Cultural Differences of Cognitive Styles According to Experimental Methods

Transactions of Japan Society of Kansei Engineering Vol.10 No.2 pp.149-157 (2011) 12 ORIGINAL ARTICLES SPECIAL ISSUE Cultural Differences of Cognitive Styles According to Experimental Methods Focused on the Differences of Attribute and Relationship Oriented Thought among Nationalities InChan PARK and Toshimasa YAMANAKA Graduate School of Comprehensive Human Sciences, Tsukuba University, 1-1-1 Tennoudai, Tsukuba-shi, Ibaraki 305-8577, Japan Abstract: When operating a product, images of icons or buttons have crucial roles for understanding the use. This study focused on understanding a diverse tendency among people from different countries on image recognition. We studied two different ways of cognizing images: Attribute-oriented Thought versus Relationship-oriented Thought. Two experimental methods were tested: one was an experiment of categorizing images and the other was an experiment of image association. Through the experiment on categorizing images, it was found that there were cognitive differences among nationalities; 71 British and 81 Chinese subjects had stronger tendencies in Attribute-oriented Thought than 76 Japanese and 81 Korean subjects. Next, we examined an experiment on image association. As a result, the British and Chinese subjects had lesser tendencies in Attribute-oriented Thought than the Japanese and Korean subjects; the subjects responses of the second experiment differed from the ones of the first experiment. These results suggested that the difference of experimental methods could influence on the way of thinking of human beings. The differences were considered as two experimental conditions: the existence of related stimuli, and the differences of cognitive processes. Keywords: Attribute and Relation-oriented thought, Cultural Inclination, Recognition, Association 1. INTRODUCTION We are at the stage for another leap forward in the development of new understanding and vision of emotional factors in design through innovative exploration. In this study, we focused our attention on subjects cognitive styles as methods to perceive the consumer s Kansei. Harada (1998) provided a definition of Kansei through a questionnaire administrated to researchers of University of Tsukuba regarding the topic. The collected definition goes as follows: subjective and unexplainable function, innate nature and cognitive expression of knowledge and experience, interaction of intuition and intellectual activities, evaluation ability reacting symbolically and intuitively, and mental function creating images [1]. According to this investigation, researchers included not only intuitive thoughts, but also rational thoughts (cognitive expression of knowledge and intellectual activities) in the definition of Kansei. We focused on cognitive styles in our Kansei study. When we see a certain object, we naturally analyze what that object is for and start to recognize what it is. During this process, how we identify the object differs according to our ways of thinking. Cognitive styles represent this ways of thinking. Cognitive styles have been studied in the fields of humanities, social sciences, cognitive sciences, and psychology as well as marketing, education, and interface design which need knowledge of specific groups ways of thinking. Especially the research about the cognitive differences among cultures has been examined in these fields. Meanwhile, it is important to understand the use of a product when operating the new one. Images of icons or buttons have crucial roles for consumers to figure out what the product is for. To observe cognitive processes when using icons or buttons in a product, we paid attention to cognitive styles. We assumed that every culture had distinct ways of perceiving images. Therefore, we focused on the cultural differences in cognitive styles according to nationalities on image recognition. Although there have been limited researches on the cultural differences in cognitive styles, there are studies indicating that the cultural differences do exist. In the field of psychology an interesting experiment about cognitive styles was conducted by Norenzayan, A., Smith, E., Kim, B. J., & Nisbett, R. E (2002). They performed an experiment of reading the following two sentences and answering the question. Question; consider the following two deductive arguments. Is one more convincing than the other? 1. All birds have ulna arteries. Therefore, all eagles have ulna arteries. 2. All birds have ulna arteries. Therefore, all penguins have ulna arteries. Received 2010.05.21 Accepted 2010.09.15 Copyright 2010 All Rights Reserved. 149

