Reduced Distractibility in a Remote Culture

Jan W de Fockert, Serge Caparos, Karina J Linnell and Jules Davidoff

PLOS ONE, 2011, vol. 6, issue 10, 1-8

Abstract: Background: In visual processing, there are marked cultural differences in the tendency to adopt either a global or local processing style. A remote culture (the Himba) has recently been reported to have a greater local bias in visual processing than Westerners. Here we give the first evidence that a greater, and remarkable, attentional selectivity provides the basis for this local bias. Methodology/Principal Findings: In Experiment 1, Eriksen-type flanker interference was measured in the Himba and in Western controls. In both groups, responses to the direction of a task-relevant target arrow were affected by the compatibility of task-irrelevant distractor arrows. However, the Himba showed a marked reduction in overall flanker interference compared to Westerners. The smaller interference effect in the Himba occurred despite their overall slower performance than Westerners, and was evident even at a low level of perceptual load of the displays. In Experiment 2, the attentional selectivity of the Himba was further demonstrated by showing that their attention was not even captured by a moving singleton distractor. Conclusions/Significance: We argue that the reduced distractibility in the Himba is clearly consistent with their tendency to prioritize the analysis of local details in visual processing.

Date: 2011
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:plo:pone00:0026337

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0026337

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