Cultural Effects on Visual 339

Cu l t u r a l Ef f e c t s o n Vi s u a l Pe r c e p t i o n

Mainstream has generally assumed that psychological processes are universal and that the main role of psychology is to investigate these universal aspects of beings. Visual percep- tion, , and even visual have, therefore, been understood mainly through the underlying optical mechanisms and characteristics of visual hardwired in the human and shared by human beings in general. During the last couple of decades, however, increasing numbers of cross-cultural studies have empirically reexamined this theoretical assumption Figure 1 Müller-Lyer Illusion and advocated an alternative view of human psy- Source: General Social Survey, National Opinion Research chology in which culture and human psychological Center (2000). processes are considered to mutually influence one another. This entry reports some recent attempts to reexamine the so-called universal systems of is much stronger among U.S. residents. Furthermore, and discusses the possibility of children in some cultures (e.g., hunter-gatherers cultural influences on perception as evidenced by from the Kalahari Desert) were completely immune cultural variations in , in per- to the Müller-Lyer illusion. The findings suggest ception, in visual attention, and in brain function- that individuals who grew up in certain visual ing that governs visual attention. environments are not vulnerable to the Müller- Lyer illusion. Various studies have proposed hypotheses to examine the main causes of cultural variations in Cultural Effects on Visual Illusion susceptibility to this illusion. The carpentered envi- In the literature of psychology, optical illusion is ronment hypothesis, for example, suggests that often used as evidence of human universals in per- people developmentally acquire of a ception. One of the most famous optical three-dimensional world in accordance with their is the Müller-Lyer illusion (see Figure 1), in which experiences with the surrounding environment. In people perceive that a line segment ending in Western industrialized societies, individuals’ depth inward-pointing arrows is longer than a horizontal of field is founded on the structure of rooms, line segment ending in outward-pointing arrows. houses, and furniture consisting of vertical and This seemingly universal phenomenon, however, horizontal lines with corners in a variety of angles. has been tested cross-culturally, and the results People in these societies associate acute angles with indicate cultural variations in the magnitude of nearby objects (such as the corner of a rug), and illusion. For example, Murray Islanders in obtuse angles with somewhat more distant views Melanesia and members of the Toda tribe in India (such as the intersection of two walls and a floor). showed significantly smaller errors than do their Once they acquire this specific perceptual pattern British counterparts in judging the relative lengths in the three-dimensional world, they apply the of the lines. Similarly, extensive cross-cultural same rules even when they observe the visual rep- studies of 17 societies—including a variety of resentation in the two-dimensional field. The African agricultural and hunter-gatherer cultures, Western in art is a good example. In an Australian Aboriginal foraging culture, a tribe Western perspective, objects close to the viewer are of Filipino horticulturalists, and midwesterners in drawn larger and are characterized by acute angles, the United States—show that the degree of illusion and objects farther from the viewer are drawn 340 Cultural Effects on Visual Perception smaller and feature obtuse angles. For this reason, they reported that the hunter was aiming at the Westerners perceive a line ending in inward-facing smaller prey, which they believed to be closer to arrows to be farther away (and therefore actually the hunter. longer) than it appears. However, in cultures The causes of cultural variations in the effects of where structures are built using less angular optical illusions need to be studied further. Current shapes, people have fewer opportunities to inter- findings, however, suggest that ’ susceptibil- pret the relationships between lines and angles in ity to optical illusion may depend heavily on their their perceptual world. The carpentered environ- visual experiences in the environment and on cultur- ment hypothesis thus helps explain why people ally shared interpretations of visual information. from some cultures are less susceptible to the Müller-Lyer illusion than Westerners. Cultural Effects on Color Perception Drawings using Western perspective have been used to study cultural variations in depth-of-field accentuate our daily life. But do all people perception. For example, one study examined perceive color in exactly the same way? Color is an how children and illiterate adult laborers from an excellent for use in scientific investigation African Bantu tribe interpreted the of a because although the spectrum is physically defined, large hunter aiming a spear in the direction of two color perception entails psychological processes. animals, an elephant and an antelope (see Figure 2). One line of research