Abstract
We studied cognitive inhibitory processes and verbal regulation of behavior of individuals with different levels of education (including adult illiterates) in Brazil (N = 136) and in Estonia (N = 560) with person-oriented methods of data analysis. Our aim was to discover whether dominant type of word meaning structure (WMS) can define the “Great Divide”, the single breaking point that universally defines certain direction of subsequent to it cultural evolution. We found that both cognitive inhibition of irrelevant for the task at hand information or actions as well as correct activation of relevant information or actions is significantly more common in individuals who rely predominantly on logical concepts in their thinking. The higher level of education was also associated with more efficient cognitive inhibition and activation. The patterns of test performance also suggest that there can be a qualitative difference in the efficiency of cognitive inhibition-activation processes between everyday conceptual and logical conceptual thinkers. The former group of individuals may achieve much higher performance levels than any individual in the former group. We also discuss cognitive similarities and differences between adults with low or no formal education on the one hand and children and educated adults with brain damage on the other. The results are in agreement with the theory of unilineal hierarchic cultural evolution. Individual psychic development and cultural evolution can be both understood in terms of the WMS development.
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Acknowledgments
We are grateful to all participants who contributed their time and effort for this study. We thank Cristina Ceciarelli and Boipeba community for help in organizing the study.
Funding
Writing of this work was supported by the Tallinn University School of Educational Sciences Grant: Study of novel aspects of the state and development of speech function and by the Estonian Research Council Grant No IUT03–03 (Academic and personal development of an individual in the system of formal education) to Aaro Toomela.
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All procedures performed in this study were in accordance with the ethical standards of the national research committees and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.
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Toomela, A., Filho, D.B., Bastos, A.C.S. et al. Studies in the mentality of literates: 2. Conceptual structure, cognitive inhibition and verbal regulation of behavior. Integr. psych. behav. 54, 880–902 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12124-020-09517-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12124-020-09517-4