Individual Differences in Capacity for Tolerating Information Overload Are Related to Differences in Culture and Temperament

Abstract

Individual differences in the capacity for information processing in complex tasks can be predicted from both personality and temperament that derive from both the biological and social substrates of human development and behavior. If there are cultural differences in brain structure and function that govern information processing, then two different cultures may show biologically based temperamental differences in sensitivity to stimulation (e.g., Pavlov’s Strength of the Nervous System) which in turn may predict individual differences in capacity for tolerating environmentally determined stimulus overloads. We examined the relationship between biologically based measures of Pavlovian Temperament (Strength of Excitation, Inhibition, and Mobility) and an individual differences measure consisting of five dimensions of capacity for tolerating information load. Both direct and indirect effects of country of origin on capacity for information processing were tested in a mediated path analytic model in which Pavlovian Excitation, Inhibition, and Mobility were hypothesized to mediate the relationship between culture and self-reported information processing capacities.