Topic: Culture and Cognition

Group no: 10

Name Roll no

SHAIZA ZAMEER 56

FEHNAZ NAWAZ 53

BUSHRA WAQAR 52

AIMEN WAHEED 58

RABIA ARIF 59

Semester: 8th

Date of Submission: March 27, 2023

Submitted to: Ma’am Mariam Saeed

University of Azad Jammu and Kashmir MUZAFFARABAD

Introduction
What is culture?

Culture is a set of ideas, behaviors, attitude and traditions that exist within large group of people
(usually a common religion, family or something similar.

These ideas behaviors tradition etc. Are passed from one generation to the next and as typically
resistant to change our time.

Example:

Festival foods and rituals are the example of culture.

Symbols, language and norms are elements of culture.

What is cognition?

Cognition is the term referring to the mental processes involved in gaining knowledge and
comprehension.

These cognition process include thinking knowing remembering judging and problem solving.

Examples of cognition include paying attention to something in the environment, learning

something new, making decisions, processing language, sensing and perceiving environmental
stimuli, solving problems, and using memory

Culture and cognitive styles:

Richard Nisbett describe two styles of culture and cognition

Holistic cognitive style.

Analytical Cognitive style.

1. Holistic cognitive style:

East Asian culture,

Focus on context and relationship among the elements.

Looking at the big picture the overall idea and less attentive to the details of the situation.
2. Analytical Cognitive style.

Western country

Focuses on object and their properties.

Paying more attention to the inner detail of the situation.

Cultural importance

Identity and background shape the way we perceive and understand our world and influence our
cognitive processes from early stages of development. Social and ecological factors have been
described as key drivers of the ensuing cultural differences in cognition.

With improved learning and health, increase tolerance and opportunities’ to come together with
other.

Culture enhance our quality of life and overall wellbeing for both individual and communities.

Basic cognitive process Cognition include all mental processes used by humans to transform
sensory input into knowledge. Sensation Perception

Culture as cognition

Most scholars view culture itself as cognition.

Hofstede (1980): culture is “mental programming”

Berry et al. (1992): culture defined as norms, opinions, beliefs, values and worldviews, which are
all cognitive products

Matsumoto & Juang (2007): culture is a Knowledge system

Bottom line: it is cognitive skills that allow humans to have culture.

Culture and perception

Perception and Physical Reality

Our perceptions of the world do not necessarily match the physical realities of the world or of our
senses.
E.g. Blind spot

Change in perception of lukewarm water

Primary vs. Secondary properties of “physical” Objects

Cultural Influences on Visual Perception

Optical illusions: perceptions involving apparent discrepancy between how an object looks and
what it actually is

The Mueller-Layer Illusion

The Horizontal-Vertical Illusion

Culture and Categorization

Universal: Process of categorization

Universal categories: facial expressions, colors, stereotypes, and shapes

Cultural differences: the way in which people categorize things

Western adults categorize by function whereas African adults categorize by color.

American children categorize by shared function, whereas Chinese children categorize by shared
contextual relationships.

Culture and Memory

Universal: Memory decrease with age and hindsight bias

Cultural differences: memory as a function of oral tradition for meaningful material and serial
position effect

Culture and Dialectical Thinking

Dialectical thinking: tendency to accept contradictions in thought or belief. Not good or bad but
good and bad.

Cultural differences: East Asians prefer dialectical thinking, whereas Americans prefer logical
determinism
Culture, Regret and Counterfactual Thinking

Counterfactual thinking: hypothetical beliefs about the past that could have occurred to avoid or
change negative outcome. E.g. revisionist history.

Universal: Feeling of regret over inaction than action.

Culture and Time

Cultural differences have also been found on time perspective and orientation Hall (1973)

Hofstede (2001): Long versus short-term orientation

There significant cultural variations on the notion of “being on-time”

Some research suggests cultural differences in time orientation are related to weather, health and
happiness.

