Culture and Cognition
Dr.K. A. Korb
University Of Jos
22 May 2009
Outline
• General Intelligence
• Implicit Theories of Intelligence
• Information Processing
Dr. K. A. Korb
University of Jos
General Intelligence
• Intelligence: The capacity to understand the
world, think with rationality, and to use
resources effectively when faced with
challenges (Wechsler)
• General Intelligence (g):Based on findings
that different cognitive abilities tend to have
strong, positive correlations
Dr. K. A. Korb
University of Jos
General Intelligence
• Racial differences in intelligence
– The closer a test is to g, the larger the racial differences
between Black and White Americans
– When re-analyzing the data, socioeconomic (SES) factor
accounted for the greater differences in intelligence then
race (Humphreys,1985)
• The difference in intelligence between low and middle SES
students was greater than the difference between Blacks and
Whites
Dr. K. A. Korb
University of Jos
General Intelligence
• National differences in intelligence
– Positive correlation between a country’s Gross
National products (GNP) and intelligence
– Two explanations:
• More affluent societies spend more money on
education, raising the level of intelligence
• The test content may be more familiar to students in
more affluent societies, biasing the results
Dr. K. A. Korb
University of Jos
Testing Procedures
•
Administered Intelligence tests to 358 young Tanzanian
school children (Sternberg et al., 2002)
1.
2.
Pre-Test: Traditional testing procedure
Intervention: Feedback given during five minute training on
the intelligence test tasks (Dynamic Testing)
•
3.
•
•
•
Attempt to test the zone of proximal development
Post-Test
Children perform significantly better on the post-test
Post-test scores were weakly correlated with pre-test
scores
Conclusion: Unfamiliarity with the testing procedures
hindered test performance
Dr. K. A. Korb
University of Jos
General Intelligence
• To interpret cultural differences in intelligence test
scores, consider the following distinctions:
– Intelligence A: Genetic contribution to intelligence
– Intelligence B: Intelligence developed within the cultural
context
– Intelligence C: Performance on the intelligence test
• Intelligence C may not accurately measure
intelligence B
– Due to: Test language, item content, test-taking
motivation, speededness of the test
• Conclusions from Intelligence C provide very little
information about intelligence A.
Dr. K. A. Korb
University of Jos
General Intelligence
• Performance on measures of cognitive
abilities (intelligence tests) does not always
reflect performance in real-life cognitive tasks
– Brazilian street children
– US house wives comparison shopping in the
market
Dr. K. A. Korb
University of Jos
Test 2
• Fluid Intelligence: Reason abstractly on novel
problems
– What comes next in these series?
5 10 15 20 25 30
A.
B.
C.
• Crystallized Intelligence: Accumulation of knowledge and
skill in familiar domains
– What is Piaget’s second stage of development?
– What is the main ingredient in pap?
Dr. K. A. Korb
University of Jos
Intelligence
• In villages, practical, indigenous knowledge:
– Is not correlated to fluid intelligence
– Is negatively correlated to formal Western crystallized
intelligence
• Learning in formal Western education appears to
conflict with learning indigenous societal and
occupational practices
• General intelligence may be more related to abilities
learned in Western schooling than representative of
universal human abilities
Dr. K. A. Korb
University of Jos
Education and Intelligence
• Western Schooling:Study many skills in a
variety of domains with little direct teacher
interaction
• Traditional Schooling:Learn few skills through
apprenticeships
– Less likely to observe a general factor of intelligence with
traditional schooling because students are only exposed to
practices within their specific area of training
Dr. K. A. Korb
University of Jos
Sternberg’s Theory of Successful Intelligence
(Sternberg, 2002)
• Intelligence:The ability to achieve success at
personal standards within one’s socio-cultural
context.
• Success is attained through a balance of the
following abilities:
– Analytic: How information is processed
– Creative: Ability to handle new situations
– Practical: Use environment advantageously
Dr. K. A. Korb
University of Jos
Implicit Theories of Intelligence
• Implicit theories of intelligence:Individual belief
of intelligence used as the basis for making
judgments about intelligence behavior
– Necessary for understanding an individual’s behavior and
value system
– Necessary for determining a formal theory of intelligence
relevant to a community
Dr. K. A. Korb
University of Jos
Implicit Theories of Intelligence
• Taiwan: Problem solving, social competence, emotional
competence, intellectual assertion, intellectual selfeffacement
• Kenya:
–
–
–
–
–
Rieko: Knowledge and skills
Luoro: Respect and care for others
Winjo: Wisdom in real-life problems
Para: Creativity
Only reiko is correlated with school achievement
• Uganda and Zimbabwe: Social behavior that benefits the
group
Dr. K. A. Korb
University of Jos
Implicit Theories of Intelligence
• Village adults were asked to nominate
children who were superior at typical village
tasks and asked reasons why (Serpell,1991)
–
–
–
–
Nzelu: Wisdom
Chenjela: Aptitude
Tumilika: Responsibility
Khulupilika: Trustworthy
• Performance in these domains were uncorrelated
with school performance
Dr. K. A. Korb
University of Jos
Implicit Theories of Intelligence
• Examined parent theories of intelligence
among different ethnic groups in the US
(Okagaki & Stenberg, 1993)
– Closer the parent’s conceptions of intelligence
were to the teachers’ conceptions of intelligence,
the better their children performance in school
Dr. K. A. Korb
University of Jos
Implicit Theories of Intelligence
• Cognitive value among traditional societies
are different from that of formal education
– Western education may be incompatible with
activities valued by traditional societies
• Intelligence is related to schooling in highly
literate societies
– Greater exposure to formal education likely shifts
cognitive value toward the activities of schooling
Dr. K. A. Korb
University of Jos
Flynn Effect:
Average IQ over time in US
.
105
IQ on the 1995 Scale
100
95
90
85
80
75
70
1900
1920
1940
1960
Year
Dr. K. A. Korb
University of Jos
1980
2000
Information Processing
• Cognitive tasks can be separated into single
elementary-processing components
– Response Time
– Memory
– Metacognition
Dr. K. A. Korb
University of Jos
Reaction Time
• Simple reaction times with a single stimulus have similar
response time between schooled and unschooled
cultures
– Similar basic cognitive processing for simple tasks
• Complex reaction times show cross-cultural differences
– As the reaction time tasks increase in complexity,
differences between schooled unschooled population
increase
• Potential Confound: Familiarity with tasks
– Timed children when sorting models and photographs of
cars and animals
– Zambian children were slower at sorting photographs but
not models
– Difficult to make cross-cultural comparisons by score levels
because of familiarity with the stimuli
Dr. K. A. Korb
University of Jos
Memory
• Working memory capacity is not affected by culture
• Working memory control processing are affected by
culture
– Primary Effect: Items presented early in a list are
remembered better
– Unschooled Liberians do not demonstrate the primary
effect or cluster like-objects (Cole et al., 1971)
• The primary effect did not occur until children had been in
school for many years
– Differences between memory controls processes memory
may be limited stimuli
• Unschooled Guatemalan children did not lower performance
on a memory task that was embedded into their cultural
context
Dr. K. A. Korb
University of Jos
Metacognition
• Very little research has examined differences
in metacognitive processes between cultures
• Research has found socioeconomic and ethnic
differences in metacognitive knowledge of
school tasks
– Linked to the frequency of reading at home
• Australian Aborigines demonstrate
metacognitive knowledge of storytelling, but
metacognitive knowledge rarely transfers to
school tasks (Davidson & Freebody, 1988)
Dr. K. A. Korb
University of Jos
Contextualized Cognition
• Contextualized Cognition: Focus on specific cognitive performances
as related to particular features of the cultural context
– People are good at doing things that are important to them and that
they do often
– Cultural differences in cognition are due to the fact that cultures differ
in the situations in which particular cognitive processes are applied
• As opposed to the presence of one process in one cultural group and absence
in another
• Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory of Development is a theory of
contextualized cognition
– Examines cognitive development within the domains of a cultural
activity
– Proposed that increasing cognitive competence is the result of
interactions between people within a society
Dr. K. A. Korb
University of Jos
Cotextualized Cognition
• Conclusion of Cole and colleagues based on
data collected with the Kpelle of Liberia (1971)
– Much cognitive behavior is context-bound
– It is not possible to generalize cognitive
performances from one context to a different
context
Dr. K. A. Korb
University of Jos
Literacy and Intelligence
• Original hypothesis: Literacy enables an individual to
perform abstract cognitive operations
– Compared individuals in Liberia: Illiterates, Read local Via
language, or Read English on performance on general
cognitive tasks (Scribner & Cole, 1981)
– Results: Individuals who could read local Via performed
similarly to illiterates. Those who could read English
performed significantly better
– Not many people use the Vai script; it is only used for
familiar topics
– Conclusion: Literacy leads to abstract cognition only when
a person is able to learn about topics outside of one’s
direct experiences
Dr. K. A. Korb
University of Jos
Conclusion
• Universalist Perspective: Basic cognitive
processes are shared across all cultures.
However, culture influences the development,
content, and use of cognitive processes
• Cognition is adapted to the environment in
which a person is situated.
Dr. K. A. Korb
University of Jos
Revision
• What groups differ in performance on general
intelligence tests? What are some possible
explanations that have been proposed that might
cause the differences in performance?
• Describe various cultures’ implicit thories of
intelligence.
• What cultural similarities and differences have
been found on information processing tasks?
• Describe the relationship between western
formal education and traditional village life.
Dr. K. A. Korb
University of Jos