The influence of social and cultural factors on memory

1. The influence of social and cultural factors on memory

2. Beta bias in psychology • Beta bias: When researchers assume, often incorrectly, that results of studies can be generalised without question to all (genders, cultures, etc), thus minimising differences between groups • It has only been a fairly recent departure within the cognitive level of analysis that researchers have begun to question whether cognitive processes do differ between cultures and to actually assess the impact of social and cultural factors on cognition and in particular on memory • So much psychological research in conducted in Western societies, mainly USA and Europe and so the work often reflects the outcomes of formal schooling and not how cognition in non-literate societies for example where different aspects of memory may be more heavily relied upon

3. Cross cultural studies in Psychology • Why do cross cultural research? • Interesting in its own right • to validate theories derived in one culture in terms of the external validity (i.e. to combat cultural bias in psychological theories and studies) • to explain whether a behaviour is universal principle and part of our human heritage (nature/biology) or whether it is shaped by differing child rearing practices, social practices and customs, (environmental determinism)

4. Interpreting results of cross cultural studies of memory • If duration, capacity, coding and organisation appeared similar across world cultures, we could conclude that the aspects of the human brain (or information processing modules) concerned with memory were a product of our human inheritance (genetic, biological, innate) • If results appeared to show up differences then we might assume that aspects of cognition, specially memory, are culturally determined, shaped by experiences and the demands of the social and physical environment in which we find ourselves

5. A problem in interpreting results: Alpha Bias • alpha bias occurs when the results of studies appear to exaggerate differences between cultures which possibly do not exist; this can happen if we expect to find differences (investigator bias) and if the tests used have not standardised on the new culture • imposed etic: when we use a test designed in one culture to measure skills./abilities in another without modifying to suit the language and culture of the new population; this can lead to invalid results and alpha bias

6. Our differing memory abilities reflect the demands of the social and cultural niche in which we find ourselves • One thing that differentiates animals from humans is our use of ‘languages’; codes used to communicate but also to represent knowledge in a verbal form (words/phrases represent ideas in memory • these differ hugely in terms of the range of speech sounds, syntactical features etc but it is likely that all humans represent information internally in some symbolic format other than simply as images or sounds • Visual codes (what we see and hear) perception affected by culture and therefore what is remembered is also filtered and would differ • Cultural neuropsychology