Psychology
Kearins (1981) had a sample of
forty-four adolescents aged 12 -
16 years (27 boys, 17 girls) of
desert Aboriginal origin and 44
adolescents (28boys, 16 girls) of
white Australian origin. Kearins
placed 20 objects on a board
divided into 20 squares.
Aboriginal and white Australian
childrenwere told to study the
board for 30 seconds. Then the
objects were gathered together
and placed in a pile in the center
of the board and thechildren were
asked to place the objects on the
board in the same arrangement.
The results showed that the
Aboriginal correctly relocated
moreobjects than did white
Australian children. It appears that
their way of life has a significant
impact on how and what they
remember. Cole &Scriber's study
showed, children learned memory
strategies through their formal
education - but education is not
only "in school" but by the
waythat we are raised by our
parents. Kearins argues that the
first generation settled parents
raised their children in a way that
reflects thetraditional lifestyle and
values - and this, in turn, affects
the way that they learn.
A final example of the role of culture in cognition is a
study by Kulkofsky et al (2011). The researchers
studied five countries - China, Germany, Turkey, the
UK, and the USA - to see if there was any difference
in the rate of flashbulb memories in collectivistic and
individualistic cultures. There were 274 adults from
the five different countries.
Participants were given five minutes to recall as
many memories as they could of public events in
their lifetime. They were then given a memory
question which was similar to the one used by Brown
& Kulik (1977). These questions included where they
had learned of the event, what time of day it was and
what they were doing when they heard about it. They
were then asked questions about the importance of
the event - including how personally important it was,
how surprised they were and how often they had
spoken about it since it happened. All questionnaires
were provided in the native language of the
participants.
The researchers found that in a collectivistic culture
like China, personal importance and intensity of
emotion played less of a role in predicting flashbulb
memories, compared with more individualistic
cultures that place greater emphasis on an
individual's personal involvement and emotional
experiences. Because focusing on the individual's
own experiences is often de-emphasized in the
Chinese context, there would be less rehearsal of the
triggering event compared with participants from
other cultures - and thus a lower chance of
developing a flashbulb memory. However, it was
found that if the event was of national importance,
then there was no significant difference in the
creation of flashbulb memories.