provides evidence that sup- The elephant was closer to the hunter from a non- ports the universality of color perception. A cross- Western two-dimensional point of view, but cultural study of 98 societies suggests that 11 because it was drawn smaller than the antelope colors (, , , , , , and the hunter, it would be farther away accord- , , gray, , and ) are univer- ing to Western perspective. The antelope was far- sally recognized, even in the absence of color terms ther away from the hunter in the two-dimensional corresponding to these colors. For example, view, but because of its size, it would be consid- although the Dani people of Irian Jaya on the ered closer to the hunter in Western perspective. island of New Guinea had only two color terms Therefore, although Westerners would be expected (dark and ), they were able to quickly distin- to perceive that the hunter was aiming at the guish among the basic colors. large prey, the Bantus perceived the same image Moreover, researchers who investigate the without the depth of the field, and for this reason relationships between colors and color terms advocate an evolutionary account of the development of color terms. That is, the appearance of color terms is predict- able according to the number of color terms in a language. If the language has only two color terms, these always turn out to be black (dark) and white (light). However, if the language has three color terms, the third term will corre- spond to the red end of the spectrum. The fourth and fifth color terms will be green and yellow (or yellow and then green), the sixth color will be blue, and Figure 2 The Image Used in William Hudson’s (1960) the seventh color will be brown. The last color terms to appear will be pur- Source: Hudson, W. (1960). Pictorial in sub-cultural ple, pink, orange, and gray, not neces- groups in Africa. Journal of , 52, 183–208. Reprinted with permission of the Helen Dwight Reid Educational Foundation. sarily in that order. Published by Heldref Publication, 1319 Eighteenth St., NW, Washington New findings challenge the idea that DC 20036–1802. Copyright © 1960. color perception is universal among Cultural Effects on Visual Perception 341 humans, however. For example, the Dani per- The issue of universality versus cultural vari- formed relatively poorly in tasks requiring them to ability in color perception is still controversial. remember the basic colors; their retention rate was One position holds that language and cultural con- much lower compared with that of English speak- ventions do not affect color perception; the other ers. Another study investigated color perceptions of maintains that color perception is subject to arbi- Berinmo speakers in East Sepik, Papua New Guinea, trary, culturally defined color terms. It has recently whose language contains five . been suggested that both positions are partially The Berinmo’s language distinguishes between nol true. The color terms used in a given culture do (a kind of bluish green) and wor (a kind of yellow- influence retention, , and ongoing pro- ish green) but not between blue and green. In this cesses of color discrimination. But there is still study, English and Berinmo speakers were asked to about 75% overlap in how cultures draw bound- view and remember color chips representing colors aries around color terms. For example, the bound- spanning either the blue-green boundary or the nol- aries of the color terms used by the Berinmo wor boundary. The Berinmo speakers’ performance speakers mentioned earlier are similar to those of of the color retention task was better with regard to the five color terms used by Himba speakers in colors on the nol-wor boundary. The English Namibia, although the ecologies and economies of speakers did better at remembering colors on the the two groups diverge significantly. Thus, there blue-green boundary. These findings suggest that seem to be universal constraints regarding catego- linguistic color terms do affect the ability to remem- rization of colors. ber specific colors. Does language play a role in facilitating or Cultural Effects on Visual Attention inhibiting our perceptual processes? A study of Russian and English speakers examined whether Another line of research has examined whether the existence of a language category influences culture can affect attentional processes. Research color perception. Russian has two independent on perception and indicates that there color terms to represent blue: light blue (goluboy) are systematic cultural variations in attention and dark blue (siniy), whereas English speakers between people in East Asian societies (e.g., China, usually distinguish these colors by adding adjec- Korea, and Japan) and Western societies (e.g., tives (light or dark) to the base term blue. English Canada and the United States). East Asians, who and Russian speakers were presented with a vari- holistically attend to the entire field and relation- ety of blue color chips that were slightly different ships between objects, are more context sensitive from each other in and saturation, and the than Westerners, who analytically focus on salient task was to discriminate which one corresponded objects and can easily separate