Culturecanaffectnotjustlanguageandcustoms,butalsohowpeopleexperiencetheworldonsurprisinglybasiclevels.

Researchers,withthehelpofbrainscans,have______shockingdifferencesinperceptionbetweenWesternersandAsians,whattheyseewhentheylookatacitystreet,forexample,orevenhowtheyare_____ofasimplelineinasquare,accordingtofindingspublishedina(n)_____sciencejournal.

InWesterncountries,culturemakespeoplethinkofthemselvesashighly______entities.Whenlookingatscenes,Westernerstendtofocusmoreoncentralobjectsthanontheirsurroundings.EastAsiancultures,however,________inter-dependence,WhenEasternerslookatascene,theytendtofocusonthesurroundingsaswellastheobject.

Usinganexperiment________twotasks,Dr.Heddenaskedsubjectstolookatalinesimplytoestimateitslength,ataskthatplayedtoAmerican’s_______.Inanother,theyestimatedtheline’slengthrelativetothesizeofasquare,aneasiertaskfortheAsian.

Thelevelofbrainactivity,by______bloodflow,wasthenmeasuredbyBrainScanners.Theexperimentfoundthatalthoughtherewasnodifferenceinperformance,andthetaskswereveryeasy,thelevelsofactivityinthesubjects’brainwere______.FortheAmericans,areas______toattentionweremorefavorabletothem,whentheyworkedonthetasktheytendedtofindmoredifficult---estimatingtheline’ssizerelativetothesquare.Thefindingsarea______ofmorethantenyearsofpreviousexperimentalresearchintoEast-Westdifferences.

Inonestudy,forinstanceresearchers______peopleachoiceamongfivepens;fourredandonegreen.Easternersweremorelikelytochoosearedpen,andWesternersweremorelikelytochoosethegreenone.

Culturedoesnotonlymakea(n)______onhowyouseetheworld,buthowyouchoosetounderstandandinternalizeit.Butsuchhabitscanbechanged.SomepsychologicalstudiessuggestthatwhenanEasternergoestotheWestorviceversa,habitsofthoughtandperceptionalsobegintochange.Suchresearchgivesus______tohowourbrainworksandholdsnewpromisesforustodevelopprogramstoimproveourmemorytechniquesand__________ourlearningskills.