注意的跨文化研究及意义

Cross-cultural Research on Attention and Its Implications

Nisbett提出东西方文化差异可能导致了注意的差异,但是并没有对这种现象的原因和机制提出直接的证据。最近几年来,文化对注意过程的影响有了新的研究和发现,证实了Nisbett最初的观点是正确的。文化与注意的行为研究包括在整体与局部加工、场依存与场独立、变化盲等方面的研究。对于注意文化差异的潜在原因和机制,研究者们主要从发展性研究、ERP和FMRI研究等方面进行探讨。未来研究需要进一步探索文化对其它注意指标的影响、文化与注意的脑机制以及文化与注意的应用研究等等。

Nisbett proposed that cultural difference on attention may be instrumental in shaping cultural differences on other aspects of human cognition. However, not until recently did this theory receive ample empirical supports, especially from neural mechanism perspective. The present article reviews the state-of-the-art research of the cultural influence on human attention and its implications for other cognitive processes. It first introduces the behavioral studies on culture and attention, discussing the results of cultural differences in holistic vs. analytic processing, field dependent vs. field independent processing, change blindness and other attention-related cognitive tasks. Furthermore, it elaborates the research in studying the underlying mechanisms of culture and attention, highlighting related research findings from developmental research, ERP and fMRI studies. It ends with discussion for future research directions and the implications for real world applications.