Deck 15: Cognition in Cross-Cultural Perspective

Question 1

Segall's research indicates that people who come from carpentered environments are ______.

A)less susceptible to the Müller-Lyer illusion
B)more susceptible to the Müller-Lyer illusion
C)more susceptible to the horizontal-vertical illusion
D)less susceptible to the horizontal-vertical illusion

Answer 1

more susceptible to the Müller-Lyer illusion

Question 2

Australian aboriginal children outperform white Australian children on tasks involving memory for ______.

A)single environmental features
B)spatial relationships among naturally occurring objects
C)spatial relationships among man-made objects
D)spatial relationships among both naturally occurring and man-made objects

Answer 2

spatial relationships among both naturally occurring and man-made objects

Question 3

The self is defined as independent and autonomous,and personal goals are given priority over group goals,in the cultural syndrome known as ______.

A)honor
B)collectivism
C)individualism
D)active-passive

Answer 3

individualism

Question 4

To assert that a cognitive process is specific to a particular culture and not to others is to assert that the process is ______.

A)culturally relative
B)culturally universal
C)culture irrelevant
D)culturally expressed

Question 5

Susceptibility to certain kinds of visual illusions may depend on ______.

A)schooling
B)visual acuity
C)literacy
D)experience in certain environments

Question 6

Claims about cross-cultural differences in the way we "see" things typically focus on the process(es)of ______.

A)sensation
B)perception
C)both sensation and perception
D)neither sensation nor perception

Question 7

Studies of the Kpelle children of Libya (regarding clustering in a memory recall task)suggest that ______.

A)long-term memory processes vary dramatically across cultures
B)the Kpelle are incapable of using clustering to aid recall
C)the Kpelle are capable of learning to use clustering,but never get the amount of benefit from the technique that American children do
D)more sophisticated participants spontaneously engage in organizational strategies to aid recall,while less sophisticated participants are not likely to engage in such behaviors without explicit instruction to do so

Question 8

The inability to randomly assign participants to conditions is faced by researchers in all of the following areas EXCEPT ______.

A)cultural research
B)individual differences
C)gender research
D)memory research

Question 9

Deregowski's studies in central Africa showed that,although ______ could not answer questions about three-dimensional aspects of pictures,______ constructed three-dimensional clay models of the pictures.

A)50%;80%
B)80%;more than half
C)20%;50%
D)80%;80%

Question 10

Lidell's studies of children's descriptions of pictures suggest that ______.

A)across cultures,interpretive responses increase as a function of years of schooling
B)across cultures,interpretive responses decrease as a function of years of schooling
C)in South Africa,interpretive responses increase as a function of years of schooling,but in Great Britain the opposite holds true
D)in South Africa,interpretive responses decrease as a function of years of schooling,but in Great Britain the opposite holds true

Question 11

Which of the following is NOT an agreed-upon ingredient of a "culture"?

A)a distinct language
B)a distinct religion
C)distinct customs and habits
D)a distinct mode of dress

Question 12

Studies of perception among South Africans have shown that ______.

A)the ability to "see" three-dimensionality in pictures is culturally universal
B)black South Africans perceived pictures two-dimensionally while white South Africans perceived pictures three-dimensionally
C)unschooled South Africans perceived pictures two-dimensionally while educated South Africans perceived them three-dimensionally
D)none of the South African participants could "see" pictures in a three-dimensional manner

Question 13

When personal goals are subordinated to the goals of the family or tribe,the cultural syndrome is known as ______.

A)tightness
B)honor
C)collectivism
D)individualism

Question 14

Psychologist Richard Nisbett and colleagues have compared the cognitive processing of Western cultures to East Asian cultures and have concluded that East Asians ______.

A)are smarter than Westerners
B)process information more analytically than Westerners
C)are better at math than Westerners
D)process information more holistically than Westerners

Question 15

When free recall tests were given to younger adults and elderly adults in Western and Eastern cultures,results showed that ______.