Transactions of Japan Society of Kansei Engineering The results of the experiment displayed that, in comparison to Americans, the Koreans concluded for the argument (1st) on the typical subject (eagle) to be more convincing. They interpreted that the Koreans had a stronger tendency towards experiential knowledge rather than formal logic [2]. Next is a study example in the field of design; Dong, Y. & Lee, K. P. (2008) examined A Cross-cultural comparative study of users perceptions of a webpage. They compared the thought patterns of Chinese, Korean and American subjects when looking at a webpage. As a result, they found different viewing patterns among participants. The Chinese and Korean subjects showed more similarities to holistic thought patterns, while American subjects had more tendencies of analytic thought patterns [3]. In those studies, Norenzayan et al used sentences and Dong & Lee used a webpage as stimuli. Since we need an experimental stimulus related to an image, we referred to a study on cognitive styles using images categorization. A developmental psychologist, Chiu (1972) examined such divergences in categorization between Chinese and American children, using pictures of artifacts, plants, and animals. A 28-item cognitive styles test was constructed to serve as a measuring instrument. It contained 21 items adapted from the Sigel Cognitive Styles Test (Sigel 1967) and 7 items from the study by Kagan et al. (1963) [4]. On each trial, the participants were presented with three pictures (e.g., a cow, a chicken, and grass), and were asked to group the two pictures they thought best belonged together. Participants were also asked to explain their choices (e.g., Because they are both animals ). The participants responses were classified as descriptiveanalytic (identifying similar parts of stimuli and differentiating based on those similarities: e.g., Because they are both holding a gun ), descriptive-whole (identifying whether a stimulus as a whole is similar to another whole stimulus: e.g., Because they are both large ), inferentialcategorical (categorizing based on inferences made about the stimuli that are grouped together; e.g., Because they both have a motor ), and relational-contextual (categorizing based on functional and thematic relationship: e.g., Because mother takes care of baby ). The reactions showed that the American children were most likely to respond using descriptive - analytic, descriptive - whole, and inferential - categorical categorizations than the Chinese children; that the Chinese children were superior to respond using relational-contextual categorizations than the American children [5]. Considered together, Chiu s results suggest that Chinese children are apt to greatly categorize the stimuli by identifying relationship, whereas American children have a greater tendency to categorize them through recognizing similarities. After 30 years, Sara J. Unsworth, Christopher R. Sears and Penny M. Pexman (2005) performed some similar experiments. In their researches, Chinese and Western participants were asked to look at sets of three pictures (e.g., a tire, a car, and a bus), and to decide which two pictures of each set best belonged together. Chinese participants were equally likely to group items together if they shared a relationship (e.g., tire-car) and if they shared a category (e.g., bus-car), whereas Western participants were more likely to group items together if they belonged to the same category [6]. These results are similar to Chiu s study; American children are more likely to classify items together if they are more similar to each other, and that Chinese children are more likely to classify items if they share a relationship. In our recent experiment (Park & Yamanaka 2009), we compared the cognitive styles among the British, Dutch, Japanese and Korean university students studying design. We presented one target picture (e.g., a pencil) and two related pictures (e.g., a brush, and a note pad), and asked to select one of the two related pictures concerning the best belonged together: a pencil- a brush or a pencil-a note pad. The reactions showed that Korean university students were apt to greatly categorize the stimuli by identifying relationship, whereas European students had a greater tendency to categorize them through recognizing similarities [7]. This inclination was similar to the results of precedent studies related to the regional comparison (the East vs. the West) [5, 6]. However, in spite of their regional similarities, the Japanese subjects had greater tendencies to categorize them through recognizing similarities than the Korean subjects. From this result, we thought that there might be other factors that contribute to cognitive differences. In our extended experiment (Park & Yamanaka 2010), we explored the mathematical minds as one of the factors that influence on cognitive styles. We found a possibility that mathematical minds (skill or interest) can influence on a cognitive tendency [8]. Therefore, in the next study we examined cognitive differences among British, Chinese, French, Japanese and Korean university students related to both mathematics-based majors and non-mathematic-based majors. 2. PURPOSE OF STUDY Cognitive styles originate from the various life styles according to the different cultural backgrounds. There would be a great amount of cognitive styles created from the many types of life styles. This study focused on four cognitive styles: Descriptive-Analytic (DA), Descriptive- Whole (DW), Inferential-Categorical (IC) and Relational- Contextual (R) [4, 5]. We categorized the three thoughts 150

