seen animals. Attention and Memory: Recognition Task

14. American Participants: Object Moving Objects Accurate recognition of fish when background is changed Japanese Participants: Background Inert Objects Less accurate recognition of fish when background is changed Masuda and Nisbett (2001):

16. Attention to Change:

17. Attention to Change: What has changed?

18. Change Blindness:

19. Change Blindness Results USA JPN Number of detected changes Contextual Information Focal Object Information (Masuda & Nisbett, under review; Nisbett & Masuda, PNAS, 2003)

20. The Scenery (Picture-Drawing) Task A drawing produced by an American student A drawing produced by an Asian student The Portrait (Picture-Taking) Task Picture produced by an American Pictures produced by a Japanese

21. Results of The Picture-Drawing Task American drawingsEast Asian drawings N M SD N M SD t p The ratio of the horizon 43 56.37 18.92 46 67.16 15.06 2.98 .005 to the frame The numbers of additional 43 6.19 6.94 46 10.72 12.02 2.16 .05 objects

22. Results of The Picture-Taking Task Americans EastAsians The ratio of the face to the frame (%) Laboratory Sitting Model Laboratory Standing Model Atrium Sitting Model Atrium Standing Model

23. Culture and Attention： The Rod & Frame Task Measuring the context dependency-The RFT (Witkin & Berry, 1977) Task: Making the rod vertical while ignoring the angle of the frame. (Ji, Peng, & Nisbett, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2000)

24. East Asians were sensitive to the contextual information (Frame). As a result, they made errors when the frame was angled. For North Americans: They focused on the rod by itself. As a result, they made fewer errors when the frame was angled. (Ji, Peng, & Nisbett, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2000)

25. Culture and Attention： The Frame-Line Task Absolute Task East Asians performed the relative task better than the absolute task. North Americans performed the absolute task better than the relative task. Relative Task （Kitayama, Duffy, Kawamura, & Lersen, Psychological Science, 2003）

26. Cultural Variations in Attention: Summary

27. Reasoning

28. Object Categorization:(Ji & Nisbett, 2000; Choi, Nisbett & Smith, 1999) • Americans: • Categories: • Pig and Dog are both examples of animals • Chinese and Koreans: • Relationship: • Pig eats corn

29. Reasoning

31. Holistic: Focus on field in which object is located Relationship b/w object and field to predict and explain Absence of universal laws Analytic: Focus on object and attributes Use attributes to categorize Use universal laws about categories to model Cognitive Styles: Analytic vs. Holistic Reasoning