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Self-related information interfere with task performances: a cross-cultural investigation

  • Original Research
  • Published:
Culture and Brain

Abstract

Recent research suggests more enhanced processing of task-relevant self-information in Westerners than in Easterners. The current study further tested the hypothesis that self-related task-irrelevant information is processed more extensively in Westerners than in Easterners. British and Chinese participants were asked to judge the relative length of horizontal and vertical lines of a cross presented peripherally, while ignoring centrally presented self-related or non-self stimuli consisting of faces (Experiment 1) or names/dates (Experiment 2). We found that, relative to non-self stimuli, self-related stimuli delayed responses to targets in the short stimulus duration for British but not for Chinese participants. The effect was independent of stimulus domain. Our findings provide evidence for cultural differences in the processing of self-information that is independent of task demands.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by Marie Curie Incoming International Fellowship, National Natural Science Foundation of China (Project 31371017).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China

    Minghui Liu & Jie Sui

  2. Department of Psychology, Haerbin Normal University, Harbin, China

    Minghui Liu

  3. Department of Psychology, Bournemouth University, Poole, UK

    Chang Hong Liu

  4. Department of Psychology, Peking University, Beijing, China

    Ying Zhu & Ruosi Wang

  5. School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK

    Pia Rotshtein

  6. Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

    Jie Sui

Authors
  1. Minghui Liu
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  2. Chang Hong Liu
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  3. Ying Zhu
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  4. Ruosi Wang
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  5. Pia Rotshtein
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  6. Jie Sui
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Correspondence to Jie Sui.

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Liu, M., Liu, C.H., Zhu, Y. et al. Self-related information interfere with task performances: a cross-cultural investigation. Cult. Brain 3, 112–121 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40167-015-0030-3

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