Cultural Differences of Cognitive Styles According to Experimental Methods (DA, DW and IC) as Attribute-oriented Thought (AT) in a sense of having a cognitive tendency that categorizes objects through recognizing similarities in attributes. As for (R), it was categorized as Relationship-oriented Thought (RT) because it has a cognitive tendency that categorizes objects by identifying relationship (Table 2). In this study we investigated the cultural differences in the two cognitive styles (AT vs. RT) by conducting two different methods of the experiment: categorizing images and image association. The method of categorizing images was based on the studies of Sigel (1963), Chiu (1972) and Sara (2005). This experiment was developed to understand the cognitive styles of the participants in categorizing images. As for the method of image association, it was developed to find how people perceive one particular image like an icon or a button. Two different materials were used for each experiment: six sets of three pictures were presented for categorizing image and one picture was presented for image association. Then separate questions were given to the participants on each experiment. Our goal was to determine if we could observe any differences in cognitive processes from these two different methods of the experiment. Table 1 shows the participants who belonged to the different nationalities. The participants who have lived in foreign country over three years were considered as multi-cultural back grounded. 3. EXPERIMENT 1: CATEGORIZING IMAGES 3.1 Method Following Sigel and Chiu s experimental method, we presented three images per question; Target, Object A (which is similar to target in attributes: shape, function, structure and category) and Object B (which is familiar with target in mutual relations). We showed one target picture (e.g., a pencil) and two related pictures (e.g., a brush, and a note pad) to the subjects and asked them to pair the target picture with the related picture that they felt Table 1: Participants Nationalities British Chinese French Japanese Korean Seoul, London, Peking, Juillet, Tokyo, Yonsei, S. Martin, Universities Tsinghua Tec Tsukuba gang Paris- Waseda, Chun- Brighton, Sussex Kookmin No. of Persons Female 38 36 38 38 34 Male 33 45 34 38 48 Sum 71 81 72 76 82 Sum 382 belonged best together: a pencil-a brush or a pencil-a note pad. We categorized that pairing a pencil (target) with a brush (object A) as Attribute-oriented Thought (AT), and pairing a pencil (Target) with a note pad (Object B) as relationship - oriented thought (RT) (Table 2). In the selection of experimental stimuli, we considered three standards: the discrimination of meaning for stimuli, the distinctness between object A and B, the typical imagery of the object. Through a preliminary test for twenty subjects, we chose six sets of materials suitable for the three standards. On each trial, the images were presented to the participants with the question of between A and B, which one is the closest to the target? For the choice of object A, the responses of the participants were expected as descriptive-analytic (identifying similar parts of stimuli and differentiating based on those similarities: e.g., a mouse and a mobile phone are grouped together Because they both have a line ), descriptive-whole (identifying whether a stimulus as a whole is similar to another whole stimulus: e.g., a pencil and a brush are grouped together Because they have similar shape ), inferential - categorical (categorizing based on inferences made about the stimuli that are grouped together; e.g., a mug cup and a wine glass are grouped together Because they both are containers ). In the case of selecting object B, the responses of the participants were expected as relational - contextual (categorizing based on functional and thematic relationship; e.g., a girl and a hand mirror are grouped together Because a girl takes care of her face with a hand mirror ) (Figure 1). 3.2 Assumption Based on the results of the precedent studies [5, 6], it was predicted that the Chinese, Japanese and Korean subjects who represent Asians would have a tendency of Measuring Method Table 2: A measuring method for cognitive styles Sorting methods of cognitive styles by Sigel & Chiu Cognitive Styles Organization method of stimuli Material Target Descriptive- Analytic or whole Inferential -Categorical AT (Attribute-oriented Thought) Relational -Contextual RT (Relationship -oriented Thought) Object A Object B ; which is similar ; which is familiar to target in with target in attributes: shape, mutual relations function, structure, category 151