Culture and Intelligence

Culture can be defined as all the ways of life including arts, beliefs and institutions of a population
that are passed down from generation to generation. Culture has been called “the way of life for
an entire society.” As such, it include codes of manners, dress, language, religion, rituals, and art.

Intelligence is the ability to acquire and apply knowledge and skills.

Cultural intelligence refers to the skill to relate and work effectively in culturally diverse situations.

Cultural differences may be the result of different beliefs about what intelligence is or due to the
use of culturally inappropriate measures of intelligence.

Stereotype Threat-societal stereotypes about a group can actually influence the performance of
individuals from that group (African Americans performed worse when asked to indicate their race
before taking a test then afterwards.)
The Concept of Intelligence in different Cultures:

There are significant cultural differences in what intelligence is i.e., the concept and meaning of
intelligence. Intelligence defined differently.

People in Western cultures, tend to view intelligence as a means for individuals to devise categories
and to engage in rational debate, while people in Eastern cultures see it as a way for members of a
community to recognize contradiction and complexity and to play their social roles successfully.

Intelligence tests require knowledge of culture, which makes valid comparisons difficult.

Intelligence Tests:

The need for and use of IQ tests historically was to help school personnel identify children in need
of special education.

• Not everyone benefited.

• Ellis Island-immigrants tested as mentally defective
• The average score of minorities continues to be 12-15% lower than average European
Americans.

Recent Developments in Theories about Intelligence in Contemporary

Psychology:

Multiple Intelligence (MI) Theory proposes eight intelligences: linguistic, logical-mathematical,

spatial, bodily- kinesthetic, musical, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and naturalistic. Gardner (1999a,
1999b) has also explored the possibility of additional intelligences, including spiritual and
existential intelligences.

Conclusion:

Culture refers to the symbols, language, beliefs, values, and artifacts that are part of any society.
Cultural intelligence is the ability to navigate and effectively work in culturally diverse
environments. It is essential element for success in both in personal and professional relationships.
Jean Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development:

It suggests that children move through four different stages of learning. His theory focuses not
only on understanding how children acquire knowledge, but also on understanding the nature of
intelligence.

Piaget’s stages are:

Sensorimotor stage: Birth to 2 years

Preoperational stage: Ages 2 to 7

Concrete operational stage: Ages 7 to 11

Formal operational stage: Ages 12 and up

Piaget believed that children take an active role in the learning process, acting much like little
scientists as they perform experiments, make observations, and learn about the world. As kids
interact with the world around them, they continually add new knowledge, build upon existing
knowledge, and adapt previously held ideas to accommodate new information.

The Sensorimotor Stage:

During this earliest stage of cognitive development, infants and toddlers acquire knowledge
through sensory experiences and manipulating objects. A child’s entire experience at the earliest
period of this stage occurs through basic reflexes, senses, and motor responses.

Birth to 2 Years

Major characteristics and developmental changes during this stage:

 Know the world through movements and sensations. Learn about the world through basic
actions such as sucking, grasping, looking, and listening
 Learn that things continue to exist even when they cannot be seen (object permanence) Realize
that they are separate beings from the people and objects around them
 Realize that their actions can cause things to happen in the world around them
 During the sensorimotor stage, children go through a period of dramatic growth and learning.
As kids interact with their environment, they continually make new discoveries about how the
world works.

The Preoperational Stage:

The foundations of language development may have been laid during the previous stage, but the
emergence of language is one of the major hallmarks of the preoperational stage of development.

2 to 7 Years

Major characteristics and developmental changes during this stage:

 Begin to think symbolically and learn to use words and pictures to represent objects
 Tend to be egocentric and struggle to see things from the perspective of others
 Getting better with language and thinking, but still tend to think in very concrete terms
 At this stage, kids learn through pretend play but still struggle with logic and taking the point
of view of other people. They also often struggle with understanding the idea of constancy.