A)Eastern participants outperformed Western participants
B)Western participants outperformed Eastern participants
C)young adults from Western cultures used less clustering than young adults from Eastern cultures
D)elderly adults from Western cultures used more clustering than elderly adults from Eastern cultures

Question 16

Segall's research indicates that people who come from environments where the horizon is a part of the everyday landscape are ______.

A)less susceptible to the Müller-Lyer illusion
B)more susceptible to the Müller-Lyer illusion
C)more susceptible to the horizontal-vertical illusion
D)less susceptible to the horizontal-vertical illusion

Question 17

Japanese and American students performed a change-blindness task.The results indicated that ______.

A)Japanese and American students performed similarly
B)Japanese students noticed more changes than American students did
C)American students noticed more changes than Japanese students did
D)Japanese students noticed more changes in the background,whereas American students noticed more focal changes

Question 18

The cultural syndrome known as "collectivism" denotes ______.

A)the number of norms and the ways in which deviations are punished
B)the number of different cultural elements in a culture
C)the number of active and passive elements in a culture
D)the definition of self as a part of a family or tribe

Question 19

When individuals in a culture have to appear fierce to protect their property,the cultural syndrome known as ______ appears.

A)tightness
B)cultural complexity
C)honor
D)individualism

Question 20

Cross-cultural researchers find it very difficult or even impossible to achieve ______.

A)random assignment to conditions
B)control over experimental treatments
C)control over confounding factors and events
D)all of these

Question 21

A study of Wolof children in West Africa showed that ______ sorted objects correctly on the basis of color.

A)almost all children,of all ages
B)a greater proportion of unschooled than schooled
C)a greater number of children than adults
D)10% of 6-year-olds,30% of 9-year-olds,and almost 100% of 15-year-olds

Question 22

Different cultures develop different counting systems.The Oksapmin children of New Guinea learn to count using a system based on ______.

A)branches of trees
B)petals on flowers
C)body parts
D)types of animals

Question 23

Miller's study of children's counting indicated that ______.

A)Chinese 3-year-olds could count higher than American 3-year-olds
B)American 3-year-olds could count higher than Chinese 3-year-olds
C)American 5-year-olds could count higher than Chinese 5-year-olds
D)Chinese 5-year-olds could count higher than American 5-year-olds

Question 24

Gelman's "one-one principle" of counting states that ______.

A)"count words" assigned to each item must be chosen in a repeatable order
B)when counting an array,the final "count word" used represents the number of items in the set
C)each item in a set gets only one distinct "count word" assigned to it
D)any group of items may be counted

Question 25

Which of the following is NOT one of Gelman's principles of counting?

A)one-one principle
B)stable-order principle
C)order-relevant principle
D)abstraction principle

Question 26

Studies of the Vai people of Liberia,who learn their native script at home rather than in school,suggest that ______.

A)literacy by itself had little or no effect on cognitive performance
B)literate participants had higher abilities to provide verbal explanations
C)literate participants were better able to justify their problem solutions
D)literate participants performed better on logic problems

Question 27

Studies comparing Mano farmers and American undergraduates on sorting cards and bowls of rice indicate that ______.

A)different cultures' exposure to stimuli affects how people in those cultures sort objects
B)schooling affects how people sort objects
C)intelligence varies across culture
D)different cultures' attitudes affect how people in those cultures sort objects

Question 28

Schooled Vai people performed better than unschooled Vai people on tasks requiring ______.

A)mathematical skill
B)verbal explanations
C)formal logic
D)perceptual skill

Question 29

Studies of categorization among children from Japan,Israel,and the United States show all of the following EXCEPT ______.

A)older Israeli and Japanese children perform similarly on categorization tasks
B)Israeli children regard plants as very different from humans and animals
C)children in the United States regard plants,animals,and people in the same category of "living things"
D)sharp distinctions between "people and animals" and "plants" increases with age among Israeli children

Question 30

In general,literacy and schooling ______.

A)improve cognitive processing
B)have profound effects on the way cognitive processes operate
C)actually decrease cognitive ability by stifling creativity
D)affect the ways in which some cognitive tasks are carried out

Question 31

Which of the following is NOT a way in which culture affects cognition,according to Vygotsky?

A)Cultures arrange for the occurrence of non-occurrence of particular problems.
B)Cultures regulate the value attached to certain abilities
C)Cultures determine which events go together.
D)Cultures regulate the level of difficulty of tasks.

Question 32

Cross-cultural studies of categorization have shown all of the following EXCEPT ______.

A)as children grow older,they become more likely to sort objects by function rather than by perceptual characteristics (color or size)
B)as children grow older,they increase their abilities to sort systematically by any criteria (function,color,size,etc. )
C)education seems to play little role in categorization ability
D)categorization of familiar materials is easier than categorization of unfamiliar materials

Question 33

Studies of logical reasoning among non-literate cultures show that ______.

A)the ability to accept initial premises that contradict one's own experience is culturally universal
B)non-literate participants treat general premises as descriptions particular to one person's experience only
C)both literate and non-literate participants have no trouble seeing premises as interdependent parts of a single problem
D)literate participants show a greater tendency than non-literate participants to introduce new premises into a logical reasoning task

Question 34

Luria's studies of reasoning in farmers in Central Asia showed that the farmers ______.

A)had difficulty accepting premises that contradicted their own experience
B)tended to treat all premises as general
C)could not separate out individual premises within a problem
D)could not bring their own experience to bear on a problem

Question 35

Content effects in formal reasoning tasks are ______.

A)greater for Americans than for Koreans
B)equal for Americans and Koreans
C)greater for Koreans than Americans
D)never found at all in Koreans

Question 36

Research on situated cognition suggests that practical thinking ______.

A)is less flexible than formal,classroom thinking
B)employs methods that are more likely to be inaccurate
C)is tailored to specific contexts,whereas classroom thinking is more abstract
D)is only found in classrooms

Question 37

Scribner's studies of white- and blue-collar workers suggest that ______ is necessary to achieve flexibility in thinking.

A)a high level of literacy
B)on-the-job training
C)formal education
D)a high level of intelligence

Question 38

Gelman's "cardinal principle" of counting states that ______.

A)"count words" assigned to each item must be chosen in a repeatable order
B)when counting an array,the final "count word" used represents the number of items in the set
C)each item in a set gets only one distinct "count word" assigned to it
D)any group of items may be counted

Question 39

Researchers believe that spatial memory differences between Aboriginal and white Australian children may exist because ______.

A)of a genetic ability
B)Aboriginal children have better-developed visual sensory systems
C)Aboriginal children use a visual strategy and white children use a verbal one
D)Aboriginal children use a verbal strategy and white children use a visual one

Question 40

Scribner and Cole did discover some literacy effects among the Vai people,most having to do with ______.

A)logical reasoning
B)spatial cognition
C)knowledge of language
D)arithmetic skill

Question 41

Hudson (1960)suggested that South African workers' interpretation of pictures in a two-dimensions as opposed to three-dimensions may be due to ______.

A)environmental toxins affecting the perceptual system
B)lack of motivation to perceive pictures as real-world images
C)lack of exposure to pictorial representations at work or at home
D)a unique adaptation that increased work proficiency in mines or other physical environments

Question 42

When we look for differences in perception across cultures,we are looking for ______.

A)a description of how individuals from different cultural backgrounds "see" things differently
B)a difference in the things that people see in their environment but not their perceptions
C)a difference in the underlying biology of visual perception depending on culture
D)a difference in the way that the eye translates environmental signals depending on cultural context

Question 43

A(n)______ frame of reference refers to how an object exists in space in reference to other objects.

A)egocentric
B)terracentric
C)allocentric
D)geocentric

Question 44

Cole and Scribner determined that whether or not people of different backgrounds can perceive images in three-dimensions is less important than when participants are willing to ______.

A)motivate themselves to learn depth cues in two-dimensional images
B)ask others for help in interpreting depth cues in two-dimensional images
C)assess the environmental need for perceiving depth in two-dimensional images
D)perceive depth in an otherwise two-dimensional image

Question 45

Several studies have shown that those from "carpentered environments" respond differently to classical visual illusions compared to those from less carpentered environments.This demonstrates the effect of ______.