Transactions of Japan Society of Kansei Engineering Table 3: Cognitive differences among nationalities Figure 1: Six sets of images RT than the British and French subjects. Furthermore, the British and French subjects, representing the Westerners, would tend to categorize objects by identifying similar attributes in contrast to the Chinese, Japanese and Korean subjects. 3.3 Analysis The answer to the question was either a choice of A or B. We analyzed the choices that participants made by using Chi-square (χ 2 ) Test; each ratio of A and B indicate the tendency of AT and RT. We compared if we could observe any significant differences in cognitive processes among the nationalities (Table 3). As a result, there were significant cognitive differences in their choices: between British and the other nationalities, between Chinese and Japanese, and between Chinese and Korean. On the other hand, there were no significant differences: between Chinese and French, between French and Japanese, between French and Korean, and between Japanese and Korean. 3.4 Cognitive differences on categorizing images In this experiment we examined the cognitive differences among nationalities in categorizing images. As the result, it showed that the British subjects were more likely to have attribute-oriented thoughts than the other nationalities. In addition, the cognitive tendencies of the Chinese in attribute-oriented thought were greater than the Japanese and Korean subjects. There were no significant differences among the French, Japanese and Korean subjects (Table 3). In spite of the regional similarities, the cognitive tendencies between Chinese and Japanese, Chinese and Korean, and British and French did not correspond with the precedent studies [5, 6]. There were just small amount of similarity. χ 2 = 35.219, DF=4, P Row % A B British 54.23 45.77 Chinese 47.33 52.67 French 41.67 58.33 Japanese 37.50 62.50 Korean 38.41 61.59 Significant cognitive differences among nationalities by χ 2 test (DF=1, with a standard of P < 0.05 ) Nationalities British Chinese French Japanese Korean British Chinese χ 2 =4.324 0.0376* French χ 2 =13.55 0.0002* 0.0852 Japanese Korean χ 2 =24.83 χ 2 =22.99 χ 2 =9.289 0.0023* χ 2 =7.927 0.0049* 0.2043 0.3139 0.7719 used; a bicycle image, an alarm clock photo, a bearing mark image and a decoration image (Figure 2). We showed a picture (e.g., a bearing mark image) to the participants and asked to write whatever brings to their minds (e.g., a map). Then asked to select the sentence which indicates their cognitive styles related to the image and an answer (e.g., they have similar function or use ). The sentences were originated from the four cognitive styles studied by Sigel (1963) and Chiu (1972) [4, 5]: they have similar parts for Descriptive-Analytic (DA), they have similar shape or structure for Descriptive-Whole (DW), they have similar function or use for Inferential- Categorical (IC), and they are associated as relational-contextual for Relational-Contextual (R), (Table 4, Figure 3). 4. EXPERIMENT 2: IMAGE ASSOCIATION 4.1 Method As stimuli of this experiment, four target pictures were Figure 2: Target pictures 152

Cultural Differences of Cognitive Styles According to Experimental Methods Table 4: Four sentences that indicate four cognitive styles Table 5: Samples of participant s cognitive styles Cognitive styles Cognitive styles sorted by Sigel & Chiu Related sentences AT (Attribute-oriented Thought) a. DA (Descriptive-Analytic) b. DW (Descriptive-whole) c. IC (Inferential-Categorical) a. they have similar parts b. they have similar shape or structure c. they have similar function or use Figure 3: A sample of the experiment RT (Relationship -oriented Thought) a. R (Relational - Contextual) a. they are associated as relationalcontextual 4.2 Assumption We assumed that the participant s responses would be similar to the responses of the ones of the first experiment (image categorization). Also, it was predicted that the Chinese, Japanese and Korean subjects would have a tendency of RT, while the British and French subjects would tend to categorize objects by identifying similar attributes in contrast to the Chinese, Japanese and Korean subjects as shown in the results of precedent studies [5, 6]. 4.3 Analysis Table 5 shows the samples of participants answers for a bearing mark image. In the first question (what does this picture bring to your mind?), a compass, a map and a trip were among the answers. For the second question (between this picture and your answer, do they have a similarity or a relationship?), their cognitive styles showed as DA (identifying similar parts between the stimulus and the answer), DW (identifying similar shape or structure between the stimulus and the answer), IC (categorizing based on inferences for similarity between the stimulus and the answer), and R (identifying functional and Answer Compass Map Trip thematic relationship between the stimulus and the answer). The purpose of this study is to compare the cognitive differences in AT and RT according to experimental methods. Therefore, we analyzed the cognitive differences among nationalities in image association. Table 6 shows the selection ratio of AT and RT; the each ratio of A and R means the each tendency of AT and RT. As a result, there were significant differences among nationalities: between British and the other nationalities except Chinese, between Chinese and the other nationalities except British. On the other hand, there were no significant differences: between British and Chinese, between French and Japanese, between French and Korean, and between Japanese and Korean. 