Cultural differences appear to exist between how Chinese and Americans perceive and remember visual stimuli. New research conducted by Richard Nisbett, a social psychologist and author of the Geography of Thought, has shown that Chinese and American students differ in the way they look at and remember a complex visual scene. Science summarized the experiment in the following way:

"Wearing headsets with a built-in eye movement tracker, 25 American and 27 Chinese graduate students were asked to observe 36 pictures -- each with an object against a realistic background. The Americans zoomed in on the foreground object earlier and for a longer time than did the Chinese who spent more time taking in the background and less time studying the object. The result, the Chinese tended to recall background more accurately, whereas Americans remember more about the central object."

This research could have interesting implications for how different neurotechnologies could impact cultures in unintended ways. But before we jump to any conclusions I'd like to see a larger study done that included young children to see how and when this behavior is emerges.

For those in the Philadelphia area, I'll be giving a talk on Monday at the University of Pennsylvania's Center for Cognitive Neuroscience at noon. Come discuss our emerging neurosociety with me and many others.