PSY 3126 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Fundamental Attribution Error, Field Dependence, Law Of Excluded Middle
28 Apr 2018
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November 1, 2017
Cognition and Perception
Cognition and Perception
Cognition: basic mental processes that include attention, memory, thinking, knowing, and language
Perception: the interpretation of sensory stimuli
Analytic vs. Holistic Thinking
Analytic thinking: focus on objects and their attributes
-Objects perceived as independent from contexts and are understood in terms of their component parts
-The attributes that make up objects are used as a basis for categorizing them, and a set of fixed abstract rules is
used to predict and explain the behaviour of these objects
-Taxonomic categorization
•Ex. Hammer, saw, and axe all belong together because they are all tools
-More common in individualistic societies - socialized to be independent and to have their attention focused on
objects
Holistic thinking: orientation to the context as a whole
-Associative way of thinking
-Attending to the relations among objects and predicting an object’s behaviour on the basis of these relationships
-Emphasizes knowledge gained through experience rather than the application of fixed abstract rules
-Thematic categorization
•Ex. Saw, wood, and axe all belong together
-More common in collectivistic societies - socialized in relational contexts and have their attention directed at
relational concerns
NB: cultural differences in types of thinking can be seen by comparing the different philosophical ideas of the ancient
Greeks and Chinese
-Platonic view of the world vs. Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism
-Plato: the world is a collection of discrete, unchanging objects that can be categorized by reference to a set of
universal principles
•Demonstrates analytical thinking
•What is the underlying trait that makes a chair a chair?
•Further evident in the development of an elaborate formal logic system that searched for the truth according to
abstract rules that existed independently of observations
-Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism: emphasize harmony, interconnectedness, and change
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•Demonstrates holistic thinking
•Every action has a consequence, focuses on the relations within the world
-Ex. Karma, living a good life involves performing your roles
•Further evident among Chinese medical traditions and in the culture’s emphasis on harmony among people and
nature
-Not too sure how holistic vs. analytical thinking appeared initially, but research suggests that holistic thinking is
quite widespread throughout the world and that analytic thinking is relatively unusual
•Analytic thinking is largely restricted to people who have had much contact with Western society or education
systems
Holistic thinkers perceive a scene as an integrated whole and have field dependence
-Field dependence: difficulty in separating objects from each other
-More common for people who attend a lot to others (ex. Outgoing people, cooperative societies)
Analytic thinkers are able to separate objects from each other more easily and have field independence
-Field independence: can separate objects from their background fields
Attention
Difference in attention: analytic and holistic thinker pay attention to different things
Differences in Rorschach tests:
-European-Americans were more likely to describe what they saw based on a single aspect of the card (ex. A single
blotch in one corner)
-Chinese Americans were more likely to give “whole-card” responses, describing what they saw based on the entire
image
Ex. Is the line perfectly vertical or a couple of degrees off vertical?
-Holistic thinking: see the line as vertical - field dependence
•Take the whole picture into account and look at the angles of the frame
-Analytical thinking: see the line as off-vertical - field independence
•Able to separate the object from its environment
Ex. American and Japanese participants looked at an underwater scene with fish swimming, waving seaweed, and so
forth
-Participants were asked to describe what they saw in these scenes
•Japanese were more likely to describe background elements
•Americans were more likely to describe the fish (more central figures)
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-After a while, the researchers sometimes presented the same fish with the same background and sometimes with a
different background
•Americans’ performance was unaffected by background, while Japanese recognized fewer fish when
background was changed
•Japanese thinking style is really dependent on the background and didn’t separate the fish from the background
Ex. Eye-tracking study results:
-Japanese participants look less at the central figures as time goes on, regardless of background type
•Japanese started to tend more to the background
-Americans only showed a small decrease in looking towards the central figure
Horizons and Context
Ex. Art: looking at two paintings of river scenes
-Western:
•Much more focused, emphasis on the river
•Horizon is very low - can depict a lot less in the foreground
(above the horizon needs to be background and the sky)
•Not as busy
-Asian:
•Much less focused, less emphasis on the river and much more going
on in the painting than just shown a river
•Horizon is quite high
•Much more busy
Ex. Looking at portraits of people
-Western: emphasis is placed on the individual
•Shows a person by himself
•Background is more muted
•More detail placed in the face
-Asian: emphasis is placed on the context
•Shows people together
•Background is much more detailed
•Less detail in the face
•Depicts the person in relation to their environment
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Document Summary
Cognition: basic mental processes that include attention, memory, thinking, knowing, and language. Analytic thinking: focus on objects and their attributes. Objects perceived as independent from contexts and are understood in terms of their component parts. The attributes that make up objects are used as a basis for categorizing them, and a set of xed abstract rules is used to predict and explain the behaviour of these objects. Hammer, saw, and axe all belong together because they are all tools. More common in individualistic societies - socialized to be independent and to have their attention focused on objects. Holistic thinking: orientation to the context as a whole. Attending to the relations among objects and predicting an object"s behaviour on the basis of these relationships. Emphasizes knowledge gained through experience rather than the application of xed abstract rules. More common in collectivistic societies - socialized in relational contexts and have their attention directed at relational concerns.
