East-West Cultural Differences in Context-Sensitivity are Evident in Early Childhood

Autor/inn/en	Imada, Toshie; Carlson, Stephanie M.; Itakura, Shoji
Titel	East-West Cultural Differences in Context-Sensitivity are Evident in Early Childhood
Quelle	In: Developmental Science, 16 (2013) 2, S.198-208 (11 Seiten) PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	1363-755X
DOI	10.1111/desc.12016
Schlagwörter	Cultural Differences; Context Effect; Early Childhood Education; Evidence; Cognitive Development; Cross Cultural Studies; Foreign Countries; Executive Function; Participant Characteristics; Task Analysis; Developmental Tasks; Statistical Analysis; North Americans; Asians; Age Differences; Japan; Minnesota + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Kultureller Unterschied; Early childhood; Education; Frühkindliche Bildung; Frühpädagogik; Evidenz; Kognitive Entwicklung; Cultural comparison; Kulturvergleich; Ausland; Aufgabenanalyse; Entwicklungsaufgabe; Statistische Analyse; Asian; Asiat; Asiatin; Asiaten; Asiate; Age; Difference; Age difference; Altersunterschied
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. (Contains 3 figures, 3 tables, and 5 footnotes.) (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2017/4/10