Cross-Cultural Studies of Learning and Memory

MROL Project I – February 25, 2005

Focus: Cross-Cultural Studies of Learning and Memory

Topic: Social and Cultural Differences in Learning

Author: Zandria

Introduction:

The need to understand cultural differences is obvious today. Many societies are multicultural, and many people and organizations collaborate across different ethnic and cultural boundaries. It is important that a person can recognize other people's different ways of living and working and learning. The different experiences that one undergoes plays a large role in how one my acquire knowledge. The purpose of the paper is to discuss how culture and cultural differences in learning styles can be analyzed and understood.

Theoretical Framework:

The primary focus of the investigation of the research literature is to provide information on how culture and cultural differences affect learning styles. Cross-cultural studies of learning and memory can address questions about universal determinants of memory, different demands placed on memory by different environments, or specific effects of social changes such as schooling (Terry p. 339). Unlike comparative studies, which examine similar characteristics of a few societies, cross-cultural studies use a sufficiently large sample so that statistical analysis can show relationships or lack or relationships between the traits studied.

The Question of this ROL:

This presentation/paper examines the results of four research studies that address the question of what factors influence the cultural differences in learning styles. The studies selected are from research studies that were published in scholarly and refereed journals during the period 1990 to 1999.

List of the Four Publications Reviewed

Buium, Nissan, U. (1977). A Cross-Cultural Study of Verbal Elaboration Productivity

and Memory in Young Children, Child Development, 48, 296-300.

Conant, Lisa L. (2003). Environmental Influences on Primary Memory Development: A

Cross-Cultural Study of Memory Span in Lao and American Children. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 25, 1102-1116.