Culture and Attention: Comparing the Context Sensitivity between East Asians and Westerners

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Culture and AttentionComparing the Context
Sensitivity between East Asians and Westerners
Workshop with Professor Cook Feb 17, 2005

• Takahiko Masuda, Ph.D
• COE Postdoctoral Fellow
• Hokkaido University
• Japan

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Culture?
Culture A dominant symbolic meaning system (e.g.
worldview) sustained and transmitted over
generations by members of a given society, which
then shape the members psychological processes.
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Westerner's Attention
East Asians Attention
Worldview Things exist by themselves and can be
defined by their attributes (context independent,
object-oriented).
Worldview Things are inter-related. Various
factors are involved in an event (context
dependent, context-sensitive).
(Nisbett, 2003 Nisbett, Peng, Choi,
Norenzayan, 2001)
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Cultural Variations in Socio-Cognitive Processes
Westerners East Asians
Self Concept Markus Kitayama, 1991 Independent The self an entity detached from others and context Interdependent The self relational contextual existence
Thinking Style Nisbett, Choi, Peng, Norenzayan, 2001 Nisbett, 2003 Analytic Object oriented ways of thinking Holistic Context oriented ways of thinking
Causal Attribution Morris Peng, 1994 Lee, Hallahan, Herzog, 1999 Focus on Internal Factors Focus on both Internal and External Factors
Attitude Inference Choi Nisbett, 1998 Masuda Kitayama, 2004 Miyamoto Kitayama, 2003 Strong Correspondence Inference Weak Correspondence Inference
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Culture and AttentionThe Self-Report Task
The Michigan Fish Test
North Americans basically referred to the
attributes of the target fish, whereas the
Japanese referred to the background and
contextual information as well as the target fish
attributes.
(Masuda Nisbett, Journal of Personality and
Social Psychology, 2001)
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Culture and Attention The Recognition Task
The Michigan Animal Test
(Masuda Nisbett, Journal of Personality and
Social Psychology, 2001)
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Culture and Attention The Change
Detection Task
The Flicker Paradigm (Rensink et al, 1997)
(Masuda Nisbett, under review Nisbett
Masuda, PNAS, 2003)
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Culture and Attention Interpreting emotional
expressions
(Masuda, Mesquita, Ellsworth, Leu, Tanida van
de Veerdonk under review)
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(Masuda, Mesquita, Ellsworth, Leu, Tanida van
de Veerdonk under review)
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(Masuda, Mesquita, Ellsworth, Leu, Tanida van
de Veerdonk under review)
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(Masuda, Mesquita, Ellsworth, Leu, Tanida van
de Veerdonk under review)
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Culture and Attention Interpreting emotional
expressions
The Japanese took into account the background
figures facial expressions when judging the
central figures emotion. (e.g. If the background
figure looks happy, the degree of happiness of
the central figure seems to be intensified).
However, North Americans werent influenced by
changes in the background figures facial
expressions.
Question To what extent do people allocate their
attention to the context information? Question
When, if at all, can we observe cultural
variation in the allocation of attention?
(Masuda, Mesquita, Ellsworth, Leu, Tanida van
de Veerdonk under review)
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Culture and Attention Interpreting emotional
expressions
Westerners Attention
East Asians Attention
(Masuda, Mesquita, Ellsworth, Leu, Tanida van
de Veerdonk under review)
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Culture and Attention Comparing East Asians and
Westeners Esthetics
East Asian fine arts in general emphasize the
object as well as its Context. For example, the
East Asian perspective includes The birds eye
technique The scroll technique The concept of
Space Western fine arts in general emphasize
the objects by themselves. For example, the
Western perspective and portraits
includes Drawing close objects large and far
objects small. Stabilizing the viewers stand
point. Utilizing the rule of covertures. Excludi
ng or darkening backgrounds
(Masuda, Gonzalez, Kwan, Nisbett under review)
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DV1 The Location of Horizon in Scenery Pictures
Western Perspectives
The size of objects
Horizon
Foreground-------------------------Background
Flattening
East Asian Perspectives
3D
2D
Birds eye
Horizon
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DV2 The ratio of face/The entire frame
Depth of Field
Western Portraits
Foreground---------------------------Background
East Asian Portraits
Foreground---------------------------Background
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Comparing East Asians and Westeners
Esthetics Study 1 Research on Worlds
Masterpieces
Metropolitan Museum, NY, USA Landscape 365
Portraits 210 People 110 National
Museum in Tokyo, Kyoto, Taiwan, and
Korea Landscape 218 Portraits 151
People 291
(Masuda, Gonzalez, Kwan, Nisbett in
preparation)
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Comparing East Asians and Westeners
Esthetics Study 2 Research on Students Drawings
Example 1 American, female
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Comparing East Asians and Westeners Esthetics
Study 2 Research on Students Drawings
Example 2 East Asian (Hong Kong), female
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Comparing East Asians and Westeners
Esthetics Study 3 Research on Students Portraits
The of additional objects ()
The Location of the horizon ()
Drawings
Drawings
(Masuda, Gonzalez, Kwan, Nisbett in
preparation)
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Culture and Esthetic Preference Study 3
Research on Students Portraits
American Examples
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Culture and Esthetic Preference Study 3
Research on Students Portraits
East Asian Examples
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Culture and Esthetic Preference Study 3
Research on Students Portraits
Americans
East Asians
The ratio of the face to the frame ()
Laboratory Sitting Model
Laboratory Standing Model
Atrium Sitting Model
Atrium Standing Model
(Masuda, Gonzalez, Kwan, Nisbett in
preparation)
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Culture and Attention Comparing East Asians and
Westeners Esthetics Summary
Overall, the location of horizon drawn by East
Asian artists was significantly higher than those
drawn by Western artists. In addition, the
ratio of the face against the entire frame in
East Asian paintings was significantly smaller
than those in Western paintings. The results of
the picture-drawing task and picture-taking task
replicated the findings of the national
masterpiece study. It suggests that even
contemporary members of East Asian and Western
cultures hold their traditional ways of capturing
images.
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Cultural Variations in Attention Summary
Westerners East Asians
FISH Report Main Fish Main Fish as well as Context
ANIMAL Recognition The Background effect was weak Influenced by the changes in background
Flicker Paradigm Find changes in Focal objects Find changes in Context
Emotion Eye Movement Consistent Judgment Center 95 After 1 sec somewhat goes to the context Influenced by the background Center 85 After 1sec--gtGoes to the Context Information
Esthetics Object-Oriented (Western Perspectives, Portraits) Context-Oriented (East Asian Perspectives, Portraits with context)
RFT Ji et al, 2000 Attending to the rod Attending to the frame
FLT Kitayama et al. 2003 AbsolutegtRelative AbsoluteltRelative
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Collaborators
Culture Cognition Richard E. Nisbett,
University of Michigan Shinobu Kitayama,
University of Michigan Culture Emotion Phoebe
Ellsworth, University of Michigan Batja
Mesquita, Wake Forest University Culture
Esthetics Richard Gonzalez, University of
Michigan Richard E. Nisbett, University of
Michigan
Special Thanks The Center of Cultural and
Ecological Foundation of the Mind, Hokkaido
University, Japan
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Thank you