Neuropsychology of Asians and Asian-Americans by J. Mark Davis & Rik Carl D’Amato

Author:J. Mark Davis & Rik Carl D’Amato
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Springer New York, New York, NY

6.2.2 Cognitive Functioning

Much of the research in cross-cultural neuropsychology has focused on specific cognitive skills and processes. While early reports found advantages in global intellectual functioning for some samples from Asian countries relative to the West (e.g., Japan versus the USA) (Lynn, 1982), work since this time has highlighted the multifactorial nature of Intelligence Quotient (IQ) scores (Nell, 2000). Similarly, studies utilizing test batteries tapping multiple domains of cognitive functioning have yielded equivocal results in cross-cultural comparisons (Stevenson et al., 1985; Takeuchi & Scott, 1992). In contrast, research utilizing tests of discrete cognitive skill have been more insightful and have enabled a greater examination of potential etiological factors underlying culture-based discrepancies. For example, when Okamato, Case, Bleiker, and Henderson (1996) found obvious differences in the complexity of drawings completed by children from Japan and the USA, these differences were hypothesized to directly reflect the greater amount of time and emphasis devoted to the skill of drawing in Japan.

In children, some of the most consistently replicated cross-cultural discrepancies in cognition are observed in episodic memory (i.e., the ability to remember past experiences). In brief, these studies, many of which have examined and compared the memory of children from China and the USA, have shown greater elaboration and detail in the memories of children from the USA (Wang, 2004). The memories of children in the USA also contained a greater emphasis on their own roles, preferences, and feelings (Wang). On the other hand, children from China possessed episodic memories that were less detail oriented and frequently reflected the role of the child in a social context (Wang). Wang traced the origin of such episodic memory differences to culturally-based discrepancies in mother-child conversational styles. Conversations between 3-year-old children and their mothers in the USA tended to be cooperative and elaborative, whereas in China these conversations were generally more pragmatic and focused on information gathering (Wang, 2001a, 2001b). Wang suggested a connection between the richness of detail in mother-child conversations and the salience of episodic memory. The role of culture in episodic memory was further highlighted in a study with residents of China and the USA, with some of the latter group having immigrated from China (Wang, 2006). Chinese participants residing in China and Chinese immigrants in the USA were, as expected, more similar to one another in their style of mother-child reminiscence than they were to the styles of mothers from European American families. Interestingly, children in China recalled more information than did their Chinese American counterparts as mothers residing in China were often more elaborative in their interactions than those mothers who immigrated to the USA Wang attributed these findings to Western influences in China, resulting in a greater adoption of Western values and social practices, particularly in urban areas. Conversely, first generation Chinese immigrants in the USA may have been more likely to maintain traditional Chinese values that they held in China prior to immigration (Chao & Tseng, 2002).

Wang has also contributed related research in the field of infantile amnesia. In

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.