Culture and Perception

1
Culture and Perception

• With adaptations from Ronald Fischer
• PSYC 338

2
Overview

• Perceptual sets and culture
• Types of perceptions
• Visual illusions and pictorial perceptions
• Perception of music

3
Two fundamental perspectives

• Nativism
• (Gibson, 1950)
• Empiricism
• (Brunswik, 1956)

4
Perceptual sets

• Environment shapes our perception
• We create perceptual expectations
• Increase particular interpretations (speed
  efficiency)
• Culturally functional and adaptive (mostly)

5
Culture and Sensory Functions

• Conditions in the physical environment
• Environmental conditions
• Genetic factors
• Cultural Differences in the interaction with the
  environment

6
Important Senses

• Vision
• Colour, depths
• Hearing
• Pitch, tone, mode, rhythm, etc.
• Taste
• Smell
• Touch
• Time

7
Visual Illusions

• Ecological cue validity
• Illusions occur when previously learned
  interpretations of cues are misapplied because of
  unusual or misleading characteristics of stimuli

8
The horizontal-vertical illusion
9
(No Transcript)
10
(No Transcript)
11
(No Transcript)
12
The Sander parallelogram illusion
13
(No Transcript)
14
(No Transcript)
15
(No Transcript)
16
(No Transcript)
17
(No Transcript)
18
(No Transcript)
19
What about if it was like this?
20
(No Transcript)
21
(No Transcript)
22
The perspective drawing illusion
23
(No Transcript)
24
Some early experiments

• Optical illusions (Segall, Campbell Herskovits,
  1966)
• Three samples from industrialised countries (US,
  South Africa)
• Five samples from tribes living in dense tropical
  forests (Fang, Bete, Ijaw, Dahomea, Hanunoo)
• Two samples from tribes living in open land, but
  in circular houses (Zulu, Bushmen)
• Some of these tribes (Ankole, Toro, Songe, Bete)
  were not used to two-dimensional representations
  of three dimensional objects (e.g., photographs,
  drawings, murals, paintings)

25
Some explanations

• Hypotheses about cultural differences
• Carpentered World Hypothesis
• Foreshortening Hypothesis Front-horizontal
  foreshortening theory
• Sophistication Hypothesis Symbolising three
  dimensions in two

26
Carpentered World Theory
27
New Synergies
28
New Synergies
29
The Sander parallelogram illusion
30
Front-horizontal foreshortening theory
31
The perspective drawing illusion
32
Symbolising three dimensions in two
33
Perception of Depth

• The organization of sensations in three
  dimensions even though the image on the eyes
  retina is two dimensional

34
Challenges to this eco-cultural explanation

• Effect of retinal pigmentation (Pollack, 1970)
• Some support (e.g., Bornstein, 1973)
• Other factors at play
• Sensitivity to different colours (colour naming)
• Exposure to ultraviolet rays
• Dietary differences
• Age
• Education

35
Implications

• Design of instructions, manuals, safety signs,
  etc.
• Education campaigns
• Use in educational settings

36
Perception of Colour
37
Perception of Music

• Relatively neglected topic
• Western societies (incl. Psychologists)
  literate societies technology (paintings,
  photography) emphasis on visual stimuli
• Many traditional /non-Western societies oral
  traditions, music and rhythm
• gt Task!

38
Musical functions (Merriam, 1964)

• Emotional expression
• Physical response
• Aesthetic enjoyment and entertainment
• Communication Symbolic representation
• Enforcing conformity to social norms
• Validating social institutions and religious
  rituals
• Enables continuity and stability of culture
• Integration of society

39
Summary

• Culture influences our perceptions of the
  environment we are living in through perceptual
  sets
• Cultural, ecological, biological and
  physiological influences interact
• Perception research example of the influence of
  culture and Zeitgeist on research agendas