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Perceptual difference across cultures
Do cultures influence on perception?
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Which two go together?
Exp.1 Exp.2
Which two go together?
Culture
Exp. 1
Justification The mother takes care of the baby They are adults
Exp. 2
Justification The cow eats the grass Both are animals
Perceptual
Categorization
Relational, Contextual Shared analytic features
Chiu, L.-H. (1972) Int. J . Psychol. 7, 235-242.
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Since the 1950s there has been little attempt to examine the effect of
culture on perception or indeed on individual differences of any kind
The work on perception was stimulated by work on cognition showing that
inferential processes are affected by culture
Easterners Westerners
Causal Attribution Explain events by reference to interactions
between the object and the field
Explain events by reference to
properties of the object
Logic vs. Dialectics Try to find truth in 2 different arguments and
are more likely to propose middle way
solutions
Are more inclined to reject one
proposition in favor of the other
Categorization classify objects and events on the basis of
relationships and family resemblance
classify on the basis of rule-
based category membership
Factor Easterners Westerners Result
Chronic effect
of culture on
perception e.g.
child rearing
practices
Japanese mothers'
emphasis on social
practices
American mothers
emphasis on labeling
objects
Both Americans and Japanese show holistic
perception at age 4, but American
children start to diverge from Japanese
children by beginning to ignore the context
and focusing
on salient objects around age 5.
Environment
is complex , Dense
and contained a
larger number of
object
is less complex than
Japanese
In the change blindness task, American
subjects detected more changes in the
focal objects, whereas Japanese subjects
detected more changes in the field
Economy
Farming: Effective
hierarchies, Strong
Social Collaboration
Hunting, Fishing,
Trading: absence of
substantial social
concerns and
constraints
Formalized logic regardless of content for
Arguments in West
Rare arguments because of the threat to
pose to the social fabric in East
Explanations:
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Cultural influence on Visual Perception:
Assumptions:
Methods:
Experimental Psychology: Perceptual Tasks & Categorical Tasks
Cognitive Neuroscience: fMRI & EEG
Easterners Westerners
tend to engage in context-dependent and holistic
perceptual processes by attending to the
relationship between the object and the context
in which the object is located.
tend to engage in context-independent and
analytic
perceptual processes by focusing on a salient
object or person independently from the context
in which it is embedded
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Feature Type Value Type Value
Hair 0 1
Face 0 1
Body
0 1
Ears
0 1
Table1: Defining Features
Group 1 B-Code Group 2 B-Code
0000 1111
0100
1011
0010 1101
0001 1110
Table2: Category structures
Relationships versus rules and categories
Participants:
Undergraduate students at the University of Michigan
52 European Americans (27 men, 25 women),
52 Asian Americans (28 men, 24 women),
53 East Asians (27 men, 26 women).
Task:
Participants were instructed to judge which category the
target object was most similar to.
The stimuli were constructed such that the responses driven by the rule
versus family resemblance criterion led to different decisions.
Norenzayan, A., Smith, E. E., Kim, B. J . & Nisbett, R. E. (2002) Cognit. Sci. 26, 653-684.
B-Code:0111 Group 2
Family Resemblance:Group1
B-Code: 1000 Group 1
Family Resemblance:Group2
Table3: Target Objects
Relationships versus rules and categories
Participants:
Undergraduate students at the University of Michigan
52 European Americans (27 men, 25 women),
52 Asian Americans (28 men, 24 women),
53 East Asians (27 men, 26 women).
Task:
Participants were instructed to judge which category the
target object was most similar to.
The stimuli were constructed such that the responses driven by
the rule versus family resemblance criterion led to different decisions.
Results:
A marked cultural difference emerged. There was a significant culture by
response type interaction. European Americans gave many more
responses based on the unidimensional rule than on family resemblance.
Norenzayan, A., Smith, E. E., Kim, B. J . & Nisbett, R. E. (2002) Cognit. Sci. 26, 653-684.
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Attending to the focal object versus context
Participants:
Undergraduatestudents at the University of Michigan
56European American(27men, 29women)
42East Asian (19men, 23women)
Task:
Participants are to judge when the rod appears to be vertical, or "straight up
and down" (regardless of the position of the frame). The task was operated in
2different modes:
Non-Control mode: The participant did not have manual control.
The participants were to tell the experimenter to stop turning the
rodwhen theythought the rod was straight up and down
Control Mode: the participants adjusted the rod themselves and
stoppedwhen theyfelt the rodwas straight up and down.
