Cognition, Emotion, and Motivation Psychology Essay

Culture and Cognition
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Culture and Cognition
Introduction
Examining cultural differences can yield a deeper understanding of how people think. The world is characterized by numerous different cultures, each possessing distinct features. The focus of many cultural research studies, however, revolves around the cultural differences in the context of Westerners versus Easterners. Westerners, in this case, typically include Canadians and U.S. Americans of European descent while Easterners typically refer to East Asians (Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, etc.) [de Oliveira & Nisbett, 2017]. While Easterners tend to pay greater attention to relationships and context, Westerners tend to be more analytic. In today’s world that is increasingly becoming globalized, the interaction of different cultures is unavoidable. This paper presents an analysis of how differences in culture play a role in cognition. In this regard, an understanding of cultural differences can help improve one’s understanding of human behavior and cognition.
Culture and Analytic and Holistic Cognitions
A key feature that characterizes the difference between Easterners and Westerners is cognition. While the Westerners tend to be characterized by analytic cognition, the Easterners are characterized by holistic cognition (Grossmann & Varnum, 2011). The analytic cognition of Westerners makes them detach a focal object from a continuous field, ascribe causality to focal objects or actors, and predict linear progression of events. On the other hand, the holistic cognition in Easterners is associated with focusing on the entire continuous field, predicting non-linear progression of events, and attribution of causality to context as opposed to objects or actors (Grossmann & Varnum, 2011). It can be deduced that there exist significant differences in cognition between Westerners and Easterners, and this variation can be attributed to cultural differences.
Miyamoto (2013) reports on a study that sought to examine the difference in attention between Japanese and American participants. In the study, the participants were presented with animated clips of natural underwater scenes that had focal fish in the background and were asked to describe what they saw. The study found that compared to the American participants, the Japanese tended to be more likely to describe the relationship between the background and the focal fish. On the other hand, Americans emphasized more on the focal fish. The same case happened with Chinese and American participants when presented with still photos of natural scenes (Miyamoto, 2013). According to Miyamoto (2013), when individuals from the two cultures are exposed to natural scenes, it can be deduced that they are looking at different things. An examination of other studies by Miyamoto (2013) show that Easterners are more likely than Westerners to focus on contextual information when exposed to visual stimuli. When Easterners are exposed to the American environment, their focus on configural relationships reduces, proving that culture contributes to shaping the perception of people.
Another way to look at the analytical and holistic cognition that distinguishes the two cultures is ...