Understanding Differences in Cognition Across the Lifespan: Comparing Eastern and Western Cultures

Abstract

In psychological research, an individual’s approach to cognitive tasks varies across cultures. Nowhere is this more evident than in studies comparing performance between individuals from Asian and Western societies. The current chapter summarizes cognitive research comparing Asian and Western samples across the lifespan. The results indicate that there are differences in academic achievement, which appear largely sociocultural in origin. While there are few studies assessing cognitive skills cross-culturally in children, in adulthood, a consistent pattern emerges in which skills such as visual perception and reasoning are more context-dependent in Eastern cultures. In the elderly, there is greater evidence for culture-specific patterns of cognitive decline in pathological, as opposed to normal aging, which may reflect various genetic, neurobiological, and sociocultural influences. Etiology aside, these culture-based differences in cognition across the lifespan are evidence that far more research is needed. Furthermore, the validity of clinical neuropsychology as a field, which relies upon such research, is compromised when efforts are not made to study and utilize such cross-cultural data.