Attention Attention is the taking possession by the mind, in - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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Mar 18, 2024 384 likes •684 views

Culture and Perception Part 1/3 The Paradox of Perception Not enough information to specify what is out there Too much information for our puny brains to process Attention Attention is the taking possession by the mind, in clear and

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Culture and Perception

Part 1/3

The Paradox

f Perception

Too much information for our puny brains to process Not enough information to specify what is out there

Attention

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William James

Attention … is the taking possession by the mind, in clear and vivid form, of

ne out of what seem

several simultaneously possible objects or trains

f thought

(1842-1910)

Attention

Limited Capacity

you can’t pay attention to everything

“Selective”

you can pay attention to some things at the expense of others

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Voluntary

(and usually effortful)

Involuntary

(and usually effortless)

Find the red “o”

x x x x x x x x x x x x x

Find the red “o”

x x

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Overt

(attend by moving your eyes)

Covert

(attend by moving your mind)

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Attention

Western Educated Industrialized Rich Democratic

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A (Silly?) Stereotype

“Westerners” (incl. USA, W. Europe)

analytic, object-focused, individualist. “the trees”

“Easterners” (incl. Japan, Korea, China)

holistic, context-focused, collectivist. “the forest”

* this is an exclusionary and reductive way of dividing up populations; please bear with me…

American Parents

Relative emphasis on nouns “Is that a ball? Yes, that’s a ball!”

Chinese Parents

Relative emphasis on verbs & events “Can you give it to me? Now I give it to you!”

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A  maybe the blue fish wanted to be independent B maybe the other fish were being mean American (relatively speaking)  maybe the blue fish wanted to be independent Chinese (relatively speaking) maybe the other fish were being mean

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“Focal” Changes “Contextual” Changes

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Seconds Taken

8.5 9 9.5 10 10.5 11 Focal Changes Contextual Changes American East Asian

(Masuda & Nisbett, 2006)

Time to Detect Changes

Questions + Themes

How much of our culture has its basis in perception?     How much of our perception has its basis in culture?

Culture and Perception

Up next: Part 2/3

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Culture and Perception

Part 2/3

Questions + Themes

How much of our culture has its basis in perception?     How much of our perception has its basis in culture?

Facial Attractiveness Aesthetic Preferences

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Facial Attractiveness Aesthetic Preferences

Fusiform Face Area

Babies like faces…

…even at 9 mins old!

(Goren et al., 1975)

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Most Attractive?

+ =

Francis Galton

(1822-1911)

averaged faces together to find common negative traits; averages were attractive!

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How attractive?

(Rate on a scale of 1-5) How Attractive? (1-5) 2.5 2.7 2.9 3.1 3.3 3.5 # of faces averaged together 2 4 8 16 32

(Langlois & Roggman, 1990)

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Hadza: Hunter-gatherer society with no

exposure to “Western” norms of beauty

“Koinophilia”

liking ‘common’ features perhaps to minimize harmful mutations

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How “distinct” is this face?

(distinctness = opposite of averageness)

More distinct faces: More illnesses!

(Cold, measles, etc. …)

(Rhodes et al., 2001)

Facial Attractiveness Aesthetic Preferences Facial Attractiveness Aesthetic Preferences

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Culture and Perception

Up next: Part 3/3

Culture and Perception

Part 3/3

Facial Attractiveness Aesthetic Preferences

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Facial Attractiveness Aesthetic Preferences

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Most people like blue Most people dislike dark yellow (“vomit yellow”) Saturated colors are liked more than muted colors

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we like the colors we like because they are the colors of the things we like

Ecological Valence Theory

Blue things tend to be nice

(or at least not bad)

Dark yellow things tend to be nasty

Democrats like blue, Republicans like red… …and even more so on Election Day!

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Preference

9 18 27 36 45 Normally Election Day Democrats Republicans

Preference for Red

Berkeley students like Gold, Stanford students like Red …but only if they like their school!

Facial Attractiveness Aesthetic Preferences

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Culture can change…

…how we pay attention

Culture can change…

…what looks beautiful

Culture can change…

…how we see in the first place??

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Western Educated Industrialized Rich Democratic

Muller-Lyer Illusion

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Muller-Lyer Illusion Muller-Lyer Illusion Muller-Lyer Illusion

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Muller-Lyer Illusion

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“Because elements such as carpentered corners are products of particular cultural evolutionary trajectories, and were not part of most environments for most of human history, the Muller-Lyer illusion is a kind of culturally evolved by-product”

Cataracts: “Easy” to fix — just pay ~$3,000!

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Visual illusions only hours after seeing for the first time! “Carpentry” can’t be to blame… …“culture” can only do so much!