Culture and Perception

1. Culture and Perception Ronald Fischer Social Psychology, PSYC 338

2. Overview • Perceptual sets and culture • Types of perceptions • Visual illusions and pictorial perceptions • Perception of music • Perception of time

3. Two fundamental perspectives Nativism Empiricism

4. Perceptual sets • Environment shapes our perception • We create perceptual expectations • Increase particular interpretations (speed & efficiency) • Culturally functional and adaptive (mostly)

5. Important Senses • Vision • Colour, depths • Hearing • Pitch, tone, mode, rhythm, etc. • Taste • Smell • Touch • Time

6. The horizontal-vertical illusion

10. The Sander parallelogram illusion

17. What about if it was like this?

20. The perspective drawing illusion

22. Some early experiments • Optical illusions (Segall, Campbell & Herskovits, 1966) • Three samples from industrialised countries (US, South Africa) • Five samples from tribes living in dense tropical forests (Fang, Bete, Ijaw, Dahomea, Hanunoo) • Two samples from tribes living in open land, but in circular houses (Zulu, Bushmen) • Some of these tribes (Ankole, Toro, Songe, Bete) were not used to two-dimensional representations of three dimensional objects (e.g., photographs, drawings, murals, paintings)

23. Some explanations • Hypotheses about cultural differences • Carpentered world theory • Front-horizontal foreshortening theory • Symbolising three dimensions in two

24. Carpentered world theory

25. The Sander parallelogram illusion

26. Front-horizontal foreshortening theory

27. The perspective drawing illusion

28. Symbolising three dimensions in two

29. Challenges to this eco-cultural explanation • Effect of retinal pigmentation (Pollack, 1970) • Some support (e.g., Bornstein, 1973) • Other factors at play: • Sensitivity to different colours (colour naming) • Exposure to ultraviolet rays • Dietary differences • Age • Education

30. Implications • Design of instructions, manuals, safety signs, etc. • Education campaigns • Use in educational settings

31. Perception of Music • Relatively neglected topic • Western societies (incl. Psychologists) – literate societies; technology (paintings, photography) = emphasis on visual stimuli • Many traditional /non-Western societies = oral traditions, music and rhythm

32. Task • Listen to the following excerpts • Answer the following questions: • What feelings and emotions does this music arouse in you? Use four adjectives to describe the music. • Where do you think this music is coming from? • What is the likely function of this music? At what occasions is it likely to be played? Make a guess!

33. Excerpts • Excerpt 1: • Java, Indonesia (Gending Pahargyan Penganten, Monggang) • Wedding ceremony, welcome and honor the family of the bride groom) • Excerpt 2: • Serbia, Ex-Yugoslavia (Kayah & Bregović, Sto lat młodej parze) • Wedding • Excerpt 3: • Salvador, Bahia, Brazil (Capoeira Angola, Iuna) • Capoeira, to show respect to the 2 experienced capoeiristas (Mestres) currently fighting/playing • Excerpt 4: • Bamanan people, Mali (Rokia Traore, Yèrè Uolo) • Song in praise of a great warrior

34. Musical functions (Merriam, 1964) • Emotional expression • Physical response • Aesthetic enjoyment and entertainment • Communication & Symbolic representation • Enforcing conformity to social norms • Validating social institutions and religious rituals • Enables continuity and stability of culture • Integration of society

35. Perceptions of time • Another little experiment…. • Pace of life (Levine & Norenzayan, 1999)

36. Dimensions of time • Past, present and future (Klockhohn & Strodtbeck, 1961) • Polychronic versus monochronic (Hall)

37. Summary • Culture influences our perceptions of the environment we are living in through perceptual sets • Cultural, ecological, biological and physiological influences interact • Perception research = example of the influence of culture and Zeitgeist on research agendas