# Cultural factors in cognition

> IB Psychology · IB Psychology 2027 First Assessment
> Source: https://www.owlsprep.com/study/ib-psychology-lc-cultural-factors-in-cognition/

The role of one or more cultural factors in one cognitive process.

## Learning objectives

- The role of one or more cultural factors in one cognitive process.

## Core concept

Cultural factors shape not just what people think about but how a cognitive process is carried out. Memory is a clear case: the strategies people use to organise and recall information are learned through their culture and schooling, not fixed and universal. So a group that does not spontaneously use one memory strategy may use it readily when the task is framed in a culturally meaningful way — a difference in strategy, not in underlying capacity.

## Key studies

IB Psychology answers must be supported by named studies. Learn these to cite as evidence:

**Cole and Scribner (1974)** — The Kpelle did not spontaneously use semantic clustering in free recall as American schoolchildren did, but used it effectively when the items were embedded in a meaningful narrative. — *A cultural factor (schooling/everyday practice) shapes the memory strategy used — cognition is culturally situated rather than one universal process.*

## Evaluation (AO3)

**Strength — corrects a universal-cognition bias** — It shows that memory strategies are culturally learned, guarding against assuming that findings from Western, schooled samples describe cognition everywhere.

**Limitation — measurement across cultures** — Tasks and materials designed in one culture can under-measure another's ability (an etic imposed as if universal), so cross-cultural cognitive comparisons are hard to make fairly.

## Scope

> **note**
>
> One cultural factor in ONE cognitive process (memory) is the focus. Broader cultural-transmission concepts are SOC_6 (enculturation) and SOC_4 (cultural dimensions); schema as the framework is COG_8/LC_4.

## Common pitfalls

- **Wrong:** Reading a cultural difference in cognitive performance as one culture being 'worse' at the cognitive process.
  - Why it fails: A frequently penalised misconception in IB Psychology exams.
  - Correct: It is a difference in the STRATEGY a culture teaches and rewards, not in capacity — the Kpelle used clustering when the material was meaningful to them.

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