ERQ - Culture 1. Discuss research on the effects of culture on behaviour and/or cognition. A culture is an intangible source of behaviors, beliefs, values, and symbols to a group of people that they accept, without thinking about them, and that are passed along by communication and imitation from one generation to the next. Cognition is a term referring to the mental processes involved in gaining knowledge and comprehension. These cognitive processes include thinking, knowing, remembering, judging, and problem-solving. A study conducted by Rogoff and Waddel 1982 aimed To investigate cross-cultural differences in memory between Mayan children and US children. A sample of 30 US children and 30 Mayan children (15 girls with 15 boys) from Guatemala were used. Researchers constructed a miniature model of a Mayan village near a mountain and a lake (similar to Mayan children's habitat). They also created a model of Salt Lake City (similar to US children's natural habitat). - They then placed 20 real life objects from a set of 80 into the model. The objects were cars, animals and furniture (objects found in a normal town). The 20 objects were then taken out and placed back with the 80. After a while, the children were then asked to recreate the scene that was shown previously by picking and using the 20 objects shown before. The results showed that the Mayan children did better than American children at recreating the scene. They were able to recall which objects were used and where to place the respective objects with a higher accuracy than US children. In conclusion the study shows that the content and context of a memory task are important for remembering. Also shows that the socio-cultural context causes differences in memorization techniques which means that different cultures learn in different ways, the Mayan children were used to learning through storytelling and dioramas whereas American children were used to learning through memorization which is why the Mayan children did better when learning in this context. The study provides insight into how culture can affect the way people think and learn. And shows that the strategies for learning are not universal, therefore, it can be applied to educational programs which usually emphasize memorization globally, however should be applying different methods based on the culture of the students. There is a high ecological validity since it is a field experiment, the behaviour reflects on real life situations. It does not harm the participants in any way, consent was given and it is high in reliability as it can be replicated. There was no gender bias as there was an equal number of boys and girls. The cause and effect relationship may vary because conclusions drawn were based on assumptions of culture. The research helps give insight into differences between two cultures but it is hard to generalize the study to other cultures and therefore, may be considered ethnocentric.
Another study conducted by Cole and Scribner (1974) aimed to investigate how different memory strategies are influenced by