題目： Cultural differences in cognition: A study examining participants from different nations
氏名： 鈴木早美
担当教員： マーク・H・B・ラドフォード
It has been suggested in previous research, that East Asians use Holistic reasoning strategies whereas Westerners use Analytic reasoning strategies. Kitayama and colleagues (2005) have suggested that the concept of ‘frontier spirit’ is an important factor in understanding cultural differences. They have suggested that Hokkaido Born Japanese, who have been raised in Hokkaido, may be different from non-Hokkaido Born Japanese, as Hokkaido has a similar ‘frontier spirit’ history to US. Hokkaido Born Japanese are therefore thought to more likely show Analytic reasoning patterns like North Americans. In this study, we want to examine whether the results found in prior research (Kitayama, 2005) on the role of ‘frontier spirit’ in explaining cultural differences can be replicated by using other measures. Based on previous research, and based on the argument that the settlement of Hokkaido is similar to that of the US, we hypothesized that the cognitive style of Hokkaido Born participants will tend to be more similar to U.S. participants, than non-Hokkaido Born participants. However the results did not support Kitayama and colleagues’ “frontier spirit hypothesis”. In general, we could only find difference between U.S. and Japanese participants (as a whole), with Hokkaido Born and non-Hokkaido Born participants displaying similar behavior. The implications of these results are discussed.