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Culture and Perception

Culture and Perception. Ronald Fischer Social Psychology, PSYC 338. Overview. Perceptual sets and culture Types of perceptions Visual illusions and pictorial perceptions Perception of music Perception of time. Two fundamental perspectives. Nativism Empiricism. Perceptual sets.

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Culture and Perception

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  1. Culture and Perception Ronald Fischer Social Psychology, PSYC 338

  2. Overview • Perceptual sets and culture • Types of perceptions • Visual illusions and pictorial perceptions • Perception of music • Perception of time

  3. Two fundamental perspectives Nativism Empiricism

  4. Perceptual sets • Environment shapes our perception • We create perceptual expectations • Increase particular interpretations (speed & efficiency) • Culturally functional and adaptive (mostly)

  5. Important Senses • Vision • Colour, depths • Hearing • Pitch, tone, mode, rhythm, etc. • Taste • Smell • Touch • Time

  6. The horizontal-vertical illusion

  7. The Sander parallelogram illusion

  8. What about if it was like this?

  9. The perspective drawing illusion

  10. Some early experiments • Optical illusions (Segall, Campbell & Herskovits, 1966) • Three samples from industrialised countries (US, South Africa) • Five samples from tribes living in dense tropical forests (Fang, Bete, Ijaw, Dahomea, Hanunoo) • Two samples from tribes living in open land, but in circular houses (Zulu, Bushmen) • Some of these tribes (Ankole, Toro, Songe, Bete) were not used to two-dimensional representations of three dimensional objects (e.g., photographs, drawings, murals, paintings)

  11. Some explanations • Hypotheses about cultural differences • Carpentered world theory • Front-horizontal foreshortening theory • Symbolising three dimensions in two

  12. Carpentered world theory

  13. The Sander parallelogram illusion

  14. Front-horizontal foreshortening theory

  15. The perspective drawing illusion

  16. Symbolising three dimensions in two

  17. Challenges to this eco-cultural explanation • Effect of retinal pigmentation (Pollack, 1970) • Some support (e.g., Bornstein, 1973) • Other factors at play: • Sensitivity to different colours (colour naming) • Exposure to ultraviolet rays • Dietary differences • Age • Education

  18. Implications • Design of instructions, manuals, safety signs, etc. • Education campaigns • Use in educational settings

  19. Perception of Music • Relatively neglected topic • Western societies (incl. Psychologists) – literate societies; technology (paintings, photography) = emphasis on visual stimuli • Many traditional /non-Western societies = oral traditions, music and rhythm

  20. Task • Listen to the following excerpts • Answer the following questions: • What feelings and emotions does this music arouse in you? Use four adjectives to describe the music. • Where do you think this music is coming from? • What is the likely function of this music? At what occasions is it likely to be played? Make a guess!

  21. Excerpts • Excerpt 1: • Java, Indonesia (Gending Pahargyan Penganten, Monggang) • Wedding ceremony, welcome and honor the family of the bride groom) • Excerpt 2: • Serbia, Ex-Yugoslavia (Kayah & Bregović, Sto lat młodej parze) • Wedding • Excerpt 3: • Salvador, Bahia, Brazil (Capoeira Angola, Iuna) • Capoeira, to show respect to the 2 experienced capoeiristas (Mestres) currently fighting/playing • Excerpt 4: • Bamanan people, Mali (Rokia Traore, Yèrè Uolo) • Song in praise of a great warrior

  22. Musical functions (Merriam, 1964) • Emotional expression • Physical response • Aesthetic enjoyment and entertainment • Communication & Symbolic representation • Enforcing conformity to social norms • Validating social institutions and religious rituals • Enables continuity and stability of culture • Integration of society

  23. Perceptions of time • Another little experiment…. • Pace of life (Levine & Norenzayan, 1999)

  24. Dimensions of time • Past, present and future (Klockhohn & Strodtbeck, 1961) • Polychronic versus monochronic (Hall)

  25. Summary • Culture influences our perceptions of the environment we are living in through perceptual sets • Cultural, ecological, biological and physiological influences interact • Perception research = example of the influence of culture and Zeitgeist on research agendas

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