Do we think alike? A cross-cultural study of executive functioning

Abstract

The current study examined differences between Eastern and Western cultures on complex cognitive–communicative skills, verbal reasoning, and executive functioning skills. Twenty-two Indian born individuals and 20 American-born individuals completed (a) Auckland individualism–collectivism scale to provide an objective measure for culture type, (b) functional assessment of verbal reasoning and executive strategies (FAVRES) to assess cognitive–communicative functioning, and (c) four subtests from the Delis–Kaplan Executive Function System (DKEFS) to assess vital executive functions. Results indicated a significant main effect of culture, with Western participants completing the four tasks on the FAVRES more rapidly and with higher scores on the reasoning subtest. On the DKEFS, Western participants demonstrated significantly higher categorical switching capabilities and category switching accuracy in the Verbal Fluency subtest. Eastern participants were significantly faster on all subtests of Trail Making. Findings suggest differences in Eastern and Western cultures on executive functioning tasks that may be explained by analytical cognitive strategies and rule-based categorization employed by Western participants to complete reasoning and category-naming tasks. Eastern participants, however, appear to allocate holistic attentional resources to help them perform more successfully on tasks such as Trail Making which require rapid application of perceptual relationships.