People are fielddependent to the extent that theyare influenced by the
position of the framewhen makingtheir judgments..
J i, L., Peng, K. & Nisbett, R. E. (2000) J . Pers. Soc. Psychol. 78, 943.
The Classic Rod and Frame Test apparatus
What subjects see when they peer into it looks roughly like
one of these configurations
Attending to the focal object versus context
Participants:
Undergraduatestudents at the University of Michigan
56European American(27men, 29women)
42East Asian (19men, 23women)
Task:
Participants are to judge when the rod appears to be vertical, or "straight up
and down" (regardless of the position of the frame). The task was operated in
2different modes:
Non-Control mode: The participant did not have manual control.
The participants were to tell the experimenter to stop turning the
rodwhen theythought the rod was straight up and down
Control Mode: the participants adjusted the rod themselves and
stoppedwhen theyfelt the rodwas straight up and down.
People are fielddependent to the extent that theyare influenced by the
position of the framewhen makingtheir judgments.
Results:
Theyanticipated that for the RFT
(a) Asians would showmore fielddependence thanAmericans
(b) Americans would benefit more frombeing given control over the task
(c) control would make Americans think they were being more accurate, and
this would be less true for East Asians.
J i, L., Peng, K. & Nisbett, R. E. (2000) J . Pers. Soc. Psychol. 78, 943.
Errors on the Rod-and-Frame Test task. (The dependent
variable is the mean of deviations of the final rod positions
from the exact vertical position in degrees of arc.)
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Attending to context and the relation
between the object and the context
Participants:
36 American participants at University of Michigan (33 Caucasians and 3
African Americans)
41 J apanese participants at Kyoto University, J apan.
Task:
Participants were presented by 10 20-second-animated vignettes of
underwater scenes. Then:
Participants were asked to report what they had seen. The first sentence
was coded as to whether a participant initially mentioned one of the salient
objects or the field
Participants were presented with objects they had seen previously, either
with their original background, a novel background, or no background, and
were askedto indicate whether theyhad previously seen the objects.
Masuda, T. &Nisbett, R. E. (2001) J . Pers. Soc. Psychol. 81, 922
Still photo from animated underwater vignette
Focal fish previously seen viewed against 3 different
backgrounds
Attending to context and the relation
between the object and the context
Participants:
36 American participants at University of Michigan (33 Caucasians and 3
African Americans)
41 J apanese participants at Kyoto University, J apan.
Task:
Participants were presented by 10 20-second-animated vignettes of
underwater scenes. Then:
Participants were asked to report what they had seen. The first sentence
was coded as to whether a participant initially mentioned one of the
salient objects or the field
Participants were presented with objects they had seen previously,
either with their original background, a novel background, or no
background, and were asked to indicate whether they had previously
seen the objects.
Results:
Whereas Americans performancewas not affectedby the
backgroundmanipulation, J apanese performancewas impaired
when the backgroundwas novel.
Masuda, T. &Nisbett, R. E. (2001) J . Pers. Soc. Psychol. 81, 922
Recognition accuracy for previously seen objects.
Subject of the First Sentence in Descriptions of Scenes by
American and Japanese Participants
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Attending to context
(Eye Movement Tracking)
Participants:
Students at University of Glasgow
21 Western Caucasian adults (15 female; age range =1933 years)
21 East Asian adults (10 female; age range =2027)
Task:
Participants were presented with a series of images to learn and
subsequently recognize.
Eye movements were recorded at a sampling rate of 1000 Hz with
the SR Research Desktop-Mount EyeLink 2K eyetracker.
Kelly, D. J . Miellet, S. & Caldara, R. (2010). Front. Psychology . 1
Light, typically infrared, is reflected from the eye and sensed by a
video camera or some other specially designed optical sensor. The
information is then analyzed to extract eye rotation from changes in
reflections.
Attending to context
(Eye Movement Tracking)
Participants:
Students at University of Glasgow
21 Western Caucasian adults (15 female; age range =1933 years)
21 East Asian adults (10 female; age range =2027)
Task:
Participants were presented with a series of images to learn and
subsequently recognize.
Eye movements were recorded at a sampling rate of 1000 Hz with
the SR Research Desktop-Mount EyeLink 2K eyetracker.