target objects from to the target chip. For example, a blue chip was the context. presented as a target stimulus; subsequently, two A research group used the rod and frame test to alternative blue chips were presented, and the par- compare the levels of context sensitivity of U.S. and ticipants were asked to select which of the alterna- Chinese participants. This task used a device con- tives was identical to the target chip. Russian sisting of a square frame box of a certain depth, speakers were quicker to discriminate between with a rod situated at one end of the box. The par- two colors when they fell into different categories ticipant sat at the other end of the device with his or (goluboy and siniy) than when they were from the her chin on a chin-rest, observing the rod through same color category. However, these differences the box. The participants were asked to manipulate did not provide the same advantages for English the position of the rod until they subjectively speakers. This experiment demonstrated that the rod was perfectly vertical. The experi- categories in a language affect participants’ menter then manipulated the angle of the frame performance in simple perceptual color tasks. box, and the participant tried again to position the This line of research suggests that culturally rod vertically. When the angle of the frame was shared ways of naming colors may influence speed vertical, the frame could serve as a reference point of color perception. for the position of the rod. When the frame was 342 Cultural Effects on Visual Perception tilted, however, the judgment of participants who supported by a study that measured brain activa- could not ignore the frame would be hindered. The tions during a similar object versus background Chinese participants made more errors than the U.S. task. In this study, magnetic resonance participants did, suggesting that the Chinese were revealed that when identifying objects and their more sensitive to contextual information and there- locations, more brain regions relating to object fore more influenced by the angle of the frame. U.S. information processing were activated in U.S. par- participants were able to detach the task from the ticipants than in Chinese participants. Another influence of the angled frame, which suggests that cross-cultural study measured activity in the brain they were relatively immune to the contextual cue. area that processes object recognition. There were Are there cultural differences in how attention no identifiable differences between Singaporean affects for objects in scenes? In an object college students and their U.S. counterparts; recognition task, U.S. citizens and Japanese were however, Singaporeans 60 years of age and older presented with pictures of wild animals in natural showed less activity in that brain area than did settings. The same participants were then shown U.S. residents in the same age group. These results pictures of the original animals, as well as new suggest that even the neural circuitry for attending animals, and asked to identify which animals they visual scenes is affected by culturally influenced had seen previously. In this part of the study, the information processing over the long term. combination of animals and backgrounds was What are the causes of this systematic cultural manipulated: Half of the original animals were variation? Researchers in general maintain that presented with their original backgrounds, and people internalize a specific pattern of attention the rest with completely new backgrounds. through their experiences of living in a given cul- Although the task was to identify the animals, the tural environment. Some researchers maintain that results indicated that, compared with those from exposure to culturally biased visual representations the United States, Japanese participants were such as paintings, drawings, and even less able to recognize previously seen animals— facilitate the internalization of a specific pattern of especially when they saw them against the novel attention. For example, East Asian painting master- backgrounds. These results suggest that the pieces were found to be more context rich than are Japanese encoded the background information in their Western counterparts. Furthermore, when the they saw in first part of the study and asked to draw scenic images, contemporary mem- had more difficulty detaching the target animal bers of East Asian cultures were more likely than from the context. Westerners were to draw context-rich images. What are the underlying mechanisms of cul- Other studies suggest that East Asian cultures tural variation in patterns of attention? And to emphasize a of interdependence, whereas what extent do sociocultural factors influence our Western cultures emphasize a sense of independence patterns of attention? Recent findings in psy- regarding interpersonal relationships and reasoning chophysiology and provide evidence styles. Such cultural values may encourage cultur- that culture deeply influences attention. Results of ally adaptive patterns of attention—for example, an -tracking study indicated that East Asians making Westerners more likely to see independent were more likely than