CULTURALLY DETERMINED DIFFERENCES BETWEEN AMERICANS AND JAPANESE

A number of studies on text reading have shown the influence of schema on how information is processed. In this study Japanese and American college students were tested for differential information processing during text reading. There were differences between groups on the recall of information embedded in the text. The pattern fluctuation for Americans as a group was significantly greater than for Japanese. The results were interpreted from the perspectives of collectivistic and synthetic approaches as opposed to individualistic and analytic approaches inherent in the two cultures. © 1993 Academic Press. All rights reserved.