Cognition & Perception

Ayumi is a Japanese student, and Alice is a European-Canadian student. They are both participating in a study in which they are asked to provide some self-descriptions. Which of the following is the likeliest outcome of this study?

Ayumi is likelier than Alice to say that she is both considerate and selfish.

The Department of Chemistry is trying to understand how people solve problems in organic chemistry classes. Students are given a series of complex organic chemistry problems to solve. Which of the following will characterize the students' performance?

East Asian students will perform worse on the problems if they are asked to verbally articulate their thinking process, but their performance will be relatively unaffected if they recite their own names repeatedly.

Research on cultural differences in reasoning reveals that..

East Asians use analytic reasoning strategies in most math and science problems.

During a professional ice hockey game, fans from around the world saw Tony Bertram, a professional hockey player, punch an unsuspecting player in the face and throw him onto the ice. According to analytic versus holistic thinking styles, which of the following do you think is most likely to happen?

East Asians will blame Tony's family problems, and Westerners will blame Tony's nasty personality.

Which of the following examples most accurately portrays research on cultural differences in communication style?

Endo, who is Japanese, cannot reach his friend, Tanaka, because Tanaka's cell phone is off, but Endo has great difficulty leaving messages on Tanaka's voice mail.

Comparisons of Asian Americans and Euro-Americans in their performance on Raven's progressive matrices reveals that...

Euro-Americans do worse on the task if they are reciting the alphabet.

A researcher asks a participant to organize a series of pictures in temporal sequence. The person organizes the pictures so that the temporal sequence goes from right to left. Which of the following most likely describes the participant?

He conceptualizes time as going from east to west, and is facing north.

You are leading a group of researchers from Japan and the United States to come up with a new invention based on current designs for the car, so that your company can submit a patent. Based on cultural differences in creative thinking, which of the following is the most likely to happen?

Japanese researchers will focus on making minor adjustments to cars to make them more functional; American researchers will focus on making revolutionizing changes to them.

Jeremy and Jason took a test to see how high their individualism and collectivism scores are. Jeremy's individualism score is 9 out of 18, and his collectivism score is 11 out of 18. Jason's individualism score is 12 out of 18, and his collectivism score is 8 out of 18. Which of the following statements is true?

Jason is likelier than Jeremy to create novel inventions.

An American student, Ronald, and his Chinese friend, Rui, are looking up at the clear blue sky, where just a few clouds are visible. Coincidentally, the clouds are all grouped into one cluster just above Ronald and Rui. The two start naming shapes that they see in the clouds. According to cultural differences in attentional style, which of the following is most likely to happen in this scenario?

Rui will give answers that are based more on the cluster of clouds than Ronald, who will base his answers more on a single cloud.

Recent fieldwork suggests that the Saami people (an indigenous people living in parts of northern Europe) have almost 100 words to describe various kinds of reindeer. English, on the other hand, has only a tiny fraction of words used to describe reindeer. According to the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, what cultural difference between English and Saami speakers would result from this disparity in reindeer-related vocabulary size?

Saami speakers are better able to categorize reindeer than English speakers.

A Chinese art critic, Weiwei, and his American counterpart, William, are both looking at a painting of a group of people standing behind a vase in the middle foreground. If you were to compare the eye gazes of Weiwei and William, what would you find?

William spends more time gazing at the vase than does Weiwei.

Your roommate is from a high context culture. As a result, which of the following is most likely to be an exchange between the two of you?

You ask your roommate if you can use her hairdryer. She does not want you to, but she says, "I guess so," with a very subtle disapproving expression.

Horatio and Gil are debating the legalization of marijuana. Horatio has a strong argument for legalization, while Gil has a weak argument against it. Zhang, a Chinese student, is watching the debate. Compared to how Zhang would perceive the arguments if he were to encounter just one argument, how will he perceive the arguments if they are both presented to him?

Zhang would become less convinced that Horatio's argument is true, but become more convinced that Gil's argument is true.

Color terms from different cultures around the world...

all correspond to a small number of different possible sets of terms.

Which one does not belong: a human, a giraffe, and a car?

analytic thinker: car; holistic thinker: giraffe

People from cultures that do not have words for numbers beyond two or three...

are able to discriminate between rough proportions, but not for precise numbers.

When it comes to analytic reasoning tasks, East Asians...

choose family-resemblance responses if there is a conflict between rule and similarity-based judgments.

Contrasting the attributions made by Indians and Americans in research by Joan Miller reveals all of the following EXCEPT...

cultural differences in attributions are evident in young children as well as in adults.

People who are especially field dependent tend to be...

holistic thinkers.

Yasmin is an executive at a company, and she wants to hire the most creative applicant for a new position. She decides to hire someone from an individualistic culture because she feels that individualists are more creative than collectivists. You _____________ with her statement because _____________.

disagree; individualists and collectivists are better at different types of creative thinking

You are walking with your friend when both of you see a person on the street trip and fall. You think that the person is a clumsy person, but your friend thinks the person was distracted by something across the street. In this situation, which of the following more accurately captures what you are engaging in?

dispositional attribution

Analytic thinking is argued to be associated with...

dispositional attributions.

With which of the following is a low context culture most closely associated?

explicit communication

Mandia met a friend called Martina in university. Martina's boyfriend likes to go to bars to drink, and makes Martina go to bars with him. Mandia knows that Martina's boyfriend makes her go to bars, but still thinks that Martina goes because she likes to go to bars. The term that best describes Mandia's thoughts is...

fundamental attribution error.

Jade, a European-Canadian real estate agent, and Jing, a Chinese real estate agent, are trying to figure out what to tell their clients about the market's outlook. Compared to Jade, Jing will...

have predictions that are less linear given past patterns.

Brittany is arguing with Michael about his article in the school newspaper, in which Michael advocates raising student tuition. Michael claims that Brittany is committing the fundamental attribution error. This means that Brittany did which of the following?

ignored the fact that Michael was asked by the editor to write the article, and asserted that Michael wrote it only because he is personally pro tuition increase

Two families are claiming to be the family of a lost mystery child. You are a judge who uses holistic reasoning, and must determine which family is the correct one. This is before the days of DNA analysis, so you must use family resemblance as your guide. Based on research about reasoning styles, what do you do to establish a familial relationship?

look at which family has approximately the same combination of features as the child

Analytic thinking is best characterized by...

separating things from each other, breaking things down [taxonomic categories]

Which of the following most accurately portrays field dependence?

someone who is better at the relative-line task than the absolute-line task