Looking into the past: Cultural differences in perception and representation of past information.

Abstract

The authors investigated cultural differences in the way people perceive and represent temporal information. It was hypothesized that Chinese would attend to the past information more than would Canadians. In Studies 1 and 2, Canadian and Chinese participants read a description of a theft along with a list of behaviors that occurred in the past or present. Chinese participants rated behaviors that had taken place in the remote and recent past as more relevant to solving the case than did Canadians. Study 3 showed that Chinese participants recalled greater detail about past events than did Canadians. Studies 4A and 4B showed that Chinese perceived past events as being closer to the present than did Canadians, suggesting that Chinese had a greater awareness of the past. Overall, Chinese attended to a greater range of past information than did Canadians, which has significant theoretical and practical implications.

The influence of linear and cyclical temporal representations on risk perception of nuclear waste: an experimental study

“…Furthermore, time can be represented differently on a cognitive or graphic level: a linear representation refers to the irreversibility of time, whereas a cyclical representation suggests repetition (Müller and Giesbrecht 2006;Overton 1992). A cyclical representation implies that events repeat themselves, leading to a significant similarity between past, present, and future, while a linear representation implies that time flows unidirectionally and never returns to a previous state (Ji et al 2009;Yamada and Kato 2006). There are different forms of cyclical temporal representations.…”

Complementarity of Space and Time in Distance Representations

“…Cross-cultural research on differences in perception and representation of the past, present, and future (Block, Buggie &Matsui, 1996;Hill, Block & Buggie, 2000;Ji, Guo, Zhang & Messervey, 2009) show that temporal perspectives vary to some extent across countries and ethnic groups, which suggests cultural influence. The temporal perspective has been viewed as a cognitive schema (e.g.…”

“…Although we can presume that the distinguished: immediate, operational, and projective temporal horizons are universally characteristic of the population of speakers represented in the corpus (cf. Block et al, 1996;Hill et al, 2000;Ji et al, 2009), their significance to an individual's functioning in the immediate life space is indisputably influenced by a multitude of specific personal factors (Fraisse, 1963;Zimbardo & Boyd, 2008).…”

Some Reflections on the Cultural Bias of USPRA's Principles and Values

“…They attempt to preserve what they have and to prevent calamity more than any attempt to shape and control the future (Brislin & Kim, 2003;Ji, Guo, Zhang, & Messervey, 2009). Many collective people do not believe in change because they are not separated, individuated people, but are dependent on their group.…”