Acculturation shifts even basic perceptual tendencies toward the host culture’s style

Evidence

Culturally determined psychological tendencies can also noticeably shift when individuals learn about or adapt to new cultures. For example, although research has shown that while Japanese are better than Americans at relative (compared to absolute) spatial judgment tasks (whereas Americans show the opposite pattern), Americans living in Japan perform these relative tasks similarly to Japanese (Kitayama, Duffy, Kawamura, & Larsen, 2003). Conversely, Japanese living in the United States respond to absolute spatial judgments tasks as accurately as Americans and significantly better than Japanese living in Japan (Kitayama et al., 2003). Further, activation in brain areas that correspond to either a heightened contextual or object focus is correlated with the extent to which individuals have acculturated to East Asian or Western countries (Hedden et al., 2008). Thus, if intensive cultural learning experiences are powerful enough to alter brain structure and basic perceptual tendencies, such experiences may impact the creative process as well. — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 2238

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the plasticity theme in the reader’s existing thread on how culture shapes cognition — echoes claims about deep environmental change rewiring perception. — connects to: Cultural conventions shape even basic perception of time and color — W. David Marx, Status and Culture: How Our Desire for…, 134
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 2238