Culture and Perception
Ronald Fischer
Social Psychology, PSYC 338
Overview
Perceptual sets and culture
 Types of perceptions
 Visual illusions and pictorial perceptions
 Perception of music
 Perception of time
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Two fundamental perspectives
Nativism
Empiricism
Perceptual sets
Environment shapes our perception
 We create perceptual expectations
 Increase particular interpretations (speed &
efficiency)
 Culturally functional and adaptive (mostly)
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Important Senses
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Vision
– Colour, depths
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Hearing
– Pitch, tone, mode, rhythm, etc.
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Taste
Smell
Touch
Time
The horizontal-vertical illusion
The Sander parallelogram illusion
What about if it was like this?
The perspective drawing illusion
Some early experiments
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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)
Some explanations
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Hypotheses about cultural differences
– Carpentered world theory
– Front-horizontal foreshortening theory
– Symbolising three dimensions in two
Carpentered world
theory
The Sander parallelogram illusion
Front-horizontal foreshortening
theory
The perspective drawing illusion
Symbolising three
dimensions in two
Challenges to this eco-cultural
explanation

Effect of retinal pigmentation (Pollack, 1970)
– Some support (e.g., Bornstein, 1973)
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Other factors at play:
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Sensitivity to different colours (colour naming)
Exposure to ultraviolet rays
Dietary differences
Age
Education
Implications
Design of instructions, manuals, safety
signs, etc.
 Education campaigns
 Use in educational settings
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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
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Task
Listen to the following excerpts
 Answer the following questions:
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– What feelings and emotions does this music
arouse in you? Use four adjectives to describe
the music.
– Where do you think this music is coming from?
– What is the likely function of this music? At
what occasions is it likely to be played? Make a
guess!
Excerpts

Excerpt 1:
• Java, Indonesia (Gending Pahargyan Penganten, Monggang)
• Wedding ceremony, welcome and honor the family of the
bride groom)
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Excerpt 2:
• Serbia, Ex-Yugoslavia (Kayah & Bregović, Sto lat młodej
parze)
• Wedding
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Excerpt 3:
• Salvador, Bahia, Brazil (Capoeira Angola, Iuna)
• Capoeira, to show respect to the 2 experienced capoeiristas
(Mestres) currently fighting/playing
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Excerpt 4:
• Bamanan people, Mali (Rokia Traore, Yèrè Uolo)
• Song in praise of a great warrior
Musical functions
(Merriam, 1964)
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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
Perceptions of time
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Another little experiment….
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Pace of life (Levine & Norenzayan, 1999)
Dimensions of time
Past, present and future (Klockhohn &
Strodtbeck, 1961)
 Polychronic versus monochronic (Hall)
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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
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