PSYC 307 Module 4 Chapter 9- Cognition and Perception . The languages of many Australian Aboriginal groups do not have words for relative directional terms, such as right and left o They describe all spatial perceptions in terms of the cardinal directions on a compass: north, south, east, and west. · Artistic Traditions- o Taka Masuda: he visited art galleries in Europe and East Asia, Masuda noticed some striking differences in the paintings produced in the various countries. horizons in landscape scenes were painted at a much higher level-about 15% higher on average-in East Asian pictures than in Western ones. . He also noticed that subjects in portraits were up to three times larger in Western pictures than in East Asian ones. These cultural differences were apparent across a variety of themes and styles o Masuda's interpretation: East Asian art looks different from Western art because people from these cultures are literally seeing the world differently . the aesthetic conventions reflect some fundamental differences in basic cognitive and perceptual processes between these two cultures · Research on cognition and perception is highly regarded because it claims to be explaining the most elementary and essential psychological processes o These investigators are striving to isolate the building blocks of psychological experiences-the images the eyes perceive, the brain's mechanisms for encoding and retrieving memories, how people categorize information, and the means of understanding the objects and events in daily life o Since these are such fundamental processes, it's remarkable that cognition and perception is the research area that has yielded some of the strongest evidence for cross-cultural variation . Two themes ? (1) certain cognitive tools are universally available, but they are not always used with the same frequency or for the same purpose o (2) the cultural differences that do occur in cognitive and perceptual processes arise because of the diverse experiences people have growing up in their respective cultures Analytic and Holistic Thinking · Dog, rabbit, or carrot? o If carrot is odd: this thought process reflects taxonomic categorization, the clustering of items according to their perceived similarities (Westerners) o If dog is odd: This way of thinking reflects thematic categorization, the grouping
of items based on their causal, temporal, or spatial associations (East Asians) · Analytic thinking is characterized by a focus on objects and their attributes o Objects are perceived as existing independently from their contexts, and they are understood in terms of their component parts The features that make up objects are used as a basis for categorizing them, with fixed abstract concepts to predict and explain them o More common in Western cultures than elsewhere . Holistic thinking is characterized by a focus on the context as a whole It is an associative way of thinking or paying attention to the relationships among objects, as well as between the objects and their surroundings Objects are understood in terms of how they relate to the rest of the context o Holistic thinking also emphasizes knowledge gained through experience