Do semantically consistent scenes sharpen perceived object representations across different cultures?

Abstract

Perceptual representations of objects are modulated by the semantic consistency between the object and its context, such as the background scene in which it is embedded. In this registered report, we examined the universality of this semantic consistency effect (SCE) by comparing it across two cultures that are conventionally considered to differ in their tendencies to incorporate context in perception and cognition: White-British and Malaysian-Chinese participants. We measured SCEs by comparing the perceived sharpness of objects embedded in semantically consistent and inconsistent scenes. Malaysian-Chinese participants demonstrated SCEs akin to those observed in the literature, but White-British participants experienced no effect. This cultural difference was not mediated by individual differences in cognitive styles (holistic vs. analytical tendencies in visual processing) and/or self-construals that are commonly believed to bias cognitive styles. We speculate that fundamental differences in predictive coding may account for the observed cultural differences, but more research is required to confirm this hypothesis.