6.10 General processes in higher order cognition and intelligence.

General cognitive processes support higher order cognition. Although there is still much to be learned the literature point to the importance of categorization, memory, creativity, and quantitative abilities as foundations for complex and abstract thinking. Since cultures vary in eco-cultural contexts we should expect differences that correspond to these variances.

6.10.1 Categorization.

Among the cognitive processes that are building blocks in cognition and intelligence probably the most elementary is categorization. People categorize on the basis of similarity placing into categories objects that have something in common. The process of categorization is universal and has been observed in all cultures. People categorize in order to reduce the complexity of the world and provide the psychological means to react to stimuli and make appropriate decisions. Language is essentially based on categorization as the development of concepts is symbolic of communalities in our environment. We have already noted the universality of facial expressions and their common meaning across cultures. More complex verbal behaviors are also categorized as we can see in the case of stereotypes, the generalized beliefs we hold of other cultural groups and people. In fact categorization is the most elementary way we discriminate. Stereotypes attribute to an entire cultural category what we believe are common traits and is the lazy person’s response to a complex multifaceted world. In fact it takes very little to categorize, particularly between ingroup and outgroup members. The mere membership in another group is sufficient to create a negative bias. The so-called minimal categorization design studies demonstrated that even groups that are nonsensical produce discriminatory categorical behavior (Doise, Csepeli, Dann, Gouge, Larsen, & Ostell, 1972).

Cross-cultural differences in categorization have been demonstrated. For example one study showed that adult Africans tended to categorize objects on the basis of color rather than function reflecting the importance of color identification of objects in that cultural context (Suchman, 1966). Western respondents tend to categorize on the basis of shared features. For example in pictorial stimuli of a man, a woman and child, Western respondents would place the man and woman together because they are both adults, whereas East Asians would put the child together with the adult because of their functional relationship as a family (Ji, Zhang, & Nisbett, 2004). The culture provides the context for categorization and respondents classify objects together based on these cultural experiences (Wassmann & Dasen, 1994). It is the degree of familiarity with environmental objects that become the basis for categorization that is also largely influenced by the cultural educational system (Mishra, 1997).

6.10.2 Memory functions.

To examine cross-cultural research in memory it is necessary to discuss briefly the underlying constructs. Wagner (1993) made a distinction between two major aspects of memory referring to structural and control processes. A lot of research in memory functioning point to brain structures related to long-term and short-term memory. Most of us have had the experience of being prompted about some memory of an event that occurred long ago. Long term memory has seemingly unlimited capacity, and a trace probably exist for all meaningful events, good or bad, that has occurred in our lives. Short-term memory on the other hand is where we store temporary matters like telephone numbers of stores or other less significant things. Although forgetting is also a universal experience, memory in the short term storage is forgotten more quickly, often as soon as you have acted on the information provided like when calling the store phone number for some pricing information. Baddeley (1986) suggested that short-term memory has a maximum storage of about 2 seconds, after that the memory trace must be refreshed, perhaps by repeating to yourself the phone number you intend to use. The control process in memory refers to the strategies employed in securing information and retrieving it from memory. Information that has common factors is often remembered in clusters of related facts.

Since memory storage is a hardwired recollection it tend to be similar across cultures. Even very different cultural groups tend to have similar display and patterns in immediate recall of memory (Whethrick & Deregowski, 1982). However, what is recalled depend on cultural experience and is determined by cultural values as well as socioeconomic differences that produce advantage or disadvantage for recall. Better recall occurs for subjects with which we are familiar and that is consistent with our existing knowledge (Ciborski & Choi, 1974; Harris, Schoen, & Hensley, 1992).

Since we have so many memory aids in modern society, not least the computer, do people who depend on oral traditions have better memory recall? Some research supports this proposition, but the results are mixed (Ross & Milton, 1970). Education makes a difference since in the class room children are often asked to memorize and apply memory skills to test situations. Since memory depend on hardwiring of the brain people everywhere show the effects of aging, and memory function decrease with increasing age in all cultures investigated (Crook, Youngjohn, Larrabee & Salama, 1992). However, on the whole there does not appear strong influence of culture on structural memory. Among the control factors education seem to be a primary contributor along with urbanization (Wagner, 1978; Jahoda, 1981).