Cultural Differences in Cognition: Rosetta Phase I

Abstract

Cultural differences in cognition are important during multinational commercial, military, and humanitarian operations. The Rosetta Project addresses definition and measurement of key cognitive dimensions. Six potential diagnostic measures related to Analytic–Holistic reasoning were assessed: the Exclusion Task, the Attribution Complexity Scale, the Syllogism Task, Categorization, the Framed Line Test, and the Facial Expression Task. 379 participants' ages ranged from 17 to 24 years ( M = 19.8, SD = 1.4). 64.6% were women; Eastern Asian groups (Japan, Korea, and Taiwan) were assumed to have Holistic reasoning tendencies, and those from a Western group (USA) were assumed to have Analytic tendencies. Participants were recruited from subject pools in psychology using the procedures of each university. Results on the Exclusion and Categorization Tasks confirmed hypothesized differences in Analytic–Holistic reasoning. The Attribution Complexity Scale and the Facial Expression Task identified important differences among the four groups. Outcomes on the final two tasks were confounded by unrelated group differences, making comparisons difficult. Building on this exploratory study, Rosetta Phase II will include additional groups and cognitive tasks. Measures of complex cognition are also incorporated to link findings to the naturalistic contexts.