Culture and Cognition: Part II Psychology 203 Cultural Psychology Winter, 2005

1. Culture and Cognition: Part II Psychology 203Cultural PsychologyWinter, 2005

2. Logic East and West • “…the most striking difference between the traditions at the two ends of the civilized word is in the destiny of logic. For the West, logic has been central and the thread of transmission has never snapped…” • Philosopher Angus Graham • “...it is precisely because the Chinese mind is so rational that it refuses to become rationalistic and … to separate form from content. • Philosopher Hsu-Shien Liu • "The aim of the Chinese classical education has always been the cultivation of the reasonable man as the model of culture. An educated man should, above all, be a reasonable being, who is always characterized by his common sense, his love of moderation and restraint, and his hatred of abstract theories and logical extremes.“ • Historian Lin Yutang • “To argue with logical consistency ... may not only be resented but also be regarded as immature.” • Anthropologist Nobihuro Nagashima

3. Cognitive Differences: Logic vs. Experience • Norenzayan, et al.: Typicality vs. logic All birds have ulnar arteries Do sparrows have ulnar arteries? Do penguins have ulnar arteries?

4. Convincingness Judgments as a Function of Typicality 9 Typical Atypical 8.5 8 7.5 Convincingness 7 6.5 6 5.5 5 Asian American European American Korean

5. Cognitive Differences: Logic vs. Experience • Norenzayan, et al.: Plausibility vs. logic All animals with fur hibernate Rabbits do not hibernate Rabbits are not animals with fur

6. Valid Arguments 100 Believable 95 Unbelievable 90 85 Percent “Valid” Responses 80 75 70 65 60 55 European American Korean

7. The “Socratic Effect” East and West • Socratic effect: asking people their beliefs about the probability of logically related propositions results in their coming into alignment when retested • Norenzayan & Kim (2002) Korean and American Ss • The price of dining out will increase • If stricter health codes for restaurants will increase the cost of hiring new staff, the price of dining out will increase • Stricter health codes for restaurants will increase the cost of hiring new staff • Koreans showed less Socratic effect than Americans • Only found for negative conclusions

8. PRINCIPLES OF FORMAL LOGIC • 1. Identity: A = A • 2. Noncontradiction: A ≠ not A • 3. Excluded middle: A or not A

9. Eastern Dialectism • 1. Principle of change: • Reality is a process of change • What is currently true will shortly be false • 2. Principle of contradiction: • Contradiction is the dynamic underlying change • Because change is constant, contradiction is constant • 3. Principle of relationships (or holism): • The whole is more than the sum of its parts • Parts are meaningful only in relation to the whole • The Tao

11. Proverb Types • Dialectical Proverbs: • "Beware of your friends not your enemies,“ • "Too humble is half proud” • Non-dialectical Proverbs: • "One against all is certain to fall“ • "For example is no proof"

12. American and Chinese Preferences for Dialectical and non-Dialectical Yiddish Proverbs

13. Conflicts to Resolve • Mother-daughter conflict: • Mary, Phoebe, and Julie all have daughters. Each mother has held a set of values which has guided her efforts to raise her daughter. Now the daughters have grown up, and each of them is rejecting many of her mother's values. How did it happen and what should they do? • School-fun conflict: • Kent, James, and Matt are college juniors. They are feeling very frustrated about their three years of routine tests, paper assignments, and grades. They complain that going through this process has taken its toll, undermining the fun of learning. How did it happen and what should they do?

14. Percent of Participants Preferring Dialectical Resolution

15. Why Was Aristotle Wrong about Gravity? • Argument 1 • Aristotle believed that the heavier a body is, the faster it falls to the ground. However, such an assumption might be false. Suppose that we have two bodies, a heavy one called H and a light one called L. Under Aristotle's assumption H will fall faster than L. Now suppose that H and L are joined together, with H on top of L. Now what happens? Well, L + H is heavier than H so by the initial assumption it should fall faster than H alone. But in the joined body L + H , L and H will each tend to fall just as fast as before they were joined, so L will act as a “brake” on H and L + H will fall slower than H alone. Hence it follows from the initial assumption that L + H will fall both faster and slower than H alone. Since this is absurd the initial assumption must be false. • Argument 2 • Aristotle believed that the heavier a body is, the faster it falls to the ground. However, such an assumption might be false because this assumption is based on a belief that the physical object is free from any influences of other contextual factors (“perfect condition”), which is impossible in reality. Suppose that we have two bodies, a heavy one called H and a light one called L. If we put two of them in two different conditions, such as H in windy weather (W) and L in quiet weather (Q), now what happens? Well, the weights of the body, H or L, would not make them fall fast or slow. Instead, the weather conditions, W or Q, would make a difference. Since these kinds of contextual influences always exist, we conclude that the initial assumption must be false.