4.4 Cognitive differences on image association This experiment was developed to investigate the cognitive styles in associating an image like an icon or a button in human products. We examined if we could observe the cultural differences in cognitive styles; participant s responses were compared in regard to AT and RT. In the comparison, it was found that British and Chinese subjects are more likely to have relationship-oriented thought than French, Japanese and Korean subjects. Moreover, there were no significant differences among French, Japanese and Korean (Table 6). In spite of the regional similarities, the cognitive tendencies between Chinese and Japanese, Chinese and Korean, and British and French did not correspond with the results of precedent studies [5, 6]. 5. DISCUSSIONS Target: A bearing mark image Cognitive styles DA - they have similar parts DW - they have similar shape or structure IC - they have similar function or use R - they are associated as relational-contextual 5.1 Cultural differences of cognitive styles according to experimental methods We discussed the differences of cognitive processes according to the two different methods of the experiment. The participants responses were different in two experiments. In the experiment on categorizing images, it was found that the British and Chinese subjects had stronger tendencies in AT than the Japanese and Korean subjects (Table 3). In the case of the experiment on image association, the British and Chinese subjects had lesser tendencies in AT than the Japanese and Korean subjects (Table 6). 153

Transactions of Japan Society of Kansei Engineering Table 6: Cognitive differences among nationalities Table 7: Cognitive processes according to two different experimental methods Conditions Experiment 1 Experiment 2 Visibility of Stimulus Thought Target Related stimuli Recognition Categorization Imagination & Evaluation χ 2 = 48.589, DF=4, P Row % A R British 57.39 42.61 Chinese 61.11 38.89 French 73.61 26.39 Japanese 75.33 24.67 Korean 78.05 21.95 Significant cognitive differences among nationalities by χ 2 test (DF=1, with a standard of P < 0.05 ) Nationalities British Chinese French Japanese Korean British Chinese 0.3519 French Japanese Korean χ 2 =16.65 χ 2 =21.25 χ 2 =30.07 χ 2 =10.77 0.0010* χ 2 =14.56 0.0001* χ 2 =22.11 0.6318 0.1974 0.7719 The participants responses were reversed to the response of the first experiment. These results suggest that the differences in the experimental methods can influence on individual cognitive processes. We could estimate that the conditions of the experiments can influence on cognitive processes. Therefore, we compared the conditions for those two experiments. In comparison, the existence of related stimuli and the way of recognition were different. For categorizing images a target picture and two related pictures were presented as stimuli. Therefore, the recognition through categorization is needed for testing. Meanwhile, a target picture which does not have related images was used as a stimulus for image association. Therefore, the imagination of a new related stimulus is needed for evaluation. Finally, the different experimental conditions between the two experiments were considered as the existence of related stimuli and differences of cognitive processes. From this result, we could estimate that the existence of related stimuli and differences of cognitive processes can influence on the cognitive processes of the British, Chinese, Japanese and Korean subjects (Table 7). 5.2 An application to design for cultural-cognitive tendencies Next, we discussed an application of the cognitive tendencies according to nationalities in an image design. In case of the second experiment (image association), the stimulus was an image. It was predicted that the cognitive tendencies on images could be utilized in an icon or a button design. Therefore, we thought that if we know the relationship between cognitive styles and nationalities it would be efficient to design a proper image for a specific group of people. In order to observe the relationship among cognitive styles and nationalities we examined the correspondence analysis. Table 8 shows Mosaic Plot of the cognitive styles by nationalities. Figure 4 shows Correspondence plot. In the details, the first two singular values capture the bulk of the values (Table 9). Therefore, we approved the 2-D correspondence plot. According to the locations on the plot established by the plot axes labeled c1 and c2, we considered the correspon- Table 8: Col % Row % British Chinese French Japanese Korean Mosaic Plot of the cognitive styles by nationalities χ 2 = 87.155, DF=12, P DA DW IC R 5.52 2.82 19.31 8.64 26.21 13.19 28.28 13.49 20.69 9.15 16.84 28.87 14.58 21.91 18.48 31.25 20.12 32.24 29.98 44.51 17.14 25.70 23.24 30.56 19.72 29.17 21.13 29.61 18.78 24.39 25.74 42.61 26.81 38.89 16.17 26.39 15.96 24.67 15.32 21.95 154