Results:
The findings for human faces replicates previous reports with
Western Caucasian participants primarily exploring the eye and
mouth regions, whilst EA participants fixated centrally on the nose
region. Somewhat surprisingly these distinct strategies extended to
sheep faces, with both groups of participants employing the same
strategies used for human faces. Even more unexpectedly, clear
and consistent differences in fixations were also foundfor greebles.
Kelly, D. J . Miellet, S. & Caldara, R. (2010). Front. Psychology . 1
Fixation maps for Western Caucasian and East Asian participants for all
stimulus conditions
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Global vs Local Distribution of Attention
Participants:
22 Caucasian-Australians (13 females) raised in Australia
25 East Asians (15 females) raised Asia
22 Asian-Australians (13 females)
All were right handed
Task:
Navon figures Test: The divided-attention letter version
Participants were asked to respond whenever they detected
either of the target letters (E and H) as being present in the display.
Targets could appear unpredictably as either the small local letter or the
large global letter.
The measure was reaction time to respond present, for targets appearing
at each level.
Chua, H. F. Boland, J . E. & Nisbett, R. E. (2005) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 102(35) 12629-12633
Example trials from our Navon
figure task
Global vs Local Distribution of Attention
Participants:
22 Caucasian-Australians (13 females) raised in Australia
25 East Asians (15 females) raised Asia
22 Asian-Australians (13 females)
All were right handed
Task:
Navon figures Test: The divided-attention letter version
Participants were asked to respond whenever they detected
either of the target letters (E and H) as being present in the display.
Targets could appear unpredictably as either the small local letter or the
large global letter.
The measure was reaction time to respond present, for targets appearing
at each level.
Results:
Relative to Caucasians, East Asians showed a strong global advantage.
Further, this extended to the second generation (Asian-Australians),
although weakened compared to recent immigrants.
McKone, E, Aimola Davies, AM, Fernando, D et al (2010) Vision Research, 50, 16, 1540-1549.
Reaction time results.
Error rate results.
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Culture differences in neural processing of faces
Participants:
50 Young Westerners (25 males, 25 females; mean age: 22.1)
47 young East Asians (25 males, 22 females; mean age: 24.2)
Task:
Participants were presented with visual stimuli consisting of faces, houses and
phase-scrambled control images to measure how selective the neural
responses in the FFA (fusiformface area) by means of fMRI.
Previous studies have found that the right hemisphere is more sensitive to
holistic face information (Whole Face) while the left hemisphere is
involved in processing face features
J oshua O. S. et al (2010) Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci, 5, 227-235
Stimuli were back-projected onto a screen in the
scanner room, with participants viewing the stimuli
using an angled mirror mounted on the head-coil.
Fusiform Face Area
(FFA)
Fusiform Gyrus
The fusiform face area (FFA) is a part of the human
visual system which might be specialized for facial
recognition. It is located on the ventral surface of
the temporal lobe on the lateral side of the
fusiform gyrus
Culture differences in neural processing of
faces
Participants:
50 Young Westerners (25 males, 25 females; mean age: 22.1)
47 young East Asians (25 males, 22 females; mean age: 24.2)
Task:
Participants were presented with visual stimuli consisting of faces, houses and
phase-scrambled control images to measure how selective the neural
responses in the FFA (fusiformface area) by means of fMRI.
Previous studies have found that the right hemisphere is more
sensitive to holistic face information (Whole Face) while the left
hemisphere is involved in processing face features
J oshua O. S. et al (2010) Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci, 5, 227-235
Axial slices showing the peak FFA voxels of each
individual participant identified in their own
anatomical brain space and projected onto an MNI
templatebrain.
Differences in face selectivity between Westerners and East Asians in the most significant 10, 15
and 20 voxels of the right and left FFA for the face > house (fh) contrast.
Results:
Westerners showed more analytic
processing of faces with greater left FFA
selectivity than East Asians for faces
relative to houses.
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Experiments Results
Relationships versus rules and categories Asians categorize objects based on their family
resemblance whereas Westerns apply rules for
categorization.
Attending to the focal object versus context Asians would show more field dependence than
Westerns.
Attending to context and the relation between
the object and the context
Asians attend to objects in relation to the field
whereas Westerns attend to objects saliently
Eye movement tracking encountering the same objects Asians and
Westerners are actually looking at different
things.
Global vs Local Distribution of Attention Relative to Caucasians, East
Asians showed a strong global distribution of
attention.
Culture differences in neural processing of faces Westerners showed more analytic processing of
faces
Summary