were Westerners to allocate objects in the scenes and Easterners more apt to see their attention to the surrounding information. relationships and contexts that surround the objects. When given the aforementioned animal recogni- In sum, these findings support the notion that cog- tion task, Chinese participants made more sacca- nitive experiences in the real world influence the dic (rapid nonfocused) eye movements to the processes of our visual systems. background scenes than did those from the United States, even though the task was to evaluate the Implications of Research target objects. These results suggest that context- on Culture and Perception oriented attention is deeply internalized among East Asians, and for this reason, they cannot help Current research provides evidence of cultural referring to contextual information even when influences on perception. These effects have a they do not have to. These findings are further variety of implications for social, cultural, and Cutaneous Perception 343 , as well as for cognitive Further psychology. The reasons are threefold. First, the Berlin, B., & Kay, P. (1969). Basic color terms: Their cross-cultural examination of human perception universality and . Berkeley: University of allows us to examine in what ways, and to what California Press. extent, our perception is flexibly structured and Chua, H. F., Boland, J., & Nisbett, R. E. (2005). Cultural influenced by systems associated with sociocul- variation in eye movements during scene perception. tural experiences. Some researchers maintain Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that basic exists independently USA, 102, 12629–12633. of socioculturally shared beliefs. Their findings Kay, P., & Regier, T. (2007). Color naming universals: suggest that the physical and structural systems The case of Berinmo. Cognition, 102, 289–298. of visual perception are sufficient for under- McCauler, R. N., & Henrich, J. (2006). Susceptibility to standing human perception. However, under the the Muller-Lyer illusion, -neutral , rubric of “new look psychology,” which empha- and the diachronic penetrability of the visual input sizes influences of beliefs and values on . Philosophical Psychology, 19, 1–23. perception, researchers maintain that our per- Nisbett, R. E., & Masuda, T. (2003). Culture and point ceptions, even perceptions of so-called neutral of view. Proceedings of the National Academy of stimuli, are fully influenced by our Sciences USA, 100, 11163–11175. structures, which in turn are based on our expe- Park, D., & Gutchess, A. (2006). The cognitive riences. The underlying processes have not been neuroscience of aging and culture. Current Directions fully investigated, however, and further research in Psychological Science, 15, 105–108. is necessary. Roberson, D., Davis, I., & Davidoff, J. (2000). Color Second, social and cultural psychologists who categories are not universal: Replications and new have identified cultural variation in — evidence from a stone-age culture. Journal of : General, 129, 369–398. such as causal , self-perception, judg- Winawer, J., Witthoft, N., Frank, M. C., Wu, L., Wade, ment, inference, and categorization—have long A. R., & Boroditsky, L. (2007). Russian reveal awaited more objective measurements than previ- effects of language on color discrimination. ously existing quasi-experimental and quasi-survey Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences data collection, which was based mainly on par- USA, 104, 7780–7785. ticipants’ self-reports. Current technological Witkin, H. A. (1967). A cognitive-style approach to advances allow cross-cultural researchers to scruti- cross-cultural research. International Journal of nize underlying processes of these variations in Psychology, 2, 233–250. human behaviors. Finally, the theoretical frameworks of percep- tion research do not sufficiently account for the functions of emotions, motivation, and psycho- logical states. Since the emergence of new look Cu t a n e o u s Pe r c e p t i o n psychology, however, substantial numbers of stud- ies have suggested that such factors play an impor- The skin, far from being just a passive wrapping tant role in perceptual processes. Again, the for the body, provides a wealth of capabilities findings of cultural influence on perception mutu- that combine to allow for extraordinarily com- ally accelerate further investigation into the com- plex patterns of perceptual experience. Although plexity of human perception. cutaneous perception might be taken for granted by most persons, for individuals with visual or Takahiko Masuda auditory disabilities, their impression of the world can depend heavily on their of See also Aesthetic Appreciation of Pictures; Attention and Emotion; Color Perception; Eye Movements and touch. Cutaneous perception results from combi- Action in Everyday Life; Eye Movements During nations of responses from skin receptors, evoked Cognition and Conversation; Individual Differences in by mechanical and thermal stimuli, and, occa- Perception; Nonveridical Perception; ; sionally, chemical and painful events. Historically, Visual Illusions; Visual Scene Perception there has been some question about the structures