Perceptual and Mnemonic Differences Across Cultures

文化背景会影响人们对视觉世界的感知和记忆吗？许多人认为心理过程是普遍的，不受祖国或文化的影响。但最近，人们越来越认识到，个人？S背景可以影响感知或记忆过程。以往关于文化差异的研究大都认为记忆和视觉感知是两个独立的过程，而大多数关于视觉过程的研究都局限于评估面部感知。目前的项目研究的是不同文化对视觉特征的偏好是否不同：他们倾向于感知全局、整体形状还是细节？文化是否会影响每一种视觉信息的处理速度，或者它是否会主导有意识的体验？感知上的差异会影响后来对场景的记忆吗？这些都是具有全球重要性的问题，通过让学生和学员接触跨文化研究，将有助于培养具有全球意识的劳动力。调查人员还将在当地一所多元化的高中开展外展活动。参加这些外联活动还将培训团队成员进行有效的科学外联和交流。四个实验将探讨以下方面的文化差异：1)视觉中高频与低频信息的相对优势，对于稳定感知以及动态竞争优势的感知；2)早期注意力过程的大脑标记与期望或显著性标记（使用脑电图）；3)短期记忆与感知判断的比较；准确区分不同类型信息的能力)与反应偏差（即以特定方式作出反应的倾向）。现存的视觉感知和记忆模型主要是基于对“怪异”对象（西方、受过教育的、工业化、富裕和民主国家的）的研究而发展起来的。通过系统地比较不同文化，这项研究项目将增加对人类文化、感知和记忆过程相互作用的理解。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Does cultural background impact how people perceive the visual world and what they remember? Many assume that psychological processes are universal and not affected by native country or culture. But recently there has been increased appreciation of the ways in which an individual?s background can impact perceptual or memory processes. Prior work on cultural differences has largely considered memory and visual perception as separate processes and most of the work on visual processes has been restricted to evaluating face perception. The current project examines whether cultures differ in the visual features they preferentially perceive: Do they tend to perceive global, overall shape or fine detail? Does culture affect how quickly each type of visual information is processed or whether it dominates conscious experience? Does any difference in perception affect later memory for scenes? These are issues of global importance and will contribute to the development of a globally-minded workforce by exposing students and trainees to cross-cultural research. The investigators will also engage in outreach activities at a diverse local high school. Participating in these outreach activities will also train members of the team in effective scientific outreach and communication.Four experiments will investigate cultural differences in 1) the relative dominance of high versus low spatial frequency information in vision, for stable percepts as well as those that compete dynamically for dominance, 2) brain markers of early attention processes versus markers of expectation or salience, using electroencephalography (EEG), 3) short-term memory, in comparison with perceptual judgments, and 4) measures of sensitivity (i.e., ability to accurately distinguish different types of information) versus response bias (i.e., a tendency to respond in a particular way). Extant models of visual perception and memory were predominantly developed based on the study of "WEIRD" subjects (Western, educated, and from industrialized, rich, and democratic countries). By systematically comparing across cultures, this research project will increase understanding of the interplay of culture, perception, and memory processes in our species.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.