Culture and perceptual inference: Inferring the identity of an object from its parts or its blurred image Keiko Ishii (Hokkaido University) Collaborators: Takafumi Tsukasaki (Hokkaido University) and Shinobu Kitayama (University of Michigan)

A cultural difference for Starbucks

Cultural differences in cognition Nisbett, Peng, Choi, & Norenzayan (2001, Psych Review)  North Americans: Analytic and context- independent cognition  East Asians (e.g., Japanese): Holistic and context-dependent cognition

Cultural differences in cognition - Absolute task - Accuracy: Americans > Japanese Frame and line task (FLT) (Kitayama, Duffy, Kawamura, & Larsen, 2003, Psych Science)

Cultural differences in cognition - Relative task - Accuracy: Japanese > Americans Frame and line task (FLT) (Kitayama, Duffy, Kawamura, & Larsen, 2003, Psych Science)

Identify an object from its parts Cultural differences in perceptual inference? Parts Blurred Accuracy Americans > East Asians Identify an object from its blurred image Accuracy East Asians > Americans

Study 1: Method Participants: 30 Japanese and 23 American undergraduates 90 trials (= 30 objects x 3 types)

Three types of images SingleMultipleBlurred

Study 1: Method Participants: 30 Japanese and 23 American undergraduates 90 trials (= 30 objects x 3 types)

Procedure ＋ Question 1 Space bar 300msec 3000msec

Study 1: Method Participants: 30 Japanese and 23 American undergraduates 90 trials (= 30 objects x 3 types) Task: Report the name of each object There was no difference in frequency of daily exposure to the objects between the two cultures

Study 1: Results (DV = Accuracy) F (2, 82) = 8.22, p <.001 p <.01 Parts A Parts B Blurred Japanese Americans Single part Multiple parts

Study 1: Results in the first block p <.01 F (2, 82) = 4.37, p <.02 Single parts Multiple parts Blurred Japanese Americans

Study 2 Study 1: Consistent with the prediction Two problems  Small difference in the blurred condition: Influence by a carry-over effect?  Type of image as a between-subject variable  Running the study for Japanese and Americans in different rooms: No guarantee that the experimental conditions were identical  Comparison between Asian and European Americans in the US

Study 2: Method Participants: 31 Asian American and 53 European American undergraduates 90 trials (= 30 objects x 3 times, either multiple parts or blurred image) Task & materials: Same as in Study 1

Study 2: Results (DV = Accuracy) p <.01 F (1, 80) = 4.98, p <.05 Parts Blurred Asian Americans European Americans

Study 2: Results in the first block p <.01 F (1, 80) = 4.51, p <.05 Parts Blurred Asian Americans European Americans

Discussion Cultural differences in perceptual inference  European Americans were more accurate than Japanese and Asian Americans for parts  The tendency was reversed for blurred image, although the difference was small  People may constantly rely on gestalt information regardless of cultures

Discussion What task is diagnostic of holistic cognition?  A task in which participants are capable of perceiving elements holistically in a context while they perceive each element analytically  The relative task in Frame and Line Task (FLT)

Discussion Asians were holistic regardless of test locations  Rather than exposure to perceptual environment and language (i.e., English) in North American cultures, daily communication and practices in Asian societies have a larger influence in perception

Cultural differences in perceptual inference? What is the original object? Parts image

Cultural differences in perceptual inference? Blurred image

Cultural differences in cognition Masuda & Nisbett (2001, JPSP) Three fish are swimming. The middle one is the smallest among them… Americans This is a scene of underwater. Water is somehow green… Japanese