Cultural Differences of Cognitive Styles According to Experimental Methods Table 9: Details Details Singular Value Inertia Portion Cumulative 0.20303 0.04122 0.7227 0.7227 0.12564 0.01579 0.2768 0.9994 0.00573 3.28e-5 0.0006 1.0000 Nationalities c1 c2 c3 British -0.2742-0.1478 0.0042 Chinese -0.2152 0.0978-0.0060 French 0.1016 0.1048 0.0097 Japanese 0.1371 0.1058-0.0031 Korean 0.2338-0.1587-0.0033 Cognitive Styles c1 c2 c3 DA 0.2811 0.2807 0.0093 DW 0.1916-0.1396 0.00062 IC -0.0203 0.0844-0.0083 R -0.2669-0.0185 0.0041 Figure 5: Hierarchical Clustering (Dendrogram and Clustering History) Figure 4: Correspondence Plot dent relation among the cognitive styles and among the nationalities. In the results there was no close correspondence among four cognitive styles; DA is positive in C1 and C2, DW tends to be positive in C1 and neutral in C2, IC tends to be neutral in C1 and C2, and R is negative in C1 and neutral in C2. In addition, from the cluster analysis, it was determined that there was no close distance among the four cognitive styles (Figure 4), (Figure 5). As for the nationalities, between Japanese and French, there was a close correspondence; they both are neutral in C1 and C2, and they are the closest in distance to one another among nationalities (Figure 4), (Figure 5). Next, the correspondent relation among the cognitive styles and the nationalities were considered. Between DW and Korean, there was a close correspondence; they both tend to be positive in C1 and neutral in C2, and are located in the closest distance among cognitive styles and nationalities. Between R and British, and between R and Chinese, there was a close correspondence; they both are negative in C1 and neutral in C2, and are situated closely one another among R and nationalities. Especially, as for all nationalities, IC showed a neutral tendency, and DA showed the lowest tendency. In addition, between Japanese and French, there was a close correspondence; they showed the neutral cognitive tendencies in IC, DW and DA. These cultural-cognitive relations suggest that the Korean subjects had the biggest tendency in Descriptive - Whole in the comparison to the other nationalities, that the British and Chinese subjects had bigger cognitive tendencies in Relational - Contextual than the other nationalities, and that the French and Japanese subjects did not show considerable tendencies in all cognitive styles. Finally, we thought that it would be beneficial for each country if the characteristics of the cultural-cognitive tendencies were properly utilized in making products. 5.3 A discussion for participant s profile Meanwhile, in recent research about Social Class and Cognitive Culture of Richard E. Nisbett (2009), he described about the behavioral difference by social class; The middle-class family, when starting to play a new game, reads the instructions aloud and comments on them. The working-class family is more likely to guess at how to play the game and start playing it, making up rules as they go along. The middle-class mother works from a recipe, which she may read out loud so her child 155

Transactions of Japan Society of Kansei Engineering can make connections between what is read and what materials are being used and which procedures are being carried out. The working-class mother is less likely to use a recipe, and unlikely to give her child an opportunity to make connections between it and the materials at hand when she does use one [9]. These ideas mean that the difference of life style by social class can influence on forming their cognitive styles. From this view, we can suppose that social class of participants may be one of the factors creating cognitive diversity. The participants of this study were university students; they have a social status as a student. But we did not consider their family s social class. For this reason, this study has a limit. To understand more practical cognitive styles of participants, the consideration of social class is needed in the future study. 