A)internal cognitive processes on how we structure our environment
B)environmental input on internal cognitive processes
C)social influences on internal cognitive processes
D)indoor versus outdoor environments on perception

Question 46

Shapero's (2016)study of the Ancash Quechua people in Peru showed that ______.

A)perceptual processes are universal across all cultures
B)biological processes are the most important factor in how we perceive objects in the world
C)all individuals have uniquely different perceptual processes that affect how we perceive objects
D)everyday experiences can change how people perceive the location of objects out in the world

Question 47

Cole and colleagues' findings showed that initially observed differences between the Kpelle and American participants could be attributed to ______ rather than ______.

A)sophistication in memory strategy;underlying memory structure
B)underlying memory structure;sophistication in memory strategy
C)language differences;underlying memory structure
D)underlying memory structure;perceptual differences

Question 48

Segall and colleagues' study on the Müller-Lyer illusion in carpentered versus non-carpentered environments suggests that differential responses are a function of ______ and not ______.

A)sensation;attention
B)sensation;perception
C)perception;sensation
D)perception;memory

Question 49

In order for some cognitive process to be culturally relative you would expect the process to be ______.

A)similar across cultural contexts
B)unique to one and only one culture
C)specific to a culture or set of similar cultures
D)different in every single culture

Question 50

Studies by Cole and colleagues showed that the Kpelle ______ clustering memory strategies on their own and ______ clustering memory strategies when prompted.

A)did use;did not use
B)did use;did use
C)did not use;did use
D)did not use;did not use

Question 51

Based on evidence presented in the text,cross-cultural differences have been shown in which of the following types of memory?

A)implicit/procedural memory
B)autobiographical memory
C)flashbulb memory
D)visuospatial memory

Question 52

Which of the following is NOT one of Triandis' defined cultural syndromes?

A)honor
B)attachment
C)tightness
D)cultural complexity

Question 53

We might hypothesize memory processes to be similar across cultural contexts because ______.

A)all humans have a similarly shaped and neurologically active hippocampus
B)all people need a means of storing information for future use
C)all humans need to learn and memorize the same information
D)all people need to remember the same kind of early-life experiences

Question 54

Hudson's (1960)study of South Africans showed that participants in ______ viewed pictures in a three-dimensional way,while participants in ______ viewed participants two-dimensionally.

A)physical labor;school
B)school;physical labor
C)church;hospitals
D)hospitals;church

Question 55

In their studies of the Kpelle,initial differences in memory compared to American participants could have been due to ______.

A)differences in interpretation of the task
B)lack of motivation to complete the task
C)lack of clarity in the particular stimuli used
D)all of these

Question 56

Like perception,given its connection to many other cognitive processes and necessity for everyday navigation,one might expect that ______ would be similar across cultural contexts.

A)memory
B)reasoning
C)emotions
D)problem solving

Question 57

When observing cognitive differences among cultures,it is important to remember that the differences may be due to ______.

A)differences in language rather than other cognitive processes
B)differences in cultural values rather than differences in cognitions
C)utilitarian differences rather than cognitive differences
D)all of these

Question 58

You would expect participants from ______ to be LEAST susceptible to the Müller-Lyer illusion.

A)a desert environment
B)the United States
C)Paris
D)the suburbs of Mumbai

Question 59

Shapero's (2016)study of the Ancash Quechua people in Peru found that those who spent ______ time herding in high-altitude areas tended to make more spatial references with respect to other objects and those who spent ______ time in high-altitude areas tended to make spatial references in regard to themselves.

A)more;more
B)more;less
C)less;less
D)less;more

Question 60

Cultural ______ is a pattern of shared attitudes,beliefs,categorizations,self-definitions,norms,role definitions,and values among those who speak a particular language in a definable geographic region.

A)syndrome
B)similarity
C)connectedness
D)subconscious

Question 61

Japanese students in a change blindness study noticed more changes in background objects than American students did.

Question 62

African children answer questions about pictures in ways that indicate a two-dimensional interpretation rather than a three-dimensional one.

