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East–West cultural differences in context‐sensitivity are evident in early childhood

East–West cultural differences in context‐sensitivity are evident in early childhood Accumulating evidence suggests that North Americans tend to focus on central objects whereas East Asians tend to pay more attention to contextual information in a visual scene. Although it is generally believed that such culturally divergent attention tendencies develop through socialization, existing evidence largely depends on adult samples. Moreover, no past research has investigated the relation between context‐sensitivity and other domains of cognitive development. The present study examined children in the United States and Japan (N = 175, age 4–9 years) to investigate the developmental pattern in context‐sensitivity and its relation to executive function. The study found that context‐sensitivity increased with age across cultures. Nevertheless, Japanese children showed significantly greater context‐sensitivity than American children. Also, context‐sensitivity fully mediated the cultural difference in a set‐shifting executive function task, which might help explain past findings that East Asian children outperformed their American counterparts on executive function. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Developmental Science Wiley

East–West cultural differences in context‐sensitivity are evident in early childhood

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References (49)

Publisher
Wiley
Copyright
© 2013 Blackwell Publishing Ltd
ISSN
1363-755X
eISSN
1467-7687
DOI
10.1111/desc.12016
pmid
23432830
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Accumulating evidence suggests that North Americans tend to focus on central objects whereas East Asians tend to pay more attention to contextual information in a visual scene. Although it is generally believed that such culturally divergent attention tendencies develop through socialization, existing evidence largely depends on adult samples. Moreover, no past research has investigated the relation between context‐sensitivity and other domains of cognitive development. The present study examined children in the United States and Japan (N = 175, age 4–9 years) to investigate the developmental pattern in context‐sensitivity and its relation to executive function. The study found that context‐sensitivity increased with age across cultures. Nevertheless, Japanese children showed significantly greater context‐sensitivity than American children. Also, context‐sensitivity fully mediated the cultural difference in a set‐shifting executive function task, which might help explain past findings that East Asian children outperformed their American counterparts on executive function.

Journal

Developmental ScienceWiley

Published: Mar 1, 2013

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