The Concrete Operational Stage

While children are still very concrete and literal in their thinking at this point in development, they
become much more adept at using logic. The egocentrism of the previous stage begins to disappear
as kids become better at thinking about how other people might view a situations.

7 to 11 Years

Major characteristics and developmental changes during this stage:

 Begin to think logically about concrete events

 Begin to understand the concept of conservation; that the amount of liquid in a short, wide
cup is equal to that in a tall, skinny glass, for example
 Thinking becomes more logical and organized, but still very concrete
 Begin using inductive logic, or reasoning from specific information to a general principle
 While thinking becomes much more logical during the concrete operational state, it can also
be very rigid. Kids at this point in development tend to struggle with abstract and
hypothetical concepts.

The Formal Operational Stage

The final stage of Piaget’s theory involves an increase in logic, the ability to use deductive
reasoning, and an understanding of abstract ideas. At this point, adolescents and young adults
become capable of seeing multiple potential solutions to problems and think more scientifically
about the world around them.

Age 12 and Up

Major characteristics and developmental changes during this time:

 Begins to think abstractly and reason about hypothetical problems

 Begins to think more about moral, philosophical, ethical, social, and political issues that require
theoretical and abstract reasoning
 Begins to use deductive logic, or reasoning from a general principle to specific information
 The ability to thinking about abstract ideas and situations is the key hallmark of the formal
operational stage of cognitive development. The ability to systematically plan for the future
and reason about hypothetical situations are also critical abilities that emerge during this stage.

Important Concepts:

It is important to note that Piaget did not view children’s intellectual development as a quantitative
process. That is, kids do not just add more information and knowledge to their existing knowledge
as they get older.

Instead, Piaget suggested that there is a qualitative change in how children think as they gradually
process through these four stages.4 At age 7, children don’t just have more information about the
world than they did at age 2; there is a fundamental change in how they think about the world.

Piaget suggested several factors that influence how children learn and grow.
Schemas
A schema describes both the mental and physical actions involved in understanding and knowing.
Schemas are categories of knowledge that help us to interpret and understand the world.
In Piaget’s view, a schema includes both a category of knowledge and the process of obtaining
that knowledge. As experiences happen, this new information is used to modify, add to, or change
previously existing schemas.

For example, a child may have a schema about a type of animal, such as a dog. If the child’s sole
experience has been with small dogs, a child might believe that all dogs are small, furry, and have
four legs. Suppose then that the child encounters an enormous dog. The child will take in this new
information, modifying the previously existing schema to include these new observations.

Assimilation

The process of taking in new information into our already existing schemas is known as
assimilation. The process is somewhat subjective because we tend to modify experiences and
information slightly to fit in with our preexisting beliefs. In the example above, seeing a dog and
labeling it “dog” is a case of assimilating the animal into the child’s dog schema.

Accommodation

Another part of adaptation is the ability to change existing schemas in light of new information;
this process is known as accommodation. New schemas may also be developed during this process.

Equilibration

As children progress through the stages of cognitive development, it is important to maintain a

balance between applying previous knowledge (assimilation) and changing behavior to account
for new knowledge (accommodation).

Piaget believed that all children try to strike a balance between assimilation and accommodation
using a mechanism he called equilibration. Equilibration helps explain how children can move
from one stage of thought to the next.

One of the main points of Piaget’s theory is that creating knowledge and intelligence is an
inherently active process.
“I find myself opposed to the view of knowledge as a passive copy of reality,” Piaget wrote. “I
believe that knowing an object means acting upon it, constructing systems of transformations that
can be carried out on or with this object. Knowing reality means constructing systems of
transformations that correspond, more or less adequately, to reality.”

Conclusion:

Piaget’s theory of cognitive development helped add to our understanding of children’s intellectual
growth. It also stressed that children were not merely passive recipients of knowledge. Instead,
kids are constantly investigating and experimenting as they build their understanding of how the
world works.