16. Figure 4. Percent of American and Chinese Participants Preferring Dialectical Arguments

17. Contradictory Statements • Statement 1A: • A social psychologist studied young adults and asserted that those who feel close to their families have more satisfying social relationships. • Statement 1B: • A developmental psychologist studied adolescent children and asserted that those children who were less dependent on their parents and had weaker family ties were generally more mature. • Statement 2A: • A sociologist who surveyed college students from 100 universities claimed that there is a high correlation among college female students between smoking and being skinny. • Statement 2B: • A biologist who studied nicotine addiction asserted that heavy doses of nicotine often lead to becoming overweight.

18. American Participants Ratings of Plausibility in Both "A or B Conditions" and "A and B Condition"

19. Chinese Participants Ratings of Plausibility in Both "A or B Conditions" and "A and B Condition"

20. Agreement with Propositions • About personality trait opposites: • How polite are you, how rude are you? • How outgoing are you, how shy are you? • About statements opposite in implication: • The more one knows, the less one believes, or • The more one knows, the more one believes • A person’s character is his destiny or • A person’s character is not his destiny

21. If Asians are Illogical, Why are TheyBetter in Math than Americans? • Asians not illogical, they’re just less likely to use logic if: • Experience contradicts conclusion • Conclusions are undesirable • A resolution to a seeming contradiction is sought • When none of these true, Asians as logical as Am. • Westerners can go overboard with logic • Asians work harder in math -- now

22. Is it Language that Does the Job? • Generic noun phrases more common in Indo-European languages • In Chinese, no difference between • “squirrels eat nuts” • “this squirrel is eating the nut” • Only context can tell • Indo-European languages can turn any property into noun • “white”  “whiteness’ • Western middle class parents decontextualize: “doggie”

23. Language, cont. • Western languages “subject-prominent” • “It” is raining • Asian languages “topic-prominent” • In Japanese: “This place, skiing is good” • In Japanese (and formerly Chinese): “I” depends on relationship: • Colleague, spouse, old college friends, child • Western grammar “agentic”: “he dropped it” • Eastern grammar: “It fell from him” or “fell” • In English: “more tea?” In Chinese: “Drink more?”

24. Figure 1 Chinese Language English Language PRC Chinese in PRC PRC and TW Chinese in USA HK & S Chinese in US European Americans

25. Attention to Object vs. Field • Abel & Hsu (1949) • Rorschach whole card responses • Ji, Peng & Nisbett (2000) • Rod and Frame Test (field dependence) • Covariation detection • Masuda & Nisbett (2001) • Attention to salient object vs. background • “Binding” of object and field • Masuda & Nisbett (2005) • Change blindness

26. Rod and Frame – Side View

27. Rod and Frame – Subject’s View

28. RFT: Errors and Confidence European Americans Chinese Errors on RFT Confidence Judgments 3.5 8 3 7.5 2.5 7 Errors 2 Perceived Performance 6.5 1.5 6 1 5.5 0.5 0 5 Non-control Mode Control Mode

29. Arbitrary figures

30. Covariation Judgments 70 American Chinese 60 Chnese 50 Covariation Judgments 40 30 20 Non-control Mode Control Mode

31. Confidence Judgments American Chinese 90 80 Confidence Judgments 70 60 50 Non-control Mode Control Mode

32. Seeing the Object and the Field (Masuda & Nisbett, 2001) Phase 1: Recall Task Participants 41 American participants at the University of Michigan and 44 Japanese participants at Kyoto University, Japan.

33. Phase 2: Recognition Task Fish with Original Background Fish with No Background Fish with Novel Background

34. Previously Seen Objects (Japan) 78 76 74 72 70 68 66 64 62 60 Original Background No Background Novel Background

35. Previously Seen Objects (USA) 78 76 74 72 70 68 66 64 62 60 Original Background No Background Novel Background

36. Change Detection • Japanese and American Ss • Shown pairs of animated vignettes • Asked to report differences across pair • Do Japanese see more contextual (background and relational) changes? • Do Americans see more focal object changes?

37. Construction still 1

38. Construction still 2

39. Changes in Scene Across Two Vignettes

40. American City

41. Japanese City

42. American Farm

43. Japanese Farm

44. Changes Detected in Objects and Context 4 USA JPN 3.5 3 Number of detected changes 2.5 2 1.5 1 Focal Object Information Contextual Information

45. Changes Detected in U.S. and Japanese Scenes US scenes JPN scenes 4.5 4 3.5 3 Number of detected changes 2.5 2 1.5 1 Focal Object Information Contextual Information

46. Affordances in Japan and U.S.: Miyamoto and Nisbett • Take pictures in US and Japanese cities • New York and Tokyo • Ann Arbor and Hikone • Two villages • Compare complexity of comparable scenes – e.g. in front of post office, school

47. Electronics District – Tokyo

48. New York 2

49. Ratings of Complexity • Number of objects • Ambiguity of boundaries • Degree to which parts of scene are invisible • Orderliness vs. chaos

50. Medium Size Japanese City