Culture and Memory: Features of Recalling in Different Cultural Contexts

The paper presents outcomes of a cross-cultural study on the process of recalling in Arab (Moroccan) and Ukrainian students. The study aimed to explore the relation between recall and the place of the recalled material in the row (in particular, left or right visual field), the type of the stimuli (numbers, pictures, graphic representations, colours, images of people), and the time of exposition. The study revealed both similarities and differences in recalling in the students of different cultures. For instance, Moroccan students were generally better at recalling the material that was presented to them, and this was especially the case for the material that was placed in the right part of the visual field. Arab students were also far better than Ukrainian students at memorising most of the types of the stimuli (the difference was most obvious in recalling graphic material). However, this was not true for recalling people’s images: Ukrainian students were more successful with this task. The study also revealed that the exposure interval has a different impact on the effectiveness of recalling in representatives of the Arab (Moroccan) and Ukrainian cultures, which is especially striking in memorising numbers.

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