title: Cultural differences in sensitivity to the relationship between objects and contexts: evidence from P3.
abstract: Cross-cultural differences in Easterners and Westerners have been observed in different cognitive domains. Differential sensitivity to the relationship between objects and contexts might be an underlying cognitive mechanism for these differences. Twenty-one Chinese and 22 Germans participated in a three-stimulus event-related potential oddball task. They were instructed to monitor geometrical forms filled in black (targets) that were presented among a series of blank geometrical forms (standards). Novel stimuli were colored images of common objects. Robust novelty P3 and target P3 over the entire scalp were observed in both groups. As compared with the German group, Chinese participants showed larger amplitudes of novelty P3 and target P3 over frontal regions and earlier peak latency for target P3. This indicates a higher sensitivity to the relationship between contexts and objects in the Chinese as compared with the German group, which might be an underlying mechanism for cross-cultural differences reported in many cognitive domains.
authors.affiliation: aNeuropsychology and Applied Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, Key Laboratory of Mental Health, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China bSchool of Psychology, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK cCenter for Brain, Biology, and Behavior, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, Nebraska, USA dDepartment of Psychology, Saarland University, Saarbruecken, Germany.
authors.forename: Kui
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Katja
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Umla-Runge
authors.forename: Juliane
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hofmann
authors.forename: Nicola K
authors.initials: NK
authors.lastname: Ferdinand
authors.forename: Raymond C K
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Chan
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D002681:China / Q000208:ethnology; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D004569:Electroencephalography; D018913:Event-Related Potentials, P300 / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D005858:Germany / Q000208:ethnology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult