We examined theories of cross-cultural differences in cognitive style on a sample of 242 participants representing five cultural groups (Czechia, Ghana, eastern and western Turkey, and Taiwan). The experiment involved immersive virtual environments consisting of two salient focal objects and a complex background as stimuli, which were presented using virtual reality headsets with integrated eye-tracking devices. The oculomotor patterns confirmed previous general conclusions that Eastern cultures have a more holistic cognitive style, while Western cultures predominantly have an analytic cognitive style. The differences were particularly noticeable between Taiwan and the other samples. However, we found that the broader cultural background of each group was perhaps just as important as geographical location or national boundaries. For example, observed differences between Eastern (more holistic style) and Western Turkey (more analytic style), suggest the possible influence of varying historical and cultural characteristics on the cognitive processing of complex visual stimuli.

Department of Geodesy and Geoinformation Vienna University of Technology Vienna Austria

Department of Information and Library Studies Faculty of Arts Masaryk University Brno Czech Republic

Department of Psychology Research Center for Mind Brain and Learning National Chengchi University Taipei Taiwan ROC

Department of Social Studies Faculty of Regional Development and International Studies Mendel University in Brno Brno Czech Republic

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