Lev Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory of Cognitive Development:

Vygotsky’s social development theory asserts that a child’s cognitive development and learning
ability can be guided and mediated by their social interactions. His theory (also called Vygotsky’s
sociocultural theory) states that learning is a crucially social process as opposed to an independent
journey of discovery. He expands on this by stating that a child’s learning benefitted greatly from
being guided by a more knowledgeable member of the community – such as a parent or teacher.
Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory also suggested that children internalize and learn from the beliefs
and attitudes that they witness around them. He believed strongly that community plays a central
role in the process of “making meaning.”

Elementary Mental Functions:

Vygotsky’s child development theory refers to four ‘elementary mental functions’ as the innate
abilities that we are born with. These are

• Attention
• Sensation
• Perception
• Memory These abilities are then developed into ‘higher mental functions’ through social
interaction with our community.
Effects of Culture:

Vygotsky emphasized the role of the social environment in the cognitive development of the child.

Vygotsky claimed that infants are born with the basic abilities for intellectual development called
“elementary mental functions” (Piaget focuses on motor reflexes and sensory abilities). These
develop throughout the first two years of life as a result of direct contact with the environment.

Tools of intellectual adaptation:

Each culture provides its children tools of intellectual adaptation that allow them to use the basic
mental functions more effectively/adaptively.

Tools of intellectual adaptation is Vygotsky’s term for methods of thinking and problem-solving
strategies that children internalize through social interactions with the more knowledgeable
members of society.

Vygotsky, therefore, sees cognitive functions, even those carried out alone, as affected by the
beliefs, values, and tools of intellectual adaptation of the culture in which a person develops and
therefore socio-culturally determined.

Social Influences on Cognitive Development:

Like Piaget, Vygotsky believes that young children are curious and actively involved in their own
learning and the discovery and development of new understanding/schema. According to
Vygotsky much important learning by the child occurs through social interaction with a skillful
tutor. The tutor may model behaviors and/or provide verbal instructions for the child.

More Knowledgeable Other:

The more knowledgeable other (MKO) is somewhat self-explanatory; it refers to someone who
has a better understanding or a higher ability level than the learner, with respect to a particular
task, process, or concept.

For example, who is more likely to know more about the newest teenage music groups, how to
win at the most recent PlayStation game, or how to correctly perform the newest dance craze – a
child or their parents?
Zone of proximal Development (Gap between actual and potential learning):

He refers to the gap between actual and potential learning as the Zone of Proximal Development
(ZPD) – and argues that it is only through collaboration with adults and other learners that this gap
can be bridged.

The Zone of Proximal Development is the gap between the level of actual development, what the
child can do on his own and the level of potential development, what a child can do with the
assistance of more advanced and competent individuals.

Scaffolding

Also, Vygotsky theory of cognitive development on learners is relevant to instructional concepts

such as “scaffolding” and “apprenticeship,” in which a teacher or more advanced peer helps to
structure or arrange a task so that a novice can work on it successfully.

Collaborative work is also used in the classroom, mixing children of different level of ability to
make use of reciprocal / peer teaching.

Vygotsky and Language:

According to Vygotsky (1962) language plays two critical roles in cognitive development:

 It is the main means by which adults transmit information to children.

 Language itself becomes a very powerful tool of intellectual adaptation.
References:

American Psychological Association. (2003), Intelligence across cultures. Monitor on Psychology,

34(2).

Appalachian children. Developmental Psychology, 20(2), 271-286.

Berk, L. E. (1986). Relationship of elementary school children’s private speech to behavioral

accompaniment to task, attention, and task performance. Developmental Psychology, 22(5), 671.

Berk, L. & Garvin, R. (1984). Development of private speech among low-income

Behrend, D.A., Rosengren, K.S., & Perlmutter, M. (1992). The relation between private speech
and parental interactive style. In R.M. Diaz & L.E. Berk (Eds.),

Private speech: From social interaction to self-regulation (pp. 85–100). Hillsdale,NJ:

Erlbaum.Slide Serve (2014), Culture and Cognitive Process 24-3