Question

Several studies conducted by Nisbett and his colleagues involved showing participants two similar pictures and asking them to find the differences between them. Nisbett and colleagues found that East Asian participants were more likely to focus on _________, and Western participants focused more on _________.
a) context and how objects relate to each other; properties of objects and foreground
b) properties of objects and foreground; context and how objects relate to each other
c) context and how objects relate to each other; details such as size of the control tower
d) properties of objects and foreground; details such as number of windows in the airplane

Answer 1

Answer:

The best answer to the question: Nisbett and colleagues found that East Asian participants were more likely to focus on:____, and Western participants focused more on: ____, would be: A) Context and how objects relate to each other; properties of objects and foreground.

Thus, the full answer would be: Nisbett and colleagues found that East Asian participants were more likely to focus on Context and how objects relate to each other, and Western participants focused more on properties of objects and foreground.

Explanation:

Richard Nisbett and his colleagues from different Asian countries collaborated on a series of research studies regarding the effects of cultural background, customs and traditions, on how peope from different regions of the world, specifically Eastern and Western peoples, perceived and used their cognitive abilities to interpret a similar situation being presented to them. The results of the studies were published in 2001 in the book "The Geography of Thought: How Asians and Westerners Think Differently... and Why". In the end, what these researchers find is that for a similar picture, Asian participants and Western participants focused on completely different aspects of the same picture and interpreted what they saw very differently, and that these differences could be traced to their cultural origins and thus how they interpreted and cognitively knew their environment. It showed that cognition, interpretation and knowledge can be affected by cultural differences and other geographical factors.