Question 63

According to Gelman,the principle of counting in which the final count represents the total number of items in the set is the ______ principle.

A)cardinal
B)one-one
C)abstraction
D)order-irrelevant

Question 64

The abstraction of counting,according to Gelman,is ______.

A)the final count represents the number of items in the set
B)count words should occur in the same,repeatable order
C)any set of physical or imagined items can be counted
D)each item is counted once and only once

Question 65

Based on Luria's (1976)studies of reasoning among farmer in Central Asia,which of the following appears to affect reasoning ability?

A)literacy
B)experience
C)an ability to generalize
D)all of these

Question 66

According to Bruner,our categorization methods start off ______ and later are ______.

A)perceptual;perceptual
B)perceptual;conceptual
C)conceptual;conceptual
D)conceptual;perceptual

Question 67

From Luria's studies of Asian farmers,the idea that "If I had firsthand knowledge of a black bear,I could answer a question about a black bear.However,I do not,so I cannot," represents the power of ______ in reasoning.

A)experience
B)generalizability
C)literacy
D)biology

Question 68

A notable difference about schooling compared to other social environments which may explain its effects on cognitive processes is that ______.

A)we are required to learn complicated facts
B)people are put together into a continuous social environment.
C)a teacher continuously asks questions that students should know the answer to
D)there are a variety of different demands that we must juggle throughout the day

Question 69

Which of the following is true with respect to counting systems?

A)Cultures can develop different counting systems.
B)Cultures do not necessarily have to have a counting system.
C)Counting systems generally take time to learn.
D)all of these

Question 70

People raised in a carpentered environment are more susceptible to the horizontal-vertical illusion than people raised in non-carpentered environments.

Question 71

Of the following,what is one proposed mechanism for how literacy can change our cognitive processes?

A)Being able to read and write allows us to memorialize and revisit pieces of information in ways we normally could not in our day-to-day lives.
B)Literacy is a unique cognitive process that only members of certain cultures can access.
C)Being able to read and write creates an internal monologue which we otherwise would not have.
D)Literacy activates new brain areas that would otherwise go unused and adding extra neurological processing power.

Question 72

Cultural relativism assumes that cognitive processes operate similarly across all cultures.

Question 73

Greenfield and colleague's (1968)study of Wolof children and adults showed that performance on a categorization task in which participants had to explain why two out of three objects were alike was ______.

A)impossible for the Wolof to complete
B)always matched by basic properties such as color
C)affected by schooling
D)unable to determine any differences in categorization

Question 74

What is a misconception about situated cognition?

A)Situated cognition only occurs outside of the United States.
B)Situated cognition refers to how we think within our daily lives and context
C)Situated cognition can change depending on daily needs and experiences.
D)Situated cognition can change with expertise.

Question 75

According to Vygotsky,culture can shape cognitive processes by ______.

A)creating new cognitive processes that previously did not exist
B)creating or omitting situations that could give rise to certain cognitive strategies
C)having all members of a culture have uniform cognitive processes
D)providing uniform environments for all members of the culture

Question 76

Regardless of approach,Scribner's (1984,1986)results on workers' handling of problems showed that workers ______.

A)never completed the problem as quickly as necessary
B)never came to the correct answer if they had jobs involving physical labor
C)always used the same strategy regardless of their job experiences
D)always tried to arrive at the solution with as few steps as possible

Question 77

Scribner's (1984,1986)studies on blue- and white-collar workers showed ______ could solve the problem.

A)that only blue-collar workers
B)that only white-collar workers
C)both blue- and white-collar workers
D)neither blue- nor white-collar workers

Question 78

Collectivist cultures emphasize individual goals and independence from others.

Question 79

Cole and Scribner (1974)found that the ability to make shifts in categorization strategies mostly depended on ______.

A)schooling
B)gender
C)motivation
D)timing

Question 80

Participants from backgrounds without formal schooling tend to be ______ when asked to complete a syllogistic reasoning task.

A)unwilling to participate in the task
B)unable to understand the instructions
C)unable to choose an answer to the problem
D)unwilling to remain within problem boundaries