6. CONCLUSIONS When we are operating a product, images of icons or buttons have crucial roles for understanding the use. This study focused on understanding diverse tendencies among nationalities on image recognition. For that, two methods of the experiment were performed: categorizing images and image association. Firstly, we investigated various regional differences towards cognitive styles (Attribute-oriented Thought vs. Relationship-oriented Thought) in categorizing images. As a result, it was found that the British subjects are more likely to have attribute-oriented thought than the other nationalities. Meanwhile, the attribute-oriented thought of the Chinese were greater than the Japanese and Korean subjects. The second method of the experiment was developed to understand the cognitive styles on associating images such as an icon or a button in human products. From the result, it was found that the British and Chinese subjects are more likely to have relationship-oriented thought than the French, Japanese and Korean subjects. Based on these two experiments, there were no significant differences among the French, Japanese and Korean subjects. Also, in spite of the regional similarities, the cognitive tendencies between the Chinese and Japanese, Chinese and Korean, and British and French did not correspond. This inclination was partly correspond to the results of the precedent studies by Chiu (1972) and Sara (2005) in the experiment of categorizing images. That is, Chiu and Sara, they researched the differences of cognitive style between Chinese and American subjects, but it is difficult to interpret their experimental results as the difference between Asians and Westerners. Lastly, in the experiment of image association it shows that the Korean subjects had remarkable cognitive tendencies in Descriptive-Whole, that the British and Chinese subjects had bigger cognitive tendencies in Relational-Contextual than the other nationalities, and that the Japanese and French subjects tend to have a neutral cognitive tendency in Inferential-Categorical, Descriptive-Whole, and Descriptive-Analytic. We predict that the cultural-cognitive tendencies could be utilized in creating icon or button image designs for each country. REFERENCES [1] Akira Harada; On the definition of Kansei, In Modeling the Evaluation Structure of Kansei, 1998 Conference, Volume 2. pp.41-56, 1998. [2] Norenzayan, A., Smith, E., Kim, B. J., & Nisbett, R. E. (2002) Cultural preferences for formal versus intuitive reasoning. Urbana Champagne: University of Illinois. A. Norenzayan et al. /Cognitive Science 26, pp.653-684, 2002. [3] Dong, Y., Lee, K. P.; A cross-cultural comparative study of user perception of a webpage With a focus on the cognitive styles of Chinese, Koreans and Americans. International Journal of Design, Volume 2, Issue 2, pp.19-30, 2008. [4] Kagan, J., Moss, H.A., and Sigel, I.E. The psychological significance of styles of conceptualization. In J.F. Wright & J. Kagan (Eds), Basic cognitive processes in children. Monograph of the society for research in child development, pp.73-112, 1993. [5] Chiu, L.-H; A Cross-Cultural Comparison of Cognitive Styles in Chinese and American Children, International Journal of Psychology, Volume 7, Issue 4, pp.235-242, 1972. [6] Sara J. Unsworth, Christopher R. Sears and Penny M. Pexman; Cultural Influences on Categorization processes, Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, Vol. 36 No. 6, pp.622-688, 2005. [7] InChan Park & Tosimasa Yamanaka; Understanding of Kansei through cultural inclination in the process of thought II The recognition process in operating a product, proceedings, IASDR. 2009. [8] InChan Park & Tosimasa Yamanaka; A cross-cultural comparative study of thought process - cognitive diversity according to regions and mathematical minds, International Conference on Kansei Engineering and Emotion Research (KEER) 2010, proceedings, 2010. [9] Richard E. Nisbett; Intelligence and How to Get It (Social Class and Cognitive Culture), Norton, p.89, 2009. 156

Cultural Differences of Cognitive Styles According to Experimental Methods InChan PARK InChan PARK received the M.A degree in 1998 from the University of Kookmin, Korea. In 1996 he was a research student at the Royal College of Art, UK. From 1998 to 1999 he was a research assistant of Industrial design at KyongHee University and he was an Assistant Professor at the Department of Visual Information Design of the Keukdong College (2001-2006). His main research areas are cultural variables in Image perception, product interface design based on natural language and interactive web interface design. Now, he is a doctor course student at University of Tsukuba. He is a member of the Japan Society of Kansei Engineering, and Korea Society of Design Science. Toshimasa YAMANAKA Toshimasa YAMANAKA is a Professor, Graduate School of Comprehensive Human Sciences Doctoral Program in Kansei, Behavioral and Brain Sciences, University of Tsukuba, since 2005. He received the Master degree in 1992 from the Graduate school of Industrial Design at the Chiba University, engaged at Industrial Design Section at the Asahi Opt. Co., Ltd. PENTAX (1982-1994), was a Research Associate at the Design Processes Laboratory of the Illinois Institute of Technology (1990-1992), was a Researcher at Studio Lab of the Faculty of Industrial Design, Delft University of Technology (2002-2003). Toshimasa YAMANAKA, PhD in Kansei Science is now Vice president of the Japan Society of Kansei Engineering, Board member of the International Association of the Societies of Design Research and Japanese Society for the Science of Design. 157