Schooling in Western Culture Promotes Context-Free Processing

Autor/inn/en	Ventura, Paulo; Pattamadilok, Chotiga; Fernandes, Tania; Klein, Olivier; Morais, Jose; Kolinsky, Regine
Titel	Schooling in Western Culture Promotes Context-Free Processing
Quelle	In: Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 100 (2008) 2, S.79-88 (10 Seiten) PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0022-0965
DOI	10.1016/j.jecp.2008.02.001
Schlagwörter	Foreign Countries; Comparative Analysis; Asian Culture; Cognitive Processes; Western Civilization; Context Effect; Adults; Adult Literacy; Illiteracy; Education; Physical Environment; Portugal; Thailand + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Ausland; Cognitive process; Kognitiver Prozess; Analphabetismus; Bildung; Erziehung; Natürliche Umwelt
Abstract	Culture has been shown to influence the way people apprehend their physical environment. Cognitive orientation is more holistic in East Asian cultures, which emphasize relationships and connectedness among objects in the field, than in Western cultures, which are more prone to focus exclusively on the object and its attributes. We investigated whether, beyond, or in conjunction with culture, literacy and/or schooling may also have an influence on this cognitive orientation. Using the Framed-Line Test both in Portugal and in Thailand, we compared literate schooled adults with two groups of unschooled adults: one of illiterates and one of ex-illiterates. As in former studies on Western people, Portuguese-schooled literates were more accurate in the absolute task than in the relative task. In contrast, Portuguese illiterates and ex-illiterates were more accurate in the relative task than in the absolute task. Such an effect of schooling was not observed in the Thai groups, all of whom performed better on the relative task. Thus, the capacity to abstract from contextual information does not stem only from passive exposure to the culture or the physical environment of Western countries. Western schooling, as part of or in addition to culture, is a crucial factor. (